Body Recomp/Cut cycle

N

noobie

New Member
Hey guys, its been a long time since i've posted, but i've been lurking around for a while. I've been doing a Body recomp/ semi cut cycle for this summer.

The workout consists of this:
A: Power Cleans, Incline Bench, Lunges
B: Shoulder Press, Dips, Squat, Ab work

A)Monday Thurs
B)Tues Fri

15 min HIIT
Thurs Fri

workout A started with 3 sets of 5--continued to increment loads for span of 4 weeks until I reached 2 sets of warmup, 1 set of 3--continued with the maximal 3 reps I could do for 1.5 weeks.

Workout B started with 3 sets of 8 continued to increment loads for span of 5.5 weeks to reach 2 sets of warmup, 1 set of new 5RM load, which I reached this week, about 20% of previous cycle 5RM.

My bodyweight has dropped about 7 lbs, I've gotten stronger in all my lifts, surpassed all previous RMs. Definately become harder, not exactly fuller. My diet is somewhat low carbed. Pre and post workout I have lots of carbs, and throughout the day I try to limit carbs towards the end of the day, focusing all carbs around low GI.



I have pretty much been plateauing in strength for the past week where I cannot push the set of 3 any further. My joints have started to ache a good bit and unfortunately a vacation with the parents is comming up. Including today, it will be 6 days out of the gym.

My goal is to reach another 4-5 lb fat loss, with minimal strength/muscle loss.

My question is simple: What should I do? haha. Should I pick up where I left off with the high weights, increase cardio, keep calories the same. Or should I try to start lower with weights, try to increment and keep calories the same?

Thanks for the help guys.
 
you dont mention how long youve been dieting for. your w/o mentions 4- 6 weeks but anyway congrats on the loss to date (while gaining strength). if youve been dieting for at least 6-8 weeks its probably time for a diet break as well as a w/o break (joint soreness). it helps further cutting (not to mention frame of mind) to take a week or 2 break and eat at maint. every 8 weeks or so when dieting. it helps "reset" your metabolism since like most things your body will adapt to the limited cals/carbs over time and your efforts will produce less and less results.

a week or two away from the gym/diet should get you ready to hit it again. the key is to eat at/around maint. most of the time. lots of folks gain wgt on their break b/c they stop tracking intake and forget how many cals even small amounts of vacation food has in it (desserts, chips, soda etc etc).

when you get back.
if it aint broke dont try to fix it. you have a system thats working for you. you mentioned your lifts have stalled but didnt mention if your fat loss has. dont sweat the lifts, nobody gets stronger forever and very very few do so when cutting. just keep lifting heavy and try to maint. as much strength as possible, 4-5 lbs is not far to go. if you were still losing fat then keep going until that also stalls. when/if it does id prefer to go with added cardio to burn the extra cals (if you have the time). lowered cals could affect your w/os and cardio will get/keep you in better shape then simply eating less.

again 4-5 lbs is not very much so if you had the time and inclination you could combine some addit. cal restriction with added cardio while still lifting heavy and in just a couple tough weeks you could be where you want.

many ways to skin a cat so hopefully others will chime in with some thoughts.

good luck
 
awesome thanks for the help.

Beginning of cycle i was not dieting. I've only been dieting for the past 3 weeks, keeping in mind that I thought it would be too much dieting for me for 4-6 weeks. But, you are definately right. My strength gains have haulted, but my fat loss is still continuing at a good pace. Hopefully at this rate I'll be able to achieve my goal within another 4-6 weeks.

So you do recommend that I take an SD.

This is a bit different from the other thread on volume/load on cutting because of the SD. I wasn't sure how the body reacts strengthwise and metabolically after SD.

after SD, strength is usually low for me, I'm not sure if I should start at higher loads because the progression would be less, therefore less overall microtrauma, less calories from fat burned, less perservation of muscle, etc.

The part where I'm unclear is what happens after SD and I do diet, with lower loads/med volume to max loads. Will my CNS be the ultimate inhibitor of increasing the loads? or would my muscles have trouble with lower amounts of energy from dieting.... If I knew the answer to these questions I would be able to better assess the opportunity cost of starting between high loads/low vol vs. med load/med vol.

thanks again for the help
 
SD could give you an opportunity to let your metabolism "heal" back to normal as you will eat at or above maintenance. There are pros and cons of using an SD within consecutive cuts.
 
imo, it sounds like your body is telling you it needs a break (joint soreness). fortunatly (not unfortunatly) your vacation is coming along at the same time. imagine how youd feel if your joints felt this way but vaca. was another month away.

you will not lose chunks of mass from taking a week or 2 break from lifting provided you eat @maint. you will however lose mass if you push for too long, get injured and have to take signif time off b/c of it......been there myself.

if i was in your shoes and the prog your using was giving me results this is probably what i would do.

go on vaca., have fun, eat normally (for vacation) just not overboard and shoot for maint. most days. do some cardio if its practical a couple days to keep the dinners out and desserts in check but mainly have fun doing stuff thats diff. from everyday life. when you get back if your mentally ready to hit it again (nothing wrong with waiting another week) id do 1 of two things.

1) start a new cycle in the 10s to see how my joints felt. if they felt ok id continue on with prog you had going for you before thru the 5s and by then you should have dropped the 4-5 lbs left to go. 1 week off is really not that long. on the one hand you would have lost very little strength from 6days off but on the other hand its not long for your joint to recuperate so its call youll have to make.

2) start a new cycle with 15s and just eat at maint for the duration of the 15s. this should help the stress on the joints but since your not in cal deficit you will not lose lbm. once the 10s hit you can drop the cals again and see how it goes.

your right to think its key to lift heavier wgts to preserve lbm when cutting but as youve found you cannot simply lift heavy forever. you can however simply modify your diet so your muscles are not at risk when you need a break, time off or are simply working back up to the heavy wgts again.

thats my 2cents
good luck
 
awesome thanks for the help. I just got back from the vacation in Canada. Ate above maintenance a bit, but pretty much walked 10 miles a day so I don't think it'll be a problem. I'm ready to hit in the gym in 3 days, that'll be a total of 9 day SD. HOpefully everything will go well. I think I will start in the 10s and progress as far as i can, starting the diet towards the end of the 10s.

appreciate the input guys
 
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