Hello Guys I had a long stop the last few years, for personal reasons, and then inertia, honwstly, but ultimately I lost a lot of muscle mass and I gained fat. Probably what may be appropriate to do, at least initially, is a body recomposition? How does it work? Do you simply do a cut in the hope that, progressing the performance in the exercises, muscle will be built?
I’ll be training like 3xweek with a basic A/B/A B/AB Split with a routine I had big success in the past:
A
3x5+ Bench Press
3x5+ Barbell Row
1x20 Breathing Squat
B
3x5+ Standing Press
3x5+ Chin Ups
1x20 Breathing Trap Bar DLs
Adding a 10 minutes of beach pump work at the end (like a quick rest pause set of curls, pushdowns, upright rows -they feel good to me - crunches, calf raise, splitting those muscles between A & B)
Pretty much, and I mean this in the most literal sense possible. You’ll probably be graced with your noob gains (again) during the first 2-3 months (while also losing bodyfat), but once your body adjusts - expect the ‘recomp’ to slow to a crawl. This adjustment period is known as “Neurological Adaptation” and it doesn’t last very long. Maintain your cut and when you’re lean enough to be satisfied, carefully bump your calories up a bit until you find your maintenance so you can ‘un-diet’.
The maintenance phase is important so you and your body can start regulating back into eating all the foods you want, but in moderation. It’s too easy to get off a cut and start going hard after all the foods you’ve denied yourself, then you find yourself just as fluffy as you were when you started dieting or worse. Maintenance phase length is usually recommended at 1:1 to how long you were on a cut for.
After your maintenance phase, you should start bumping calories up more if you want to build even more muscle (around 500cal surplus (more if scale isn’t moving))
As for your training, you might be better suited to do a little more volume than that, but if it worked for you before - I won’t poo-pooh it. You can always start a log in Training Logs if you want some help though!
EDIT: @ChongLordUno is right that recomping is usually bullshit. IME I have found that the first couple months starting up after a long layoff have proven the recomp to work, but it truly is short term… Regardless, getting into a deficit while adding training is basically your plan anyways, so maybe you’ll build a little muscle, maybe you won’t - it can be very individual.
P.S Make sure you take ‘before’ pictures for yourself; you’ll be happy you did when you’re done with the cut/recomp.
I probably sound a bit acidic however I see fat out of shape guys come in the gym every fuxking day and they they think that conventional bodybuilding programs are the key to gaining that Adonis physique they crave.
When in reality they’re going to add even more fucking weight to their ham planet bodies.
‘But hey it’s muscle and that will help me burn more fat when I’m not doing work’
It doesn’t work for the majority.
Conditioning dominant training is the answer IMO. Hard workouts that engage the darkness.
These dumb ass 3 x 5 style programs are a recipe for disaster for the fat guy who wants to ‘recomp’
All fair points man. A 6-pack was never once developed as the result of ‘recomping’.
I agreed with OP’s plan because cutting while calling it a ‘recomp’ is still actually cutting, but I would definitely change up the training to better meet the goals.
OPs program is solid however it’s only a part of the bigger picture if he wants to create the physique he yearns for
Look at @T3hPwnisher. That program would just be his morning workout and he would tack a balls to the wall conditioning circuit straight after. There would be about 2/3 conditioning workouts to follow that day
Result?
One of the top level physiques on here yet he doesn’t follow anything that fits into the bodybuilding sphere.
I’m saying that, it takes a certain mindset to train that way but it also takes a certain mindset to obtain the results that let face it, we all want
Couldn’t agree more. I considered myself one of the hardest workers (who doesn’t though?) I knew because I’d always be pushing myself as hard as I could in the gym - always aiming to be the hardest worker in the room.
Then I came here, and found @T3hPwnisher and realized I can no longer appropriately consider myself the hardest worker in the room lol. I’ve been taking notes, planning on throwing some WOD stuff into the program when life aligns itself a bit more with this lifestyle.
Multiple sets of low reps on the big lifts with short, short rests. That way you can re-groove your technique, build your conditioning and develop some power, all at the same time.
Then super sets on the assistance lifts to keep the pace up and the work fast while you build up the beach muscles.
Or Circuits, with one lift right after another after another to burn fat and build muscles.
Here’s the Beastly Circuit from rugby S&C coach Ashley Jones.
6 lifts
6 reps
6 rounds
with some intense cardio stuff between rounds
I will say I used a program very similar to what @Giulo posted: I was 20 and I was trying to GAIN weight when I did it. AAAAAND it came after a few years of just absolutely slamming myself with volume, lots of variation, lots of angles. It’s all periodization and duality. Dan John has put it well: you have to EARN minimalist training. It absolutely works: it works AFTER you’ve already trained maximally. Because after you build that broad base with maximal training, you laser focus it down with minimalist and grow substantially with all that extra recovery.
Right now, I’m growing, no question. HOWEVER, if I wanted to get absolutely huge, I’d drop so much of what I’m doing and do something that like and keep my eating where it’s at. And I’m sure my 20 rep squat would grow rather ridiculous when my legs no longer had to recover from daily Tabata front squats and conditioning work on top of other work.
And all THAT said: if the goal is to recomp, much like has been observed: this is a poor approach. This would be a solid choice for weight gain AFTER one has reached a point of burn out training maximally. For physical transformation/reconstitution, I’d definitely go “all in”
