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Makwa
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+ 28 Basic workout principles for cutting

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Here is the corollary to basic workout principles for bulking. Here is a link in case you haven’t seen it.

https://www.eroids.com/forum/training-nutrition-diet/weight-gain/basic-w...

Once again this is just going to be the guiding principles when setting up your own routine. I am not going to be outlining specific exercises/sets/reps etc. but the basics for you to consider when designing your own specific program. This is what I am going to touch on here:

  1. Cardio
  2. Tempo
  3. Volume
  4. Frequency of workouts
  5. Setting up your split
  6. Types of exercises and order
  7. Reps
  8. Rest intervals

I am kind of tailoring this to fit in with the cyclic bulking approach that I have talked about before but if going on an extended all out cut the same principles apply. What we are trying to do during this cut is to reduce bodyfat and increase insulin sensitivity to set the stage for massive lean body mass gains during our bulking session. Now is when we want to maintain all our muscle we have put on during our bulk and it is not the time to be focusing on hitting PR’s.

To accomplish this, instead of volume training like during a bulk, we are now going to switch into density training instead. So you are going to be doing more work within a given time period with less rest. So short rest periods between longer higher rep sets. We want that lactic acid burn to occur so focus on achieving that and not necessarily how heavy of a weight you are lifting. This is where all of our intensifiers come into play. Now you want to be doing supersets, giant sets, running the rack etc.

Cardio

We are cutting so obviously we are going to be doing cardio, but all cardio is not created equal. HIIT is going to be are preferred method here. It is one the best ways to get leaner faster during our cutting phase. It burns a lot of glycogen in short period of time. 2-3 sessions/wk for about 30 minutes is probably ideal. There are many ways to do HIIT but I like working up to a 60 sec work period with an equal rest period. Do that 3x/wk for 30 minutes and you will be golden. If you just can’t survive without your steady-state then add in 15 minutes post training or after your HIIT sessions. HIIT is where it is at though.

Exercise Tempo

What holds true for bulking also holds true for cutting. You need to slow the tempo down. Don’t just bang out your set. Keep that eccentric phase slow and controlled. 3-4 seconds/eccentric are what you should be shooting for. You want a TUT of between 50-90 seconds. You will feel the burn if doing this correctly. If you can’t complete your set using that tempo then you need to lower the weight and get rid of the ego. Slow controlled eccentrics and contract your muscles on the concentric. Get that mind-muscle connection going.

Volume

Like I mentioned before we are not so worried about volume in this phase. Workout time should now be around 45 minutes and the number sets/bodypart should be topping out at around 12 or so max, BUT, many of these sets will be longer in duration and incorporating finishers like giant and drop sets. This is going to be harder than your bulking workout. Shoot for at least half of your sets using a finisher. This will result in the best and fastest results.

Workout Frequency

Since we are now consuming fewer calories are recovery time is going to be much slower so you can’t train the same muscle as frequently as you were when bulking. You should only be hitting each muscle group only 1/wk and definitely no 2-a-days. Be sure to hit each muscle 1/wk and get your HIIT sessions in and you will be on your way.

Setting up your WO Split

The focus here is setting up the split so each muscle group gets worked 1/wk as well as fitting in our HIIT sessions. Everybody likes chest workouts so let’s start with that for an example:

Mon: Chest/tris
Tues: Legs
Wed: Shoulders/calves/abs
Thurs: HIIT
Fri: Back/bis
Sat/Sun: HIIT

Or do whatever split floats your boat. Just make sure to hit each bodypart1/wk.

Picking exercises and ordering them properly

Couple of ways to go about this. You can either use just a few exercises and crank out much higher reps or you can add in some super-sets or tri-sets to bump up the number of exercises. When doing legs I would focus on fewer types of exercises and just adding in a finisher in like a drop set. For upper body it is best to do more different types of exercises so you can hit the muscle from all the different angles that they require. Just like bulking, you want to start with your big foundational exercises first even when doing supersets or tri-sets. Start with the big exercise and finish off with the isolation movements.

How many reps?

It goes without saying I hope that we need to use higher rep ranges now because we need to get that lactic acid burn. If your set doesn’t incorporate any extended set methods then make sure to keep the reps for that set over 12. We are trying to deplete our glycogen stores and get the body shifting to more preferentially focus on fat for energy. This is why we need those intensifiers/extended sets and higher rep sets if no intensifiers are used.

What about rest?

This is a biggie here and where we really diverge once again from our bulking training. The rest intervals are short to increase the density of the workout and elevate the lactic acid levels in your muscle. These workouts are hard and fast. Get in there and get out. You are not going to grow during your cut. We are priming our muscles for accelerated growth when we add the cals back in during our bulk. You are going to be gassed during these workouts and will be using incomplete rest periods for most of your sets. Your performance will obviously go down since you are not fully recovered between sets. If this isn’t the case then you are resting to long and need to shorten it. As far as rest periods, keep the large muscle groups like chest/back with rest intervals of no more than 60 seconds. For little muscles like bi/tri it should be around 30-45 secs. Hard and fast like I said. If you are using supersets you can add on an extra 15 secs or so. Just don’t use it as an excuse to get an extended rest. You better be dripping with sweat.

Hopefully this is enough to get you going in the right direction for setting up a successful routine for your cut.

mitamike's picture

Ok, but does this exact method/training applies to natural cut only? How about on a juice cut cycle with like ~500 cals deficit ( let's say tren/mast/prop ) where endurance and gas is available, so is recovery (I dont mean recovery between sets, but better recovery even on less cals/carbs) ?
Can we do 2x/week bodypart, like push pull legs, but following this training methos (higher reps, less rest, less Ego) ? or even on superman cycle, still 1/week bodypart and ~45 min sessions?
Not saying,just curious asking, cuz Makwa knows better and all other vets..

Makwa's picture

Natty for sure don't over do it. Alot will depend on how much previous gym time you have under your belt if on cycle. Alot of people like to think they are experienced gym vets but they really are not. There is a difference between spending time in the gym vs quality time. I see very few people using proper form, extremely long rest times, too fast a tempo, it goes on and on. Very few people actually have the basics of hypertrophy mastered so it make no sense for them to be doing much more than recommended here. Now if you have been following a lot of my maximazing your gains series and actually understand and use the basics of hypertrophy training, you could try increasing bodypart frequency. You really have to listen to how your body feels and back it back down when needed, Since our goal is to cut here though, I would probably put that extra intensity and energy into cardio sessions.

mitamike's picture

thank you for taking the time to answer, as always :x
and yes ofcourse all 10 parts of maximizing gains, is like Bible, I admit I have been doing it wrong for more than 10 years...thanx again for the guides

LynnsFinest's picture

Bump +1well written and great information for a new guy to see. Need to up my cardio game.

Ajcooper35's picture

I’m guessing since this is the exercise forum, that is probably why nutrition and diet wasn’t covered, which makes sense. I think it is still extremely important to note that diet is 90% of the battle.

At the end of the day, no matter how intense your workouts are, how high the volume is, how many supersets you do, etc, if you are not maintaining a calorie deficit, you will not burn body fat. That is the law of thermodynamics and energy balance.

As far as cardio goes, i do like how you didn’t recommend 45 minutes of hiit cardio every day like 99% of Internet bros do. However, i think it is also big to note that you do not need to do “cardio” to cut. Resistance training has been shown to increase fat loss more than cardio, as cardio stimulates the body to become more efficient with calories and slows the metabolism down over time. Two HIIT sessions a week will not cause that, but i think if someone is cutting for a competition or beach week or whatever, saving those hiit sessions for the last 3-4 weeks of a 12 week cut can pay huge dividends as opposed to doing it for all 12 weeks.

Another thing i would note to add is that the body is an adaptation machine. You cannot maintain the same program for 12 weeks and expect the results at the end of week 12 to be the like week 1. You need to switch it up. Add in exercises you don’t normally do, try a fucking Bulgarian split squat even though you almost fell over the last time you tried, single leg presses. Shock your body with new stimuli and it will need to adapt like it has for millions of years. Continuously increasing volume while changing rep ranges (4x4 at 335 < 3x10 at 185) is key.

I’m also a big fan of hitting muscle groups multiple times a week. Instead of 12 sets each of chest/tris on Monday do 6 sets of each on Monday and Thursday. Take advantage of that 48 hour MPS spike. When that returns to baseline around 72 hours, hit them again and “re-engage” the MPS.

At the end of the day, as long if you are eating at a 500-750 calorie deficit and following a nutritional plan that is maintainable for longer than you are cutting for (if i am doing a 12 week cut, i will plan something that i can do for 16-20 weeks. There’s nothing worse than getting to week 10 and sucking completely because you’re on your last leg with 2 weeks to go), as long as you are doing resistance training, hiit, 2 hours in the hip adductor machine, or whatever kind of training you prefer, you will lose body fat.

There is so much individual variance out there, this may be the best plan for someone, and then for someone else who is the exact same body type and weight as them, this might be the worst thing. This is definitely a good start as far as programming.

Soulja's picture

Hey thanks for the tips Mak! You're truly knowledgeable about this lifestyle and we're blessed to have you as a member and share your experience with us.

Frogcutter's picture

Thank you first and for most because that is somewhat in line with what I’m attempting.... EXCUSE MY STUPIDITY PLEAAASE..
im not attempt to be the next Hulk or Mr. Olympian. I’m now 40, 5’9, 235lbs. and my aim goal is to keep strength without the bulk as well as just keep in good health. My 1RM bench is 315( which is fine for me) squat 1RM is about the same. ..My workout so far is I’m attempting 1wk endurance/ 1wk strength training; by this I mean that the first week is HIIT ( my HIIT is only walk/run) sets of 3-4 will reps above 10.
The 2wk is 5x5 for almost everything but I have been doing 10x3 for flat bench and decline.
My question is; is this stupid and a waste? Sorry if this is NOT the right place to ask.

Makwa's picture

Not something I would do but If it is working for you then it is not a waste. If you are not happy with results then I would get on a more formal bodybuilding or power lifting routine. Pick one or the other and run it for an appropriate length of time instead of flip flopping all over the place.

Frogcutter's picture

Okay thank you.

dextetherdog's picture

Thanks Makwa for sharing your experience with us.
Have to admit though from my own experience some of the things I do not agree with. Main concern is dropping weights and adding supersets, giant sets. Have done this for my first couple contests and from my experience I noticed that muscle mass was going too quick alongside bodyfat as I was not giving enough stimulus to keep that size and body decided that it doesn’t need to keep it as I’m not using it.
For my next contest I decided to try another approach, goal was to keep my weights very close to off season weights but no personal records at this stage to avoid injuries (and obviously you more likely will not build only muscles while on calorie deficit). Rep range slightly increased but I would never go above 10-12.
With this approach I am telling my body that it needs to keep them muscles to cope with the weights I’m doing at my workouts and maintaining muscle mass seems to be more successful this way.
In regards to HIIT cardio, again don’t think this is very suitable for all body types. For someone with very fast metabolism HIIT cardio could be counterproductive for the same reason - loss of muscle mass.
My preferred method is longer LISS at heart beat of 120-130.
So my approach to cutting and contest prep would be following:
- keeping same weight resistance training concept with slightly higher rep range and sticking to compound excercises
- I start adding more cardio while maintaining calories
- next thing I would add fat burners
- once I see progress is slowing down, only then I would start looking into calories and would start cutting carbs first.
- now I would manipulate with cardio and calories only changing one variable at a time to monitor what is working.
Following this approach I had the best outcome so far.

I was just wondering what you think of all this as you’re very experienced athlete and would be great to hear your opinion.

Carlos Danger's picture

You need to get these threads stickied. I’m surprised they’re not already. I couldn’t see a reason why they wouldn’t get unanimous support from Mods.

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Fangsharp's picture

Agreed...I've saved a handful of them

heavymetalmonsterD's picture

Awesome post+1

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333's picture

I can confirm this give a pump I'm literally at the gym now about done and I have not had pump like this in a long while

Chest/tri

333's picture

Thank you sir

johnmarshall12's picture

Always informative and wise! +

baol's picture

Thx Makwa!!

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Fangsharp's picture

Always appreciate your posts. Getting ready to start my 2nd run and I am WAY more prepared than my April run. Keep the posts coming.