Michael

In about 3 weeks, when I'm finished with my current routine, I'm planning on starting a cut. I've gone almost 10kg/22lbs up in weight since last summer, and I have gained some fat as well. I'd like to get rid of that before I start gaining muscle and strength again in late summer/early fall.

So, I'm planning on having 3 cardio days a week, as well as a split routine. I was thinking of something like this:
Day 1: chest/shoulders
Day 2: back
Day 3: arms

Thoughts/ideas? Any advice would be highly appreciated!

Gazhole

Cardio isn't necessary for fat loss, but increased rest time on a cut is crucial. You need to work hard, but shorter. If you want to do cardio, put it for like 10-20 minutes after weights, and leave the extra days for recuperation.

Most of your work on a cut will happen in the kitchen, eating cleaner, and making sure you're eating below your maintenance level of calories.

I also notice you've neglected legs in this program? I can't think of any exercises that would burn the most calories in the shortest time than squats and deadlifts!

Not only that, but balance in a program is crucial to avoid injury.

My advice would be cut out the arms day, and do legs there instead. Keep all the reps lowish around say, 6 or 8, and concentrate on getting in and out of the gym in a fairly short time.

Your bodies resources are much lower on a cut than they would usually be, so marathon training sessions just wont be an option. Go in, do your work, and get out to rest.

Striker

you think we can see some pics to help put our ideas into it? I know we sometimes think we are "fatter" then we really are not in the sense of obese but let's say some fat in spots we don't like.

I think maybe if you showed up some pics we could give you better input. Us being at the same age we are burning off so much as it is. So maybe you don't need as much cardio as you plan to do.

Michael

Thanks a lot for a very informative tips in your post, thanks a lot. A reason I neglected squats and deadlifts is because of my lower back injury. I have been training my lower back hard the past few months, and I feel that it needs a little break. Also, my lower back and legs are my best bodyparts (compared to the rest) and my arms are my worst.

And wouldn't it be best to do 12 repetitions instead of 6 when on a cut and concentrate on muscle-mind connection instead of strength? And high reps would also lead to faster heart rate, thus more calories burned?

Michael

I don't really consider myself that fat, and I was only planning a mini cut, nothing major. And my waist is 88cm/34inches, if only I could get it down to about 83cm/32inches, I'd be happy

Striker

Jesus, you shot up quick 174! I remember when we were about the same. I guess I shouldn't of slacked off for a couple of months.

Anyway yeah I'm around 32 waist. It's alright being down here lol.

Michael

Actually I'm around 180 now...

Michael

Day 1: chest/shoulders

Barbell bench press 3 x 12
Incline dumbbel press 3 x 12
Dumbell shoulder press 3 x 12
Side laterals 3 x 12

Day 2: 20 minutes high intensity cardio

Day 3: back

Wide grip cable pulldowns 3 x 12
V-bar seated cable row 3 x 12
Close grip palms facing pulldowns 3 x 12
Wide grip seated cable row 3 x 12

Day 4: 20 minutes high intensity cardio

Day 5: arms
Hammer curls 3 x 12
Close grip bench press 3 x 12
Preacher cable curls 3 x 12
Lying 2 hands tricep extensions 3 x 12

Day 6: 40 minutes low intensity cardio (for health reasons)

I just made this up in a few minutes, critisism is welcome!

CFDAD

Go down the street, not across.

Gazhole

More energy expenditure would require more work, but due to the nature of being on a cut your substrate and energy levels will likely be down. The way to get around this is to recruit as much muscle as possible without working out for longer, hence lower reps.

The heavier the weight, the more muscle will be recruited, the more fibres will contract, the more energy will be required, in less time.

Its just a game of efficiency when you don't have bags and bags of energy. Using higher reps is going to damage the muscle more also, and since your recovery abilities will also be hindered (due to the lack of food) this is also an important issue.

Does that make sense?

I would still put some sort of leg work in there, even if its stuff that doesnt place stress on the lower back. Such as squats with the weight hanging off a dip belt (i love these).

Harvey300

Gaz is right - do the leg work! Squats have a ridiculous amount of benefits from increased test. levels because of the muscles involved to a lot of calories burnt. This trumps most cardio by far because of this.

Consider these instead:
3 full body workouts a week,
4 upper/lower body splits a week
or one chest/shoulders/triceps, one leg and one back/biceps a week

Personally I think full body workouts will be best for this mini-cut of yours.

There's no need for an arms day because they're a relatively small part of the body which means few calories will be burnt. Besides the arms will respond to a few sets provided there is enough intensity.

As for the cardio side of it, HIT is a good idea. I can understand having a low intensity day because too many sessions can burn you out.

Malley

I have begin my cut, I am doing the following:

Push-Day1

Bench Variant
OH Press
Incline

Day2-HIIT

Legs-Day 3

Squat Variant
Deadlift variant
Lunges

Day 4-Distance Running

Day5-Pull

Pullups
Row Variant
Scapular Work

Days 6 and 7-off

Weeks 1-3: 3x6-75 sec ri
Weeks 4-6: 3x10-60 sec ri
Weeks 7-9: 3x12-30 sec ri
Week 10-Just cardio.

aberry33

I started my cut two weeks ago and went from doing sets of 8,6,4 reps to 12,10,8 so yes I would suggest giving that a try.

Like Gazhole said I wouldn't throw out legs completely. Those big leg muscles suck up a lot of calories so I would not cut them out while you are cutting.

As far as frequency/duration I guess that's best left up to you. Now that I've started my cut I am trying to stay as active as possible. I can also understand the need for extra rest too but I figured I would let my body dictate that. I'm sure I'll have days here and there where I am burnt out and need to be lazy all day but as long as I feel okay I'm going to push myself. Here is an example of what I'm doing:

Monday - Chest/Tricep/Shoulder (Next week this flips and M & F become back/biceps and W becomes chest/tricep/shoulder)
Tuesday - Legs
Wednesday - Back/Biceps, Softball league at night starting 3/18
Thursday - Cardio
Friday - Chest/Tricep/Shoulder
Saturday - Started playing flag football in preperation for our season
Sunday - Flag football starts on 3/22

So really once my two leagues start up the only day I'll have off is Saturday and by that time I plan on no excercising of any kind on those days.

When I weighed myself yesterday I am down from 222.2 on 2/23 to 216.6 on 3/9.

Big Guns

cool workouts, BUT that won't burn fat. DIET done correctly. Will we ever get this right. Train hard as hell and cut your carbs.
200-250g pro/day
75g carbs/day
70g fat/day.