Question regarding future cycles

[gbglifter]

Hi everyone. Just a quick presentation before my questions.

My name is Chris. Im 35. Live in Sweden. Ive been working out for over 10 years. Achieved decent results but felt I had reached a plateau in my training over the last year or so. Im about 205 lb´s, 6ft and roughly 13-14% BF. I started a new cycle a couple of weeks ago and am therefore "bulking" as slightly as I can. After I turned 30 I find it very easy to put on the pounds. I was a hard-gainer until then.

I work out monday, wednesday and friday. I started off with 1set/12 reps for 2 weeks and now Im on an 8 rep cycle for 2 weeks. Ill finish off with 2weeks@ 4 reps. Then do an SD for 1 week. Im alternating squats with leg extensions, chins with seated rows. Dumbbell presses with inclines. Shoulder press with dumbbell lateral raises. Dips with narrow barbell presses. Im doing weighted crunches, straight leg deadlifts, standing calf raises, bicepscurls and rear deltoid raises each day(mon,wed,fri).

Tuesdays and thursdays Im doing some cardio HIT. Keeping it to max half an hour, if even that.

Ive worked out beforehand all my max 12 and 8 reps. It takes abit of getting used to only training at 80%, until you get to the last days of the cycle. The workouts are taking about 40 mins. My workouts previously have been much, much longer at times. Im enjoying the fact that Im not totally dead afterwards.

Ill only be training to failure the last day of the 3rd (4rep) cycle then Ill obviously be doing an SD and starting again.

My question(eventually) is: should I be increasing the amount of my max at each of the given reprange? Ive been finding some exercises fairly comfortable at the final day and others Ive been almost going to failure. The exercises where Ive almost been going to failure are those Ive not calculated quite accurately enough. Should I retain the same weight on these and hope that the expected hypertrophy during the period should allow me to reach the goal?


Then there is the subject of fat. What should I do if I want to lose some body fat? Ill obviously need to eat less to drop bodyfat but how should I train? Should I retain the same weights/reprange during the next cycle and reduce calories throughout? Maintain musclemass and reduce fat: whats the general concensus here? Im of the impression Ill need to increase protein intake during this fatloss period. Im probably eating around 200g of protein at the moment.

If you´ve read this far: thanks for your time and patience.


Best Regards

Chris.

 

[Lol]

My question(eventually) is: should I be increasing the amount of my max at each of the given reprange? Ive been finding some exercises fairly comfortable at the final day and others Ive been almost going to failure. The exercises where Ive almost been going to failure are those Ive not calculated quite accurately enough. Should I retain the same weight on these and hope that the expected hypertrophy during the period should allow me to reach the goal?


Then there is the subject of fat. What should I do if I want to lose some body fat? Ill obviously need to eat less to drop bodyfat but how should I train? Should I retain the same weights/reprange during the next cycle and reduce calories throughout? Maintain musclemass and reduce fat: whats the general concensus here? Im of the impression Ill need to increase protein intake during this fatloss period. Im probably eating around 200g of protein at the moment.

If you´ve read this far: thanks for your time and patience.


Best Regards

Chris.

Hi Chris!

1) If you maxed out with a load on an RM workout then keep that load for next cycle (or just add a small amount). It will matter little if you do or don't. Think of the load progression as being over the whole cycle. As long as you are using more load on the bar at the end of the cycle (assuming the same number of reps) than you used for the previous cycle then you are doing ok.

A stronger you always has the potential to be a bigger you; a bigger you always has the potential to be a stronger you.

2) First, figure out your cals and macros and get a dietary plan in place (~500 cals under maintenance each day; 1-1.5 g protein/lb bw should be ok). Kick that off and then do a cycle where you begin with 10s and progress to 5s. That's 4 weeks. Then see how you feel. If your joints are doing ok, do the 5s over again. At the end of each 5s mesocycle, add a little load if you feel able. You may not be able to; you may find that your top level strength drops off because you will be training on a calorie deficit.

Keep checking your bw along the way and adjust your cals as your maintenance requirement drops; try not to lose more than 1-2lb bw a week. 1lb/week is about ideal but if you need to drop around 10lb of fat then you could do that in a couple of months and still not lose much lean mass along the way.

Hope that gives you a clue. All the best!

 

[gbglifter]

That was kind of how I saw it too. As long as I increase, even by a pound, then I should be pregressing.

The second point: Calories and macros! I realise thats what I need to control to perform a good cut without losing too much lean mass. I am, however, a hater of weighing and counting. I think its anal. But, I do believe thats the only was to do it which will produce the results I want. I eat at least once a day at a restaurant and obviously have no idea how much cals etc Im putting in me. Looks like Ill need to bite the bullet and prepare each and every meal myself.

Ill let you know how I got on after that next "cutting" cycle.

//Chris