Re-Thinking Your Training Program on a Cut - Andy Baker
This should cover all of your questions.
Hi, I'd lifted weights before the time frame I'm about to mention but lost some strength from a few months of no gym and letting myself go due to covid lockdown. Since July I've gone from 165lb to around 198lb (I come from commie metric land) at a height mildly over 5'10". My progress on lifts since then:
Squat: 275lb for 5 to 418lb for 2
Bench: 140lb for 5 to 242lb for 3
Deadlift: 275lb for 5 to 405lb for 3
Press: 110lb for 5 to 154lb for 3
Clean: Not doing it to 198lb for 3
Chins: didn't start with them, can do 12 now
Rest between sets and hence the workouts are now very long, I have switched from 3x5 to 5x3 along with adding a light squat day a la this article: The Reset | Rori Alter, but it is getting quite hard to keep up NLP though I haven't stalled on bodyweight gain. I hope this is enough progress to warrant being the kind of intermediate mentioned secondly in this video: Who Needs To Do A Cut? | Starting Strength Radio Clips - YouTube and to not get "a Clarification" thrown at me.
I want to lose some fat and would like to know how I should alter my current programming to maintain strength, as I obviously cannot go on so aggressively on a deficit. "Wisdom" outside these forums says to cut volume and maintain intensity, in these forums I've seen a user Jordan Feigenbaum recommend no alteration to programming. I don't really get that. Should I just go into the 4 day split on a small deficit? What should I do?
Thanks very much.
Re-Thinking Your Training Program on a Cut - Andy Baker
This should cover all of your questions.
Food intake affects recovery. If you restrict food, you limit recovery. In practice you could treat training with a small caloric deficit as being an "artificial intermediate", in the sense that now it takes longer for you to recover from the same stressors.
One way to handle this would be to transition to intermediate programming, probably more like HLM than Texas Method, and progress at a slower pace while losing some fat. After some time (perhaps when progress stalls) you increase your caloric intake with no changes to the program and start gaining weight again.
That being said, do you really need a cut?
Thank you, I will read this.
Thanks, I'll probably go with the 4 day split.
"That being said, do you really need a cut?"
Well, I have a lot of excuses. Some really unpleasant things have happened in my personal life recently, so there's some insoluble emotional stress that has made my eating completely dispassionate, and sometimes keeps me up at night. The LP workouts are also taking 3-4 hours which I'd like to lessen. Also, I hate this big doughnut around my waist. My reasoning is if I can't LP forever nor gain weight forever, and I've made okay gains, and my appetite has been curbed into the dirt by externalities, I might as well try to lose some fat beginning next month.
IMHO "because I want to" is a perfectly reasonable answer. I see a problem only when ppl start to conflate multiple and sometimes conflicting goals.
If you hate the doughnut, get rid of it. It may not be the best decision for strength gains, but you do you. Considering your age and numbers doing LP though, I think a "recomp" approach could work better than a "cut".