Cutting Routine vs. Bulking Routine

[Brazensol]

Some of you may have read my thread from yesterday in the Injuries and Rehab forum about my shoulder/chest benching incident. Someone brought up a good point that I had not really considered until now. I have been on a modified cutting diet. I have added a surplus of calories on my lifting days (only 200-300) but with my daily level of cardio and calorie deficit (400-500) on non-lifting days, I am essentially still cutting as bf and weight are still dropping.

The point to cxonsider is not to lift for size/power while cutting due to a higher risk of injury. Currently, I am starting all my routines with my first exercise using a 5x5 format to increase strength and size (in theory anyway). On the appropriate workout day I do the following using the 5x5 format: Squats (Monday), bench press (Tuesday), t-bar rows or deadlifts (Thursday), and close grip bench press or skullcrushers (Friday). I was doing standing barbell curls 5x5 also on Friday but my forearm is acting up so I had to stop them and go back to mostly dumbbell exercises.

Would it be wiser to drop the 5x5's and go with a less weight/higher reps routine? Would it still be effective to throw in some drop sets? Go to failure on the last set?

Good news is I have 90%+ range of motion back in my right shoulder, and though still a bit sore, I think it is going to be ok. Still going to go see a chiro... lol.

[baseline_9]

Stick with what your doing.... Keeping heavy lifting in a cutting routine is key to maintaining LBM over the duration....

However I'd advise you to switch over to training each body part multiple times per week.... Non linear periodization is the way forward....

[Brazensol]

Could I pick one muscle group, either at random or on a rotation, to double up on each week and continue working the others once per week? Would that be enough to keep making gains? Or should I cut the volume and do each group twice per week?

[baseline_9]

If I were you I'd do and upper/lower routine with a power and a hypertrophy day of each

[Brazensol]

Do you have a routing posted that I could link to? After looking at the thread; Various Training Techniques by Pinnacle and a few others I'm still not really sure of the hypertrophy concept. If not, maybe an example routine for a hypertrophy and power day using chest or back? This would probably clear up the concept for me.

[baseline_9]

This is a modification of a routine I have posted on here... The upper hyper day is a tonne of volume but that's what you get if you want to do this type of training and train 4 rather than 5 days a week



Mon - Rest

Tue - Lower body hyper

Sumo Deadlift - 4 x 8-12
Wide leg press - 4 x 8-12 (static pause at bottom)
Hack squat - 3 x 8-12
Seated leg curls - 4 x 8-15 (leaning forward on machine)
Seated calf raise - 4 x 8-12
Standing calf raise - 3 x 8-12


Wed - upper body hyper

Incline DB bench 4 x 8-12
DB OHP 4 x 8-12
Cable Crossovers 3 x 8-12
Lat pull downs (medium width) 4 x 8-12
Cable rows 3 x 8-12
High Rows/Face pulls 4 x 8-20
Barbell curls 4 x 8-12
Tricep Pushdowns 4 x 8-12


Thu - Rest

Fri - rest

Sat - Lower Body Power

Squat - 5 x 4-6
SLDL - 5 x 4-6 (use blocks so you touch down for a real Deadlift)
Front Squats - 3 x 4-6
Glute ham raise or lying leg curls - 3 x 4-6
Standing calf raise - 6 x 4-8

Sun - Upper Body Power

Bench press - 5 x 4-6
Pendlay rows - 5 x 4-8
Seated OHP - 5 x 4-6 (seated but not supported)
Underhand Pull-ups - 3 x 4-8
Dips - 3 x 4-8

[Brazensol]

Looks interesting and I appreciate the help. I will have to give it a try and see how I can handle it. It's a lot of work for an old'ish man. My diet is in check so I think it will be doable. May have to cut back on the cardio a bit though.

[baseline_9]

Looks interesting and I appreciate the help. I will have to give it a try and see how I can handle it. It's a lot of work for an old'ish man. My diet is in check so I think it will be doable. May have to cut back on the cardio a bit though.

It's a lot of volume...

But trust me.... You will drop weight quickly using a program like this....

Anyone I have running this type of a routine is surprised when I give them there macros.... Because they are eating so much food....

[Tonka8]

If as you say it will help drop weight ill have to give it ago myself

[baseline_9]

If as you say it will help drop weight ill have to give it ago myself

There is no fluff with a routine like this.... There is no room for fluff when your doing upper/lower routines...

Big compound movements burn more calories....

[Brazensol]

It's a lot of volume...

But trust me.... You will drop weight quickly using a program like this....

Anyone I have running this type of a routine is surprised when I give them there macros.... Because they are eating so much food....

I'm sitting at 13.0% bf now and if it will help me get to sub 10% I'm all for it. I am currently eating 2500-2600 calories on lifting days and ~2000 on non-lifting days. Do you think I should increase my calories when I start this routine? if yes, how much? I do a fair amount of fasted cardio - lately I'm riding about 20-25 miles a day but it varies.

[bigsiv]

Sorry for the hijack but quick question baseline, I started your routine today but with upper body power day, I swapped the tbar rows for dead lifts as they always work my better better than legs. What would you suggest I put in lower body power day (tomorrow) instead of the deads? Cheers bud great routine btw

[Brazensol]

Just send me a check for $5.00 per hijack and it's all forgiven... lol.

[bigsiv]

Just send me a check for $5.00 per hijack and it's all forgiven... lol.

Ha ha ha sent buddy sorry bout that. Have you had a read if Baselines power/hypertrophy routine? Use the search function and find it. It's a great read very detailed

[baseline_9]

I'm sitting at 13.0% bf now and if it will help me get to sub 10% I'm all for it. I am currently eating 2500-2600 calories on lifting days and ~2000 on non-lifting days. Do you think I should increase my calories when I start this routine? if yes, how much? I do a fair amount of fasted cardio - lately I'm riding about 20-25 miles a day but it varies.

Try the routine out.... Weigh yourself every day and take an average weight loss over the week... Aim for a 0.5% weight loss per week (0.5% of body weight)... If your not hitting that then either decrease energy in, increase energy out or a combo of both....

Run with the program for 2 whole weeks before you make too many adjustments to your macros or cardio... Allow yourself to 'settle in' to the routine....

When making adjustments to macros and cardio there are a few things to consider....

Maintaining lifting performance and bar poundage is very important.... So don't cut carb on training days unless you have to.... My preference is to have people go very low if they have to on non training days which enables them to keep carbs up much higher on lifting days....


Make only a minor adjustment and again give yourself some time, maybe a week to see how you respond.... Dropping carbs 20g here and there and adding 50 cals to all of your cardio sessions will produce bigger results that it should do on paper....


If you want to get down to 10% give yourself 6/7 weeks (0.5% a week).... Make constant progression on the program above and bust your balls in the gym... Don't take sets to failure as this will just reduce overall workload.... Stop a rep or two shy and work up to maybe a really tough last set... This type of training is very demanding....

[baseline_9]

Sorry for the hijack but quick question baseline, I started your routine today but with upper body power day, I swapped the tbar rows for dead lifts as they always work my better better than legs. What would you suggest I put in lower body power day (tomorrow) instead of the deads? Cheers bud great routine btw

I don't recommend swapping TBar rows for Deads.... They are not interchangeable....

That power/hyper is a good template and anyone will do well on it... However I have a new thread on here (similar routine) with a routine that IMO 'meshes' together better and is probably easier to follow....

http://forums.steroid.com/lifting-te...h-routine.html

[Brazensol]

I'll start this on Monday and see what happens! I will only be able to do it for two weeks before we move cross country and will then have to take a 2-3 week break before I can pick it up again.

[bigsiv]

I don't recommend swapping TBar rows for Deads.... They are not interchangeable....

That power/hyper is a good template and anyone will do well on it... However I have a new thread on here (similar routine) with a routine that IMO 'meshes' together better and is probably easier to follow....

http://forums.steroid.com/lifting-te...h-routine.html

I will have a look at that routine when I get chance and swap the deads back to tbars cheers baseline