T Nation

Routine advice for 1st cut

Bodybuilding
#1

This is going to be my first cut and was wondering which routine is best suited for a cut?

Last year I made good gains using the Dorian Yates 3 way split which was recommended on here, hitting each muscle every 5 days.

This year I changed to a 4 way split as my strength increased and felt I needed to further seperate the muscle groups to get the best out my workouts. Same as before, ramping up to a heavy 3rd set, drop the weight slightly for the final 4th set Compounds roughly vary from 5-12 reps. Isolations 8-15

Chest+Biceps â?? Incline DB, Flat DB, Dips / ez bar curl, db preacher curl
Legs â?? Front Squats, leg Press / Leg Curl, hyper extensions/ seated calf raise
Off
Shoulders+Triceps - DB Shoulder, Lat Raise / CGBP, Overhead DB Extension
Back â?? DB Row, Lat Pulldown, Rack Pull, Bentover Raise (rear delts)
Off
Repeat

I guess lifting weights 5 days a week is fine when bulking, but will become a struggle when cutting calories.

Any advice or tips on routines whilst cutting?

Cheers,
Mark

#2

eat less and do the same as you did before

i lift 7 days a week in almost nonstop supersets +swimming every other day. no problems. lost 27 pounds so far, cutting for 18 more days then bulking until this time next year when i’ll cut again

#3

Once you start cutting you will not gain any muscle, all youâ??re looking for is muscle retention, aim to keep your work-outs to a high intensity and try to retain your strength but donâ??t over do it. As you will be dieting you will be weaker on some days, expect this. To start with just clean your diet up. Always eat breakfast. Eat little and often and get your greens down ya!
Also drink lots of water.

3 day split would be fine.
start to include more CV, build this up, donâ??t just all of a sudden start doing 7 CV session a week as you will lose muscle, do a 30min session after your weight training, then add another session early in the morning if possible, eventually you would properly be doing 5-6 CV sessions a week, 30-40min is enough. Itâ??s mostly diet. Just clean it up. Donâ??t reduce your food intake reduce your calorie intake, I ate ten times a day when I was dieting.

Go for mostly fish (white) and turkey and or chicken 2 whole eggs a day and lots of egg whites, stick with mostly brown rice, throw out pasta white rice and bread. carb cycling can be looked at but not until your diet and training are all in check

#4

WHat built muscle is what will help you keep it. I’ve found that diet is 90% of ‘good’ weight loss, but cardio will be necessary if you really want to get down into single digits. Just just don’t go overboard.

S

#5

[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
WHat built muscle is what will help you keep it. I’ve found that diet is 90% of ‘good’ weight loss, but cardio will be necessary if you really want to get down into single digits. Just just don’t go overboard.

S
[/quote]

x2

Maybe cut volume down a little bit to enable high intensity while dieting. Don’t cut calories much lower than maintenance (in other words, don’t be impatient) and you’ll keep most of your strength (maybe even slightly progress some weeks).

#6

How intense should the cardio be? In heart rate percent or RPE if you wouldn’t mind? What durations have worked well for you Stu and Harris?

#7

[quote]iceman187 wrote:
How intense should the cardio be? In heart rate percent or RPE if you wouldn’t mind? What durations have worked well for you Stu and Harris?[/quote]

I couldn’t even tell you my heart rate when I do cardio. I’m an interval guy. Two sessions every 6 days, alternating 30 second sprints with 2 minutes of ‘coasting’. Usually do between 20-25 mins.

I will say though that those 30 second sprints,… there’s no way in hell I could last for 31 seconds at the rate I’m going. When I tried doing this on the eliptical once and the machine was rocking all over and almost toppled -lol.

S

#8

Ok, balls out for 30 and then catch your breat, thanks Stu. I did rehab on a treadmill for my knee before, and after running, when I got off, everything went forward, has that every happened to you?

#9

Hey man,

Out of curiosity…What are your current stats?

This is a big factor is what routine to begin with for cutting.

Some can cut by simply reducing intake with the same routine…
Some with cardio…
Some need their weight training to be based around more circuit work…etc.

I personally found that a mix of various training methods helped my drop the bf well, while maintaining strength and size. Thibs Destroying the Fat is what worked VERY well for me and many others:

You could do:

Day 1: Chest/Back - Heavy
Day 2: Circuit training
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Legs - Heavy
Day 5: Circuit training
Day 6: Off (Or make this a beach work day-Heavy)
Day 7: Off

On top of this you could add your cardio etc…but like I said, it depends on where your’e at now really.

ALSO, you CAN gain muscle and lose fat…especially in the beginning, if your current diet was not suited well to your body. This will also depend on what diet you use of coarse…

GJ

#10

5-7 155ish, Recovering from a spiral fracture at my 4th metacarpal as well as a septoplasty(unrelated). I can see about 2.5 rows of my abs when I flex so I’m not really looking to cut, I was just wondering what kind of Cardio specs Stu followed to reach that level of shrededness(I know diet is 90 percent of the battle). But yeah I can’t start exerting myself until Feb. 1st. I got a routine written down already, and for cardio work I’ve taken up cross country skiing(a lot tougher than it looks, plus it beats winter running ie wet shoes) for some cardiovascular exercise on off days or just for recovery purposes. I’m way too weak at it to exert myself hard, so I just take it easy and try to learn the proper stride form. Thanks for the input.

edit: Usually I’m over 160, I know its not much, but the hand and nose has taken its toll on me a bit. Body type is more Meso Endoish, used to be chubby when I was a kid but I wasn’t fed proper nutrition then either.