I am finished cutting and can’t decide what to do now- I want to regain some size and fullness, and don’t want to just “maintain” throughout the summer. I feel like a maintenance phase just promotes stagnancy, and by the end of them I always have gained fat before I even decide to bulk up again. Are there any good programs here you guys could suggest for adding a couple of pounds of muscle between now and July or August? I am 6’, 158 and around 10% bf. I am hoping to find a suggestion of a lifting routine, and some suggestions on cardio(if any at all). Also, what do you think my nutrients ratio should look like? 40-30-30 or something different? Thanks for your help!
Good for you. Cutting is the hardest part of this game. Some of your fullness will come back as you SLOWLY raise your calories. You will be refilling of glyogen stores.
Some people recommend that you try and hold your new lean levels for a couple of months before bulking (read adding mass again). Others say it is okay, to bulk again. I prefer to select my weakest small body part and focus one it while working on strength for the rest of the body.
It is up to you which road you try. Eventually, you may have to try alll three to find which works best for you.
Others will call me out if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t you keep cutting? The leaner you are when you go on a mass phase, the more likely you are to add muscle, not fat. Plus, %10 is sort of a threshold… I don’t think you’d be pleased if you went up to %11 or %12 during the course of bulking (and swimsuit season).
Depending on how much you eat now why dont you increase your caloric intake 500 a day above maintnence, and keep lifting you should put on about a pound a week, and if you do a little cardio and lift right it should be all muscle, if that is too much increase it a couple a hundred above maintnence that why your sure not to put on any fat.
Don’t take this the wrong way but based on your weight and percentage of body fat you have about 140 pounds of muscle on a six ft frame. What are your goals? Do you really want to add only a couple of pounds? I suggest following Beraldi recommendations-