Hello again fit friends! It’s time for my next cut and recomp. This one is going to last 6 months and will consist of a 3 month cut and 3 month maintenance.
Starting Stats and Goal
- Current Weight: 224.6 lbs
- Current Body Fat: 18%
- Height: 6’0"
- Goal weight: 210.6 lbs
- Stretch Goal: 205 lbs
- Home Run: 200 lbs
- Goal BF%: less than 14%
Goal is to lose at least 14 lbs, taking me down to 210ish lbs. Note that this is lowballing it (going off RP Diet App calculations) – I fully expect it to be possible to lose an additional 4-8 lbs beyond that goal, putting me at a fairly lean 205 lbs when all is said and done.
Training
Training will consist of 4 mesocycles of Renaissance Periodization’s Custom Template. I’ve customized the template such that I’m emphasizing Quads, Shoulders, Back and Chest and doing 6 exercises every day.
Executing the plan is quite simple: All I need do is come up with a 10RM as a starting point and choose my exercises from the spreadsheet. From there, all I need to do is perform the training, tracking my reps, fatigue and pump each day. Here is an example of what a typical day might look like:
Here’s an overview of what how each week is structured in terms of muscle group rotations:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|
| Chest Compound | Back Vertical Pull | Quads | Front Delts | Back Vertical Pull | Hams | REST |
| Chest Isolation | Back Horizontal Pull | Quads | Front Delts | Back Horizontal Pull | Quads | REST |
| Triceps | Biceps | Glutes | Triceps | Side Delts | Quads | REST |
| Side Delts | Side Delts | Hams | Chest Compound | Rear Delts | Glutes | REST |
| Front Delts | Rear Delts | Calves | Chest Isolation | Biceps | Calves | REST |
| Traps | Forearms | Abs | Traps | Forearms | Abs | REST |
As usual, reps will be autoregulated, using an ascending Reps in Reserve (RIR) schema. Target rep range on week 1 will be around 20-30 reps and come down from there as weights increase in set increments on each exercise. Breakdown is as follows:
| Week | Reps in Reserve | Sets/Session | Weight Scaling |
|---|
| 1 | 3 | 12-15 | 0.9 of estimated 10RM |
| 2 | 3 | 18-21 | 1.025 times previous week |
| 3 | 2 | 24-27 | 1.05 times previous week |
| 4 | 2 | 30-33 | 1.075 times previous week |
| 5 | 1 | 36-39 | 1.1 times previous week |
| 6 | 1/2 reps of week 1 | 12-15 | 0.5 of week 1 weight |
Sets will increase each week according to fatigue and pumps achieved when the exercise is performed. Usually, this will mean each exercise will increase by 1 set each week. Most exercises in the plan start at week on at 2 sets. Some of the smaller muscles, however, start at 3 (biceps, shoulders, abs, forearms, stuff like that). Therefore, assuming normal fatigue and pumps, most exercises will be 6-7 sets on week 5 (peak week), implying a maximum volume of around 36-39 working sets per session on that week.
Cardio & NEAT
The plan for activity is pretty simple: Hill walking (126-150 HR) before and after training for 10 minutes, along with 5 minutes of cooldown walking, totalling 30 minutes of walking/cardio during each training session. I’ll also be doing a 15-20 minute walk each morning. This will put me around 9k-10k steps per day.
Nutrition
Nutrition will be handled via meal planning in the RP Diet App. The app will adjust my calories up or down automatically depending on the results of my weigh ins. The app allows me to simply choose my preferred foods and will then tell me how much I have to weigh out to meet those goals.
I’ve built up a good stable of high protein low carb low fat recipes and have them frozen in the fridge, pre-prepared. Compliance has been shaky during maintenance, but that will end during the cut. Compliance on previous cuts has been around 90-95% and I anticipate similar numbers here.
One thing that I messed up big on my last cut was coming off – I reintroduced junk foods too quickly and I feel like that really derailed my maintenance. Of course, it doesn’t help that I had to undergo elective surgery followed closely by a severe infection that took a week or two to resolve. Nonetheless, I plan on waiting at least a month before deviating from my maintenance meal plan.
As of the outset of the cut, my meals and macros are structured as follows:
Training Days
Rest Day
Course
Steroids will consist entirely of goodies procured from
@GearChurch. I’ll be using SomaLong instead of usual HGH – once weekly injections baybeeeee
I’ll also be incorporating insulin and injectable L-Carnitine into this cut at coach’s recommendation. Masteron and L-Carnitine will be titrated up during the course. Course will be structured as follows:
| Compound | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Weeks 6 - 12 |
|---|
| Test E | 200mg/wk | 200mg/wk | 200mg/wk | 200mg/wk | 200mg/wk | 200mg/wk |
| Bold U | 300mg/wk | 300mg/wk | 300mg/wk | 300mg/wk | 300mg/wk | 300mg/wk |
| Mast E | 300mg/wk | 400mg/wk | 500mg/wk | 600mg/wk | 700mg/wk | 800mg/wk |
| Metformin | 1000mg/day | 1000mg/day | 1000mg/day | 1000mg/day | 1000mg/day | 1000mg/day |
| Injectable L-Carnitine | 200mg/day | 200mg/day | 200mg/day | 200mg/day | 200mg/day | 300mg/day |
| SomaLong | 0.3ml/wk | 0.3ml/wk | 0.3ml/wk | 0.3ml/wk | 0.3ml/wk | 0.3ml/wk |
| R Insulin | 5IU 2x/day | 5IU 2x/day | 5IU 2x/day | 5IU 2x/day | 5IU 2x/day | 5IU 2x/day |
Supplements/Nutraceuticals
| AM | |
|---|
| Asprin | 50mg/day |
| Slo Niacin | 500mg/day |
| Vitamin C | 1000mg/day |
| Vitamin K | 100mcg/day |
| Fish Oil | 3g/day |
| Creatine | 3g/day |
| Men’s Multi | 1 serving/day |
| PM | |
|---|
| ZMA | 1 serving/day |
| Chromium Picolinate | 400mcg/day |
| Vitamin D3 | 5000IU/day |
Supplementation strategy notes courtesy of Coach Mircea Balaj, for those interested:
- Aspirin (baby or geriatric) taken daily can lower the risk of cardiovascular events, such as a heart attack or stroke. Low-dose aspirin can reduce the risk by preventing blood clots from forming. Aspirin has a long-lasting effect on platelets, helping thin the blood for days after it is taken. High blood pressure (hypertension) is a risk factor for heart disease and for years, a low dose of daily aspirin has been considered a safe and healthy way to prevent heart disease. It’s reasonable, therefore, to associate aspirin with lowering blood pressure, as a critical way of preventing heart attacks and strokes.
- Slo Niacin is a time-release form of vitamin B3 that will aid in maintaining a healthy HDL:LDL cholesterol ratio (can be found here: https://slo-niacin.com/)
- Vitamin C is involved in many essential functions of the body ranging from a healthy immune system to the absorption of iron
- Vitamin K (complex) helps protect from calcium buildup in the arteries making it useful for heart health. It would be best to find a blend that has K1, K2, and K3 (can be found here: Super K Vitamin, 90 softgels - Life Extension)
- ZMA is just Zinc, Magnesium, and vitamin B6, all micronutrients that enhanced athletes usually are deficient in (see studies made by BALCO and Victor Conte)
- Chromium Picolinate is a mineral that plays an important role in glucose metabolism. The dosing would be dependent on carbohydrate intake, usually, 50-100mcg of chromium for every 100g of consumed carbohydrates is recommended
- Vitamin D3 is another vitamin that many people are usually deficient in. It helps with the immune system and the absorption of calcium among many other things.
I added the men’s multi, fish oil and creatine myself, since those have been shown to assist in body composition goals.
Wrap Up
I’m really looking forward to seeing the results of this cut. It’ll have been several years since I’ve been this low bodyfat, and if I hit my goal weight, I’ll be only another cut away from being eye-bleedingly peeled.
Whelp, there are all the deets. Now it’s time to execute.
