Keyser Soze

I've been a bit worried about my own poundages recently, which are pretty poor for a guy of my size, 241Ibs and 20-25% BF:

Bench - 70Kg 3x6reps (not counting bar)
Squat - 170Kg 3x6 reps (to parallel);

Now, my policy is this; I train at home, and alone. If something goes wrong on the bench or the Squat, I'm Friar-Tucked. So I don't aggressively pursue strength gains; when the weight starts getting easy, up it goes in 10% increments. Believe it or not, I started squatting only last year with 100 POUNDS - not Kilos.

On that blessed day when I hit 15% and begin bulking, THEN I will join a gym with a leg press, squat rack, a spotter and a vengeance to go to failure; but until then my goal is to strip down.

Given that my goal at the moment is to strip the fat, not to build muscle (yet!), is this policy right? Should I alter it a little? A lot?


Thanks in advance,


KS

Ironman

Why not go to a gym now and work to failure? Just because your dieting, doesnt mean that cant work hard in the gym.
You cant gain muscle while dieting - to gain muscle you need an exess intake of calories than your maintance intake, to lose weight you need burn more calories than you need or consume less than you need - either way while dieting your body doesnt have the resourses to grow.

However by training hard in the gym you will burn more calories and aid your dieting - but at the same time training your muscles so hopefully you wont lose to much muscle mass.

When I diet - my training stays the same - I just reduce my daily intake of calories slowly, so I lose the fat slowly and not to much much muscle.

big

Yes, unless you're very advanced, you should most certainly be able to gain strength while cutting.

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crazycacti

imo i'd get to a gym.....

cut the calories slowly to where you just about losing...

and don't cut the carbs too much on training days

imo you can't push yourself enough without the spotter

Aftershock

Agreed. Hard training will have an anti-catablic effect and you will retain much more muscle while dieting. If you feel you can lift more on any given day then my all means lift more

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"You are what you eat you can't possibly be anything else"

or put another way "eat sh*t look like sh*t!!"

Aftershock

hackskii

You can do what most guys do and up the volume and lower the intensity, dont go anywhere to failure.
Volume would be someting like 8 sets of 8 reps on your bench.
15-20 seconds rest between sets so you will have to use a weight that you will do 8x8 with.
Now on your last set or two if you feel you cant get 8 reps then rest a bit more but use that weight.

Now to go along with the chest workout you can add another exercise opposite the chest like back.
Same 8 sets of 8.
So you can look at it like this 128 reps total and you do that twice a week.
No failure, fast workout, more cals burned and you wont overtrain the CNS or muscles.

8 X 8 on squats would be a killer tho

I am dieting and upping the volume, as I know I am not going to get stronger as I have cut way back on the carbs so instead of not being able to get stonger I am using this to my advantage to aid in fat loss.

Sound sensible?

You will be very tired using this methos but will get used to it as time goes by.

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Scott


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Keyser Soze

Guys,

All good replies, and I'm quite grateful. What I'd really like to know, is this...

When I finally start bulking - are my gains going to be faster if I've been lifting heavy (and hard) during cutting, or if I've been doing hi-rep/lower weights?

Cutting, as someone above kindly and rightly said, is 90% diet and 10% training. I don't want to lift heavy NOW if I don't need to; BUT, if going heavy NOW helps me get bigger, faster during bulk-time, then I'll do that.

Cheers,


KS

big

IMO lift heavy.

In my experience, those who suddenly go much lighter when they drop back the calories seem to lose a lot of strength and mass.

Do less volume, but keep it heavy when cutting IMO.

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hackskii

I myself like to do more volume when dieting to help to get more activity in.
During dieting keto diets especially you will lose some strength.

But like Big said if you just go in and get a pump and dont put much intensity into it for lets say 6-8 weeks when it comes time to bulk you will play catch-up.
Now that can take along time.

For me tho, I am 46 and I just want to look good after my diet.
I dont really care about the big heavy weights right now when I am dieting.

Today I left the gym after doing a very good 2 set warm up then 4 sets of 10 in squats and I was very fetigued, I didnt go to failure but the last set I got tired.
These were to the floor very deep too.

Low carbs diets will do that (low energy when lifting).
But I am not doing any cardio right now and will add that in a week or two.

If you want to keep your strength then keep the weights up.

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Scott


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Ironman

Agree

Aftershock

:withstupi

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"You are what you eat you can't possibly be anything else"

or put another way "eat sh*t look like sh*t!!"

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Lee

I lifted heavy when i cut the majority of my fat off mate.

But as said above, depends on what type of diet you have.

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crazycal1

i wouldnt worry about what will happen until you get to 15 stone-just concentrate on getting there for now

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EXTREME

I disagree with Ironman, losing fat and building muscle are 2 different bodily responses. Its all down to carefull manipulation of diet and training, last year whilst dieting my girlfriend won the BNBF Britain (and was drug tested twice so none of this was down to pharmacology), and she competed twice in 6 months at the same weight and was more ripped and muscular the second time.

When I competed in my first Mr Scotland the guys in the gym didn't think I was dieting because I was getting bigger/more muscular as I was getting leaner, just becuse my body was in an energy deficit didn't mean I wasn't in an anabolic state. With all the right foods and anabolic steroids being ploughed into my body how could I help but not grow.

I know several pro bodybuilders that are bigger and heavier at show time than they are in the offseason because they eat better and take proper gear courses, but they are getting leaner as they get bigger.

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Aftershock

Can you please elaborate on that point for me mate? Are you saying that you were actually in a calorie defecit and gaining weight? Or are you saying that you were getting bigger and leaner while consuming more calories..

I've sorta noticed a similar thing over the last couple of weeks, im carb cycling but im so hungry on the low carb days that im actually taking in more than maintenance cals, so for the last 2 weeks ive gained weight while getting leaner.. Think its time to throw the scales outa the window cause its getting kinda confusing. :hungry:

__________________
"You are what you eat you can't possibly be anything else"

or put another way "eat sh*t look like sh*t!!"

Aftershock