I went from 174 to 200 on massive eating, and now I’m ready to cut. I’m playing football now so I don’t want to lose too much weight, but I want my cutness back. I also want to make my arms and back bigger. I know all I need for football is bench, squat, dead, and clean, as well as some abs, but I want to get into a sort of bodybuilder shape as well. Is this possible? I was told to add wide grip pulldowns and rows in with my workouts. Question is, do I do them on bench days or dead lift days?
I wouldn’t mess around with cutting too much while in-season. It might lead you to have less energy, among other things, which could possibly have a negative impact on your performance.
Is the extra size hindering your performance? If not, why get rid of it?
To get cut you simply need to eat a little bit less. Obviously if you’ve followed massive eating you know the principles when it comes to meal combining and pro/carbs/fat etc. Start to deduct some calories until you begin dropping bodyfat. It will be a little more difficult to also add some mass while doing this but you probably can pull it off, especially if you have achieved a solid foundation through deads, cleans, squats etc. and you HAVEN’T been doing tons of arm work and other bodybuilding movements. The rows and pulldowns will hit your lats and you can do like the westside guys do and hit them twice/week…just make sure you have a few days rest in between.
Depending on how intense your football practice is, eating a normal diet may just be enough to drop weight.
You could try Berardi’s Don’t Diet. Then keep an eye on your energy levels. If you have no problems with energy then slowly cut from there if you are not losing as fast as you want. When you start to feel an energy drain, up the calories slowly until your energy is acceptable to you. Then keep your calories there as long as you are losing.
Throw rows in on bench day, pulldowns (rather, pullups) whenever you’d like. Or more accurately, whenever you can do them. They’re a majority lat exercise with some rear delt.
DI