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Thread: Cutting on 4 day split

  1. #11
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    So a "four day texas method" type approach. How'd you do the volume work exactly? Did you reduce it from the usual recommended 5x5 setup? One of the few recommendations for training on a cut I've found that seem to be held universally is to keep volume down.

  2. #12
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    The problem with restricting calories is that it reduces your ability to recover. Therefore, reducing the stress is a way to manage that. Reducing volume is probably the most common way to address that while handling heavy weights that prevent detraining.

    As I said, I didn't change my programming that much. I just dropped some accessory movements that weren't really that stressful anyway.
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  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by CommanderFun View Post
    So a "four day texas method" type approach. How'd you do the volume work exactly? Did you reduce it from the usual recommended 5x5 setup? One of the few recommendations for training on a cut I've found that seem to be held universally is to keep volume down.
    It's all about managing recovery. I've dieted down 3 times, once more or less by accident. First was during NLP. In retrospect it was a dumb idea; I should have just run out my LP and then lost the weight. As it was I ended up dragging out the advanced novice stage a lot longer than I needed to. But I lost something like 20 pounds.

    Second time was the accidental one. I was doing 4 day TM, had been going smoothly for several weeks, and for some reason (that I don't remember clearly) I decided I was sick of drinking 2 quarts of 1% milk a day so I quit. That's something like 800 calories right off the top. I dropped 2 holes on my lifting belt in about a week and a half. I also barely made it through my intensity squats at the end of that week. I decided that I wanted to keep my squats going so I added the milk back in and actually added more food on top of that. Things got back on track and I progressed pretty well for several more weeks and gained some muscle mass and fat.

    Currently I'm doing an 8/5/2 program and intentionally losing weight. I think I'm about 400 calories under maintenance most days. This program is a lot less stressful, mostly because it is a 3 week progression instead of weekly. Also I'm ramping up my volume work across those 3 weeks from 3 sets on week one to 5 sets on week 3. I'm losing weight slower but I'm also not having any issues getting all my sets and reps in.

    If you want to cut on a 4 day TM, I'd suggest managing your carbs carefully and not going into too deep a deficit, and sticking with the prescribed volume (otherwise I think you're going to end up frustrated on your intensity days). Santana talks about peri-workout carbs and I've found that to be very useful. A slug of 10-20g of dextrose prior to your workout can make a huge difference.

    Andy Baker has a different approach for someone on HLM where he recommends limiting carbs except for a cheat meal on the night prior to the heavy day which should be relatively high in carbs, fats, and salt. This won't work as well for the 4 day TM because all your days are relatively stressful. My opinion is that if you're finding yourself at a point where you're needing to shed volume, you may want to consider temporarily switching to a different program, or rethink how much and what you're eating, because TM is not very forgiving.

  4. #14
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    At the moment I'm not cutting. I just am thinking about what I am going to do for my next one. I've read a lot of both Andy and Rob's thoughts on the subject. Jumping on the intensity cycling as a means of stretching out the progress right from the get-go seems like a good idea actually, I don't think I've seen that suggested anywhere else. Last time I used a scaling approach with my diet and it worked fairly well. I had "phases" of my meal planning that I would progress through every time the weekly weigh-in hit a snag.

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