10 Month Bulk - Cut Now or Continue?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Hello everyone

I have been bulking for 10 months now, and I think it’s time for a cut. I am 21 years old, and I was very skinny and initially weighed 52kg (115lb) at 171cm (5’7), and now I am at 73kg (161lb).

I am now thinking of how to further progress. According to an InBody scan in my gym, I am at 18% body fat currently, so it’s time for a cut. I know that these impedance analysis methods are not very accurate for BF estimations, but I think 18% is around right if I compare myself to BF estimation pictures.

Overall, I am happy with my progress, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I am only going to a real gym now for 2 months, before that I worked out at home using body weight exercises, resistance bands and some dumbbells. I think this is also why my chest is lagging behind in development, I never could do things like heavy bench presses at home.

Anyway, my goal is still to gain as much muscle as possible within the shortest period of time. I think it would be beneficial to cut back to like 13-14% BF and then start a lean bulk. My current bulk got less lean than I wanted at the end, but I wanted to test out how much muscle I could possibly gain in 2 months of proper gym training. According to the inBody scan, I gained 2.4kg of lean muscle in 2 months, but also 2kg of fat.

I don’t really think it is a good idea to cut to sub 10% BF levels since I don’t have that much muscle mass yet, I would probably feel skinny again. But cutting back to 13-14% of BF should also be beneficial for lean gains since my testosterone will be higher again.

What do you think about my plans? Is it beneficial to reduce my BF to 13-14% before starting a lean bulk or could I make faster progress if I start a more lean bulk now? I also added some progress pictures.

Before:
Now:

Thank you for your help!

2

You have made excellent progress! I don’t think you should “cut” after only going to a real gym for 2 months. Keep the calories slightly above maintenance and give hell in the gym.

4 Likes
3

I agree with Chicken. You barely gained any fat. You still look pretty lean. Bulk phases should usually be pretty long term(I’m about on year two of a bulk right now) because that’s the time where you’ll be progressing with your strength and muscle mass. When you cut, you’re basically just treading water at best, and losing ground at worst. I would never want to cut if I were 160. That’s pretty small for a man. You’re leaner than you think and being a few percentage points leaner will definitely not help the bulk go better. Just keep the bulk going, small surplus. You’ve made awesome gains so far, don’t break from what you’re doing.

4

Looking good. Continue what you are doing for at least same amount of time more.

5

Bodybuilding diet is not an either-or choice. IMO, don’t think “cut.” Your pics don’t lead to that choice.

Maybe just clean up you diet. Get rid of the sugar drinks and processed carbohydrate foods. If you gain a little weight don’t be concerned.

Start a strength metric. You want to eat enough to get a little stronger consistently. If you are getting stronger you are adding muscle. If your strength drops, most likely you are not eating enough.

IMO, bodybuilding is called “…building” for a reason. You started with the bare minimum and have been building muscle. Don’t stop the progress. Keep building.

1 Like
6

You done good!

7

Thank you all for your replies and the opinions!

I will continue my bulk then, but I will clean up my diet even more to prevent BF gain. I also ate a bit too many calories during my last 2 months, I upped them from 3300kcal to 3600kcal on average which was a bit too much, I will reduce maybe to a bit over 3400kcal again to see how it goes. Protein wise, I always try to stay at around 1g/lb body weight.

So far I have been doing a PPL program that I designed by myself, but I think I need to adapt it a bit for my current state. I only had 1 rest day a week which was fine with home workouts which are less intense, but in the gym I can train way heavier, and I am always at around 10 reps and I go to absolute failure during each set. I train for around 80 min each work day.

I noticed a bit of sleep problems recently which is probably due to overtraining, I sometimes wake up after 6h of sleep and have trouble going back to sleep. I don’t feel tired, but it’s probably not healthy for me or the gains, since I experience heart racing more often, and I can’t relax.

I am thinking about switching to a modified 4 day split which is tailored to my current weakpoints. My lats, triceps and shoulders are big compared to my chest and biceps, so I should focus on these muscle groups more in my opinion.

Here is my idea for the program:

Day 1: Chest/Biceps (Weakpoint day)
Day 2: Legs
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Back/Biceps
Day 5: Shoulders/Triceps/Chest
Day 6: Off
Day 7: Off

I tried to incorporate the weakpoints twice per week, so they get more volume but still adequate rest with at least 2 days in between. For Day 4/5 I will do the Biceps/Chest exercises during the end of the workout. Day 1 is meant as an intense weakpoint day where I separated the chest workout from shoulder since I noticed that heavy shoulder sets also exhaust my chest, so I can’t train it as heavy anymore and vice versa.

I think having 3 days off per week will lead to a better recovery and I can train more intense on my work days.

What do you think of my new 4-day split? Maybe I overlooked something and there is a better way to arrange things.

Thanks again for all your support, I appreciate it!

8

Add a light leg workout, where you might do a 20rep squat, progressive weekly (adding 5 lbs every week until you fail to get 20 reps.) you will need to start with a weight that you can easily get 20 reps for at least the first 4 to 6 weeks.

In your schedule I would place it the 5th day, but you might want to do three body parts on the 4th day to make the 5th day not so challenging. Eventually the 20 rep squats will be exhausting

1 Like
9

Good work OP. Again i reference a nugget from Hank, for the 2nd or 3rd time this week…

Get to 90% of your natural limit. Then worry about lean.

Hank i think it was you sir, if not, you was in the mix.

1 Like
10

Nomad and them super squats also cannot be missed. That book makes me happy, good times from the good ole days.

11

I never did those, but I wish that I had. I targeted 10 rep range for squats, and all leg exercises except leg curls.

12

Why are you not training legs more?

13

Thanks for the ideas!

For legs, I have been doing leg press, hack squat machine, hip thrusts and leg extensions. I was really impressed by the leg gains I could get within 2 months using this workout, my quads went from flat to noticeably sticking out to the side.

Also, the strength increased a lot in 2 months, but this is probably also due to the mind-muscle connection getting formed and not just gains. I could never properly work out legs at home since it requires heavy weights.

These are my progressions so far:
Leg Press: 10× 80kg to 10×300kg
Hack Squat: 10× 40kg to 10×170kg
Leg extension: 10× 30kg to 10×60kg
Hip thrusts: 10× 40kg to 10×100kg

I am aware that these exercises are not the best for functional strength (especially leg press) but for hypertrophy they seem to do a great job.

But as you said, I should also start to add standard squats to my routine, but I just enjoy the additional safety the hack squat machine gives me, if I go to failure I just have to release the mechanism and the weights get locked.

Training legs is always quite a painful experience for me, the day afterwards going downstairs is insane. I also get DOMS sometimes up to 4 days after leg day, so I am not sure if training them more often is a good for recovery?