Front Squat: 217x5 for 5 sets

Bench Press: 220x3 for 8 sets

Speed Deadlifts: 195x1 for 15 sets

I'm at my absolute limit for the front squats and I had to change up the scheme for the bench because the Friday PRs have been stalling. SCREW YOU BUCKOS!

Front Squat: 247x5 - Easy

Deadlift, double overhand: 335x5 - Last rep my grip was starting to slip

Bench: 235x5 - Easy.

I finally got the bench up after changing my volume workout from earlier this week to 8 sets of 3. The squats came up really easily too. SCREW YOU BUCKOS!!

OK BUCKOS,

I'm wondering what I should be doing. See, I don't really like eating copious amounts of food so I've been thinking about slowly reducing my cals to cut and get really lean. On the other hand, I feel that I have at least 10-15lbs to add to my 5RM front squat, ~10lbs to add to my BP and I really want to try to DL at least 365 for reps. Obviously if I want to keep increasing the weight, I'm going to have to keep eating.

I'm by no means fat right now but I want to get really lean so I don't know what to do. I imagine that I'd have to lose about 15 lbs or so until I get really lean and that'll take me 15 weeks if I did things slowly and properly. ANY SUGGESTIONS ON WHICH WAY I SHOULD GO?!!?

Get your lifts then get lean.

Pick a goal, and stick with it. If it's getting lean, don't obsess over setting new PRs (although rare, it is possible to increase strength while cutting).

Clean up your diet gradually and add more metabolic training.

OK, wtf is the genesis of your use of "Bucko?" The only people who ever used that word was my ex and my mom.

LISTEN HERE BUCKO,

"BUCKO" is the greatest word in the world. If there was one word that represents my essence, it'd be "BUCKO."

I'm just going to eat whatever and keep adding weight to the bar until I can add no more.

Volume Workout:

Front Squat: 220x5 for 5 sets

Bench Press: 225x3 for 8 sets

Speed DLs: 195x1 for 15 sets on a 30 second clock

Speed DLs are teh best exercise evar IMO. I pretty much just get all angry inside and then just EXPLODE!!

btw, SCREW YOU GAIZ!

nice lifts gai

THANKS BUCKO

I doubt you're gonna jump that much on the 5RM stuff after your next plateau

I'd go for a few weeks more at least, and then maybe try to get lean. 15 weeks is probably longer than it will take.

I'm also not a fan of continuing the 5x5 stuff while on a calorie restriction, but to each his own

LISTEN HERE BUCKO,

You don't know my bodyfat right now, OKAY!?!?

Also, I'm reducing the volume on the 5x5 stuff when I start to trim down. Instead of 5x5 on the volume workout, I'm going to do 3 sets of 5 and pretty much keep the rest of the routine as is. I'll probably end up adding 1 back off set (a high rep set) at the end of each exercise. The goal is to preserve as much strength and muscles as possible, imo.

agree, and that sounds like a good approach. I might throw in a little more high rep stuff on the whole, and I like cutting down the volume. Sounds solid.

well, whats ur bodyfat? If you wanna cut just do it man, especially if you are plateauing

edit- you said 15 pounds. So I don't need to know ur BF, lol. You could swing it in 8-12 weeks no problem

Why would i throw in some more high rep stuff, BUCKO!?!

I don't really know exactly what my BF is right now. If I had to guess, I'd say 15-16%?

EricW,

Perhaps keep weights and intensity the same and lowering volume. Or utilizing other methods. Like taking a 5x5 and making it a 8x3 or something of the sort. Or [perhaps dig something up. I've seen a variety of programs that try to help keep strength up. I dunno how successful most are.

that sounds a lot better, especially if he's taking a low carb approach

you could alternate the 8x2 sessions with some 5x5 and even repetition effort stuff as well, depending on your split and everything else. There's gotta be a ton of viable programs.


Why would i throw in some more high rep stuff, BUCKO!?!

I think there are a number of reasons but I don't know them that well lol. I would do mostly lower rep work for strength, but would definitely consider mixing it up, either in entire sessions or just one set at the end of exercises with higher reps like you said, especially if you are going to be training with less volume.

For certain you aren't going to be able to train as hard as before, I think you definitely want to do is mix up rep ranges. The same rep/set scheme just doesn't seem right when you aren't looking for gains and are on a caloric deficit and will not be able to train as hard, and there have to be better options for retaining muscle mass. Definitely lower reps for the strength sets, and more sets.

****, maybe just do crossfit, lol.

I believe mixing in what is normally hypertrophy work with lots of low rep strength work can help maintain muscle mass, but I don't really have a basis for that other than having read it, and to be honest I sometimes forget where I've read this stuff. The few logs I've seen of big PL types cutting haven't been helpful because they are all juiced out of their minds and did a westside template with some depletion and RE workouts as well as DE and ME. Sorry I can't be more helpful. You should try asking on a powerlifting forum and talk with more qualified people because there are a lot of options.

Ya that's what I plan on doing. I'll probably increase the weight slightly while dropping the volume IMO.

With the diet, this is where I'm at the biggest risk to fail. I mean, I'll use fitday to count cals but I can get lazy with that and since I'm dropping cals by as little as 200/week, not keeping track is not a good idea.