I'm about 2 or 3 sessions from finishing my last cycle of 5RM's then I'm ready for cutting. I've got my macro's sorted and I'm going to slightly adjust my workout but I'm not exactly sure how the transition should go.When I've finished my last session, should I have a few days off to recover then start the tens and my diet from that day or gradually reduce cals?I take it a cycle should take 6 weeks now if the 15's are going to be skipped. This I hope will allow for two complete cycles With no SD to knock 12-14lbs off and get me back down to 10%bf.I would say my last 3 HST bulking cycles have been a success with a gain in weight of 24-26lbs, hopefully half of that lean muscle! Significant increases in chest, back and arm development, but some added flab around the middle and chest. Apparently my scales now say just under 20%bf so here goes nothing and let the shredding begin!
I would take a few days off but once you start your cycle, start the diet right then. Gradually reducing calories doesn't really do much except get you accustomed to the hunger a little. But if hunger bothers you on a diet, then you are going to have problems - you will learn to ignore hunger. If you don't jump right in to the diet, it will be harder in the long run to maintain the diet.
Don't fret too much about your scale saying you are close to 20% bodyfat. Typically the scales aren't very reliable. I'd recommend getting a set of calipers and taking measurements on a regular basis, then just track the average change in caliper readings. That will give you a better idea of how you are doing.
Now remember... your main goal here is to
maintain your current strength levels. As long as you keep hitting your RMs at the end of each block and those caliper readings are going down, you are good to go. Don't get hung up too much on your actual bodyweight or how you look in the mirror. Your muscles will start to look deflated after a while, you will start to have less energy than you did when you were bulking. But when you are done with your diet and eating normal again, your muscles will lose that deflated look. You will get your energy back. It's all temporary. The biggest mistake most guys make is that they psych themselves out during a diet, think they are shrinking, losing all their gains, and quit the diet. You really have to ignore the mirror. Just rely on two different sets of numbers - your RMs and your caliper measurements.
Once you get some calipers, use this site to do your measurements -
http://www.linear-software.com/online.html
Don't worry too much about what it says your bodyfat is at if you use one of the calculators. This will vary a lot week to week, day to day, depending on how you measured that particular day. I recommend for ease that you just pick three sites and track those. Chest, abdomen and thigh are easy to measure yourself and once you get used to it, you can usually do your measurements more or less the same way each time to minimize variations from measurement error, so you can better track actual changes.
If you aren't already using a program or something to track calories, I recommend fitday.com - pretty easy to use once you set it up. I hear there are some decent apps for the android or iphone so those might be worth looking into as well.
