Cutting A cycle Short

[Alek]

Ok, thanks to all the great guys here and the help in another thread i've done some thinking. And I need to stop excusing on the doing this thing properly

So I decided I'd just do HST in the gym. I was limiting myself by having to do it at home. The gym offers a lot of extra rehabilitation-minded machines/exercises.

I'm about half-way through with the 15s.

Do I just go straight into the gym and measure all my maxes on the exercises I pick there?

Or do I first take another 2-week SD, or how would you do it?

Thanks. You're the best.


My calories are in deficit, and will be probably till the end of 2009 (slight deficit, not hardcore cutting). So I'm guessing that means NO-sd, and straight into the gym-cycle?

 

[sayw0rd]

<div>
(Alek @ Feb. 15 2009,11:35)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Ok, thanks to all the great guys here and the help in another thread i've done some thinking. And I need to stop excusing on the doing this thing properly

So I decided I'd just do HST in the gym. I was limiting myself by having to do it at home. The gym offers a lot of extra rehabilitation-minded machines/exercises.

I'm about half-way through with the 15s.

Do I just go straight into the gym and measure all my maxes on the exercises I pick there?

Or do I first take another 2-week SD, or how would you do it?

Thanks. You're the best.


My calories are in deficit, and will be probably till the end of 2009 (slight deficit, not hardcore cutting). So I'm guessing that means NO-sd, and straight into the gym-cycle?</div>
I think if I'm reading the guide correctly, you find out your maxes then do a period of SD then commence your HST workout.

 

[Alek]

<div>
(sayw0rd @ Feb. 15 2009,11:40)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Alek @ Feb. 15 2009,11:35)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Ok, thanks to all the great guys here and the help in another thread i've done some thinking. And I need to stop excusing on the doing this thing properly

So I decided I'd just do HST in the gym. I was limiting myself by having to do it at home. The gym offers a lot of extra rehabilitation-minded machines/exercises.

I'm about half-way through with the 15s.

Do I just go straight into the gym and measure all my maxes on the exercises I pick there?

Or do I first take another 2-week SD, or how would you do it?

Thanks. You're the best.


My calories are in deficit, and will be probably till the end of 2009 (slight deficit, not hardcore cutting). So I'm guessing that means NO-sd, and straight into the gym-cycle?</div>
I think if I'm reading the guide correctly, you find out your maxes then do a period of SD then commence your HST workout.  

</div>
I know, but it also says that if you're in a caloric deficit, that you don't need to SD and skip it altogether.

 

[Lol]

Alek, I would just carry on with your 15s. Just guess the load where you need to and adjust up or down over the next few workouts as necessary.

HST is designed for hypertrophy but as you'll be in a calorie deficit you won't be gaining lean mass (unless you are carrying a lot of bodyfat). You need to try to maintain what lean mass you have whilst losing some fat. Personally, I wouldn't do 15s during a cut – perhaps for one week if I had taken some time off for SD – but I'd aim to stay in the 10s and 5s for the most part.

Depending on how hard you are cutting cals and how low you are dropping carbs you may want to try one full-body 10s workout and two of 5s (maybe an upper/lower body split), for a total of three workouts per week. If you do a weekly refeed/carb-up, I would do the heavy 5s during that time. You may also need to drop volume a bit but try to maintain the loading.

 

[Alek]

Thanks, somehow instinctually I was getting at the 15s maybe being droppable too during this. I'm glad to see you re-affirmming it too.

Gaining mass - Actually I had a 2 year layoff due to many unrelated but strung together injuries, so I have plenty of muscle memory. I do think (and plan) on gaining some lean mass during the deficit.

I tried guessing today at the gym. I was VERY poor at it. I'm talking under or over-estimating exercises by 50-70%.

I think I'll just do this. Take a &quot;measuring week&quot; and measure 1-2 bodyparts per day (with the lagging measured first), and then jump straight into 10s. That gives a mini-sd, as 7-8 days will have passed since measuring the lagging parts.

How does that sound?