Strength training and Cutting

Recently I have been doing the Stronglifts 5×5 program and have been making some serious gains. (I’m squatting 190 where I weigh 185). In terms of nutrition, I’ve made sure to get enough nutrients but at the same time I’ve also been eating some pretty crappy foods (it’s tough eating only healthy at college). While I have made gains I have also put on a lot of fat. Soon I plan on cutting to lose this fat. My question is that in order to keep my strength gains would following a cutting diet on a 5×5 be sensible? should I just try to get the 5×5 or decrease the number of sets, or should I just switch to a different routine?

You could change your set/rep scheme is you like, but since you’ve been making good gains with the 5×5, I would stay in the range for a while, a few months should do it. Or you could change to a full body split 3x/week if you feel like trying something new. What you are going to want to introduce, is cardio. It doesn’t look like you’re doing any at the moment, but you should definitely add some steady state cardio as well as HIIT a couple of times a week.

For the steady state you’re going to want to get your heart rate around 135-145bpm and keep it there for at least 30 minutes to an hour. There’s plenty of equipment at the gym to use, or you could just hit the pavement. For HIIT you could do sprints on a track or in a field, even on a stationary bike if you like. Sprints can be done on a treadmill but they’re a little tricky, since the treadmill doesn’t slow down the second you change the speed, and hopping off the band is akward.

Good luck

I personally would advocate Starting Strength in this situation. 5×5 is better for somebody who’s exhausted SS’s linear progression, not for novices. It’s not that you’re doing anything wrong; it’s just that 5×5 is more volume than you need, and sometimes more is just … more.

You’d be surprised how strong you can get doing 3 sets of 5 on the core lifts and just increasing the weight every workout. I don’t see how tall you are, but you should be able to progress through 270-320 (for squat work weight) or so at least before you need something like 5×5.

I have a hunch that the fat you’ve put on isn’t really that excessive, but if you want to trim it down, Starting Strength on a maintenance diet (no weight gained or lost) would be appropriate. You won’t actually lose weight doing this, but you’ll probably notice a body composition change for the better. Any strength training on a caloric deficit is almost asking for overtraining, so it’s a tough line to walk.

Would it be okay to simply switch my workout from a 5×5 to a 3×5? The starting strength workout is also a little bit different from stronglifts (for example, I’m only doing 1 set of deads). maybe I’ll just drop the squat to a 3×5?

I think that would be fine Jason. Assuming you’re natural (no anabolic steroids), you want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible during your cutting phase. To do this simply lower your current volume slightly.

Susan
www.CatapultFitnessBlog.com

I think that would be fine Jason. Assuming you’re natural (no anabolic steroids), you want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible during your cutting phase. To do this simply lower your current volume slightly.

Susan
www.CatapultFitnessBlog.com

I agree, and in fact I think that low volume, heavy weight workouts are ideal for cutting. I made substantial strength gains while losing 75lbs. with those types of workouts. This is one of the reasons why I think it’s beneficial for newbies to cut first. You can make huge strength gains while cutting if you’re a noob. An intermediate lifter will likely make minimal gains while cutting, so take advantage of it while you can.

I actually made the switch from 5×5 to 3×5 as well Jason and didn’t notice any difference. Factor in a single warm up set on light weight at the start and you are still completely 4 sets, 3 being heavy working sets. Also because strength training requires longer rest periods between sets to achieve maximum muscle recovery, you are talking over 25 minutes just to complete a single exercise using the 5×5 routine, and i really just don’t have time for that anymore.

I think doing a reasonable amount of cardio while at the same time doing your strength training routines is a far more consistent method than these bulk up / cut up style programs. The fact that you are doing strength programs to start with tells me you are more concerned with increasing your strength as opposed to going for pure muscle mass, which is effectively the same training style i follow and I incorporate HIIT cardio several times a week to keep myself at the same fat level year round while still making strength increases. In addition to this, heavy weight / low rep sets of compound exercises such as squats/bench/deads etc, are extremely taxing on the body and will certainly assist in the fat loss process as well.

One big key to cutting is to maintain a high lean protein intake while still lifting heavy weights as to maintain strength and size. You may think you need to starve yourself to lose bodyfat, but it’s simply not true. You can get enough solid food protein to meet this requirement, but it is VERY hard to do, and you will get very tired of that much tuna very fast. You likely will have to drink a protein shake between every meal, and also drink one post workout. The main thing about cutting that is so horrible is the lack of carbs that provide energy, so you will feel run down all the time. Diet is the most important part of cutting, so dont keep bad habits or you will never achieve your goals.

Thanks for all of the post this is really helpful information.