Ran through the last of the new cutting routines last night, a row oriented back, traps and biceps session.
I didn’t have time for a full run-through, partly due to a time crunch, and partly because my gym partner wants to move the chest session to Monday.
My solution was to run through the back routine last night and test the programming, with the view to repeating it again on Wednesday for real.
The routine as written breaks-down like this:
This week, I’m testing six new routines as part of my upcoming cutting program. The plan is to use a 3-day split run 6-on, 1-off, with Sunday as my rest day.
Last night was the second and final leg workout for the week, and unlike Tuesday’s leg session, this one was all hamstrings and glutes.
Truth be told, my legs, and especially my glutes, were still pretty sore from Tuesday… that workout was off-the-charts hard. Still, after a little light stretching and a couple of warmup sets, it didn’t seem to interfere with my ability to move through this workout.
I followed the program as written. Here’s how it breaks down:
Worked through the first of two back, trap and biceps workouts last night. This session was largely oriented in the vertical plane, so lots of pulling work.
With all of the workouts in this cutting phase, I am focused on density; getting more work done in less time with just enough stimulus to maintain lean mass. That means all rest intervals are kept to sixty seconds or less. As a result, the routine looks a little light on pure lat work, with only one pull-up movement programmed.
Here’s the routine as written:
Continuing on from yesterday’s post about my new cutting program, I ran through the first of the two chest, shoulder and triceps routines last night.
As with each of the other splits, this routine has a different emphasis and focuses largely on pushing, with a little ancillary shoulder work.
All in all, the programming was pretty close, needing just a few tweaks and a little improvisation to feel right.
Here’s the breakdown:
As most of you are are now painfully aware, I’ve been pushing hard on this latest bulk to reach 190lb. Alas, my window closed this morning with 187.75lb showing on the morning scale.
Still, I’m not disappointed.
I’ve learned a lot about my body this last six months and managed to add quite a bit of size to my frame. Said differently, I’ve created a really solid foundation for the upcoming cut, and ultimately for another run at size in the new year.
There are many aspects of bodybuilding that still confuse me greatly. However, there’s one question in particular that perplexes me more than any other: How much is enough?
The question of how hard to train, and how often, still has me beat on the best of days. It’s also likely the single biggest driver of program changes for me, and probably many others. Why? Because the question of splits, rep-ranges and protocols can not easily be untangled from the questions of load, volume, frequency and intensity.
There’s a reason you’re not making the progress you want in the gym. In fact, there’s likely many reasons. For example, you could be following the wrong program, perhaps working too low in the rep-range. Or maybe it’s that all body, routine you switched to recently. Perhaps you’re doing a little too much cardio; not enough cardio. Ah, you don’t have macros? That’ll be it. Oh, you do have macros, but you’re not tracking? Yeah, track your foods and hit the macros, that will help. Your rest intervals could be too long, or too short, of course, and what’s your tempo like? Exclusively machines? Dope, switch to free weights… but not barbells, just dumbbells. Did you say you are or aren’t benching? Well whichever it is, do the other…
Confused?
Just three weeks or so now until the next weigh-in, and unless something changes between now and then, the plan is to up the density of my workouts and start a cut. Hence, my attention is slowly shifting to what that workout and diet will look like and how I’ll approach the overall process.
Based on what I’ve learned over the last year or so of training, here’s what I’m envisioning as the key tenets of my cutting regimen:
It’s taken weeks, perhaps even three months or more, but I finally seem to have increased my capacity to eat. Sure, I still can’t sit and eat a single, blow-out meal, but I can at least now eat at a decent clip every two hours and not feel like I am dying.
When I first started this latest bulking cycle, increasing my intake to the point where I could hold and make gains was brutally hard. Gut was permanently distended and I was not remotely hungry from the point I finished breakfast right up until I’d hit the sack. It was really pretty depressing and I wanted to bail on the bulking process more than once.
We’ve all done it; an extra set here, an extra set there, swapped out an exercise, or perhaps added a new one. Instinctive training, they call it, and some swear by it. Me? I am not so sure.
For almost a year now, I’ve been working with Adam Bornstein and following his training programs. Sure, we’d make a bunch of swaps for certain exercises, and he’d always encourage skipping anything that hurt etc. But that’s not what I am talking about.
My current program has me working the entire body twice in the week, Monday through Saturday, with Sunday being a well-earned day of rest.
Here’s the split: