Reduce frequency for cut?

D

Datoyminaytah

New Member
I don't know if "cutting" is the right word to describe what I need to do...reduce my bodyfat down from about 28% to something healthy. I guess the principles for losing fat are the same, but I'm not going to be "cut" for a long time.
smile.gif
I don't care if I don't gain any muscle, as long as I don't lose significant muscle.

I'm in the middle of my second HST cycle. Just finished the first week of 10's. I've been thinking about dropping to 2x a week instead of 3x, to give myself more recovery time, but mainly more days to concentrate on fat loss. I would still probably go to the gym the 3rd day, but do cardio instead. Other than that my cardio is walking every day. I walk 3 miles every work day at lunch and at least 5 miles on the weekend, both days if I can. About 3 - 3.5 mph, which feels like the high end of moderate.

Has anybody done this? (Dropped to 2x week HST.) Yes, I know the reason for going 3x a week is to stay in a state of hypertrophy, but that isn't my main goal right now.

BTW, I didn't really get my diet together until around Christmas. Since then I've lost about 15 pounds and a few percent bodyfat.
 
No I would not reduce frequency.

If anything reduce your total reps so your workout is shorter.

To be honest 28% is very high bodyfat so The need for LBM as well as cardio is a must.

Now I don't know what kind of cardio shape you are in but walking just doesn't get the job done period.

Sorry but walking is not going to help that much.

Here is what I would do if I were you.

Workout HST style 20 reps 3 days a week.

Benchpress / incline bench press
Rows / Lat Pull down
Deadlift / Squats / Leg Press
Shoulder Press or standing dumbell press.

With just 4 compounds a workout it will not take you long to do the weights.

Then I would pick an exercise like Cross-trainer, bicycle, or even a tread mill and do somet type of interval training.

At 28%...im guess you cardio is not the best so I would be careful and not push it too harder on the interval training. However I would shoot to burn 500 calories a day doing cardio.

This with a great diet plan will get you there.

HOpe this helps and good luck!
 
Diet plan:
http://ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3340
http://ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3398

Exersize is defined as activity above and beyond that to which you are accustomed. But exersize is useless, just like eating a three-course meal and having a diet coke.

Training is exersizing consistently. Training is what makes the body adapt (grow). You may walk off some calories, but if your bod is used to higher levels of activity, you're barely going to be burning anything; it's just too easy for you.
 
I don't know how to compare my aerobic capacity but I don't think it's too bad. The other week at lunchtime I walked 4 miles in an hour, up and down hills. So 4mph for an hour, and it still felt like the high end of "moderate". Unfortunately, I'm not going to do that anymore because I was too sweaty the rest of the day at work. But I can do 3 miles in an hour and not be too bad, at least in this cold weather.

I walk because I can commit to it. Going to the gym 3 days a week is as much time as I can commit there, and I'm not sure I should do cardio right after a WO. Should I? Maybe I'll try adding that, but not stopping the walking. When it gets warmer and lighter in the morning I plan to walk then, too. I can't run because it hurts my heel. Even walking does, but I can deal with it.
 
You may or may not be interested in what I did to change from 300lbs to 170lbs. I didn't know about HST at the time but did max OT instead (I think HST would have been a better fat burner).

Diet - eggs, cheese, meats, green vegetables.
By green vegetables, I mean things like broccoli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, cauliflower, and green beans (the fibrous green veggies). Eat this way 4-5 meals a day.

No sugar, no starch (i.e. no potatoes, bread, rice, corn, starchy beans, or pasta...)

Just eat the eggs, meats, and greenies do your 3x a week HST and cardio 5 times a week. If walking does it for you (it did for me for a very long time) then walk. A 4 mile walk in one hour is quite an effective fat burner if your glycogen stores are low (and on this diet they will be. When this gets easy, add some running, start by running 1/4 mile before walking the rest of the 4. Then 1/2, then 3/4...and so on.

I did it this way and in May '06 did my first Olympic distance triathlon. I finished last but finished - and for a former 300lb fatty who could barely walk without assistance 3 years ago and couldn't pick his own fat ass out of the floor (nearly crippled from MS and obesity at the time) that's not too bad.

I suspect if it worked for me, it will do wonders for you.

Yeah, you'll feel like **** for about a week early in the diet. Then when that passes, your energy levels will go higher than ever before. I even got tested for methamphetamine use at work because mine went so high. The question is, do you want the results bad enough to put up with a week of feeling bad to change your life for the better?

This is how it worked for me. It's at least worth giving a try.

Note, it's not forever though, when the fat was gone, I had to start eating like a bodybuilder with lots of carbs, moderately high protein, low fat to get any growth whatsoever. At least I don't store fat easily now.
 
Rather than reduce frequency, I would first reduce volume. You don't need a lot of volume while cutting. You mainly want to focus on the big compounds, single sets or maybe double sets if you have enough energy, and try to maintain your strength in all those lifts. Remember - yes hypertrophy is not your goal right now, but you DO want to maintain whatever muscle you have, so lifting weights is VERY important while on a diet.

I would stick with something like Squats, Bentover Rows, Bench and Military Press, start straight in the 10s and drag the 5s out as long as possible. Do one set of each three days a week, do plenty of cardio and take care of the diet.
 
<div>
(Totentanz @ Feb. 04 2007,13:22)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Rather than reduce frequency, I would first reduce volume.</div>
Aha!

So right now I'm in the middle of the 10's. I haven't failed on the second set of 10, yet. I know a lot of people say be happy with 5 for the second set. So I could do that? Taper down the second set, then on 5's do just 1, or maybe 2 sets?
 
If I wanted to cut, I think I would increase frequency and increase volume. The goal is to expend calories. Assuming a constant caloric input, the more calories you burn, the less you will weigh. I know a lot of people seem to do 5X5 for cutting, but it seems to me to be more logical thing to do would be to use high rep compound movements to expend as much calories as you can.

Whatever you decide to do, the key ingredient will be your diet. Do a search for the Velocity Diet at T-Nation.
 
High reps aren't very good for sparing muscle mass in comparison to going heavier with low reps. Also, the point behind reducing volume is so you can focus more on not dying while you are dieting. The main reason to lift during a cut is to stimulate protein synthesis and spare muscle mass, not to burn calories - that is what cardio is for.
 
By the way, the Velocity Diet is crap for someone who isn't on drugs. Talk about a recipe for muscle loss... a more moderate diet is what you want to go for, not any extreme calorie deficits or other schemes like that. That stuff doesn't work for naturals, unless your goal is to actually lose as much muscle as possible.
 
<div>
(Totentanz @ Feb. 04 2007,19:08)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">High reps aren't very good for sparing muscle mass in comparison to going heavier with low reps.  Also, the point behind reducing volume is so you can focus more on not dying while you are dieting.  The main reason to lift during a cut is to stimulate protein synthesis and spare muscle mass, not to burn calories - that is what cardio is for.</div>
That is correct. What O&amp;G said is true about high reps burning more calories, but it is far more effective to lift heavy for sparing muscle and doing HIIT or other cardio for burning calories.
 
Cardio is more catabolic and causes more muscle loss than anything you can do lifting wise.

Good point about the Velocity diet though.

However, to go from 28% to somewhat 'cut' is a long, long row to hoe. It can be done though. I cut my bf% in half (to 9%) and increased my LBM by 21% but it took me 18 months. In Toym's case, I am not sure that a crash and burn diet might not be the wrong way to go and then start a slow bulk and recovery of muscle mass.

BTW Toym, where in CT are you?


Colt's up by 2 at half time.  
biggrin.gif
laugh.gif
Quad's probably at the game. 
mad.gif
ghostface.gif
 
Well you could always do both low reps and high reps... still, cardio when done correctly is not going to cause significant loss of muscle mass.

At 28% bodyfat, pretty much anything you do is going to cause weight loss, so I feel there is not much point in suffering through extreme diets, but I guess it would depend on his goals. If he needs to lose weight as quickly as possible, then a more extreme approach might be what he is looking for. I don't think that losing weight in such a fast manner is very healthy though, it makes you feel quite weak as well and won't allow you to lift very heavy at all... unless you are on drugs at the time.
The other problem with an extreme diet is that metabolic slowdown will hit much faster than a moderate diet.
 
I'm currenty cutting and doing HST, the last 2 weeks I've only done 2x per week, once because my gym was closed due to a public holiday, and once because I felt burnt out. On a calorie deficit your body just can't recover, I think its Tot that says &quot;there's no such thing as overtraining, just under eating&quot;, and on a cut that's exactly what you're trying to do, more exercise than you're eating for, to burn fat. Only problem is after weeks of constant calorie deficit, your body gets weaker and finds it harder to recover, and you really start craving high calorie foods. I started out on 3x lifting and 3x HIIT, then I went to 3x lifting 2x HIIT, and now I'm thinking of going to 2x lifting 3x HIIT. 2 Days of really heavy lifting will be enough to maintian muscle mass. Interesting though about reducing volume instead of frequency, I might try that instead.
 
Why not do this.

4 day a week compound.

Mon. Wednesday friday sunday

1 heavy set of say 6 to 8 reps of every movement and then bust out some 12 to 15 reps sets.

So maybe you would do the following

Bench press 5 to 7 reps heavy!!!
Rows the same as above
Squats the same
Shoulder press the same as above

All for 1 set.

Then after you do all of these for 1 set.

Start over again and do 2 to 3 sets in a circuit fashion.

Not a productive way for hypertrophy but on a cut you are not going to grow anyway...so go for endurance and calorie burn???

What do others think?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top