So here it is.
I had been lifting hard and eating nearly everthing I could get my hands on from Sept.-Jan. Around Jan. I cleaned up the diet, and trimmed the caloric excess to more reasonable levels.
Height 6’1"
My weight in Sept = 189
Weight in Jan = 210
At 210 I was starting to look a little pudgy and was beginning to feel less energetic so I decided to cut some weight. So now I’m right at 200 and 15.7% bf.
I don’t care about a six pack, and i will never be a competitive bodybuilder. I want to be strong and huge and don’t really give a shit about striations.
Here’s the work specific part. In late June I’ll begin working with my wildland fire crew again. Conditioning is essential for this job. Strength is important but not nearly as important as conditioning. I will lose bodyfat during the fire season. I always do. I will lose some upper body mass as well, It’s inevitable. The fire season will be my second cutting phase.
Question is… have I cut enough now to begin bulking up again ?
Is 15.7% bf a healthy amount?
Most of my lifts have stalled. I’m continuing to lift hard to maintain my gains.I have tried deloading with diminishing returns.
Should I cut to a lower percentage before bulking again?
I am not going to go overboard with crappy kcals. The diet will remain clean regardless of the direction I take.
Please justify answers with some sort of reasoning to back it up .
Thanks in advance,
JH
I’m with bmitch on this one. What’s the point of cutting if you don’t care about being super lean? You already said you’ll be losing some BF doing firefighting anyways. Keep the calories up but keep them clean.
I think if you look in Thibs Zone, he cites someone who says that around 15% is the “optimal” time to put on mass if you’re okay with not looking great year round.
But really, I think it just comes down to personal preference. If you’re not going to be competing, the details may not matter that much. What would you rather do? Is gaining some fat in the service of gaining muscle acceptable to you?
Over the last year, I cut about 30 pounds. At the end I was about 15% bodyfat. I reached the point where it didn’t make sense to cut anymore because there wasn’t enough muscle on my frame, so I changed my goals. I know I’m putting on some fat now, but I keep it in check, and I know I can lose it when it gets to that point.
If your goals are to get strong, then just eat enough for your strength levels to continue rising. Keep lifting during the fire season to maintain muscle that you have (lower volume if necessary). Just eat enough to keep getting stronger, if you gain weight, you gain weight, if you lose weight, you lose weight.
If your goal is to get stronger, eat so you keep getting stronger and don’t worry about the other changes.
personally, I like to stay under 15% during a bulk, anymore then 16% and I feel tiered. I usually cut down to 12 to 13% then do a clean bulk till around 16% and consider another cut.
think about it, at 15% bf and 200 pounds your carrying 30 pounds of fat with you. If conditioning is important, getting rid of 10 pounds of that would really help i would think?
[quote]PozzSka wrote:
If your goals are to get strong, then just eat enough for your strength levels to continue rising. Keep lifting during the fire season to maintain muscle that you have (lower volume if necessary). Just eat enough to keep getting stronger, if you gain weight, you gain weight, if you lose weight, you lose weight.
If your goal is to get stronger, eat so you keep getting stronger and don’t worry about the other changes.[/quote]
I’ll try. Weightlifting in the traditional since is impossible during the season. There is no equipment whatsoever. Often I’m camped out in a wilderness area with nothing but tools and basic survival gear. Deployments usually last at least two weeks and as long as a month before returning home for 3-5 days off. I will PT with improvised materials while I’m out. I’m thinking of something like:
Overhead squats w/ heavy pack
Overhead toss and catch w/ heavy pack
Lunges
Pushups and pullups
1 arm pack row
lat raises with whatever is available
And if I’m feeling really good maybe deadlift logs or some other log PT
Most of the physical labor involves carrying heavy loads on steep slopes and pulling motions with the hand tools plus some axe swings with the polaski. I usually maintain most of my lower body and back strength but lose significant strength in chest/tris/and delts. So improvised movements will focus on these.
[quote]MC sp3 wrote:
PozzSka wrote:
If your goals are to get strong, then just eat enough for your strength levels to continue rising. Keep lifting during the fire season to maintain muscle that you have (lower volume if necessary). Just eat enough to keep getting stronger, if you gain weight, you gain weight, if you lose weight, you lose weight.
If your goal is to get stronger, eat so you keep getting stronger and don’t worry about the other changes.
I’ll try. Weightlifting in the traditional since is impossible during the season. There is no equipment whatsoever. Often I’m camped out in a wilderness area with nothing but tools and basic survival gear. Deployments usually last at least two weeks and as long as a month before returning home for 3-5 days off. I will PT with improvised materials while I’m out. I’m thinking of something like:
Overhead squats w/ heavy pack
Overhead toss and catch w/ heavy pack
Lunges
Pushups and pullups
1 arm pack row
lat raises with whatever is available
And if I’m feeling really good maybe deadlift logs or some other log PT
Most of the physical labor involves carrying heavy loads on steep slopes and pulling motions with the hand tools plus some axe swings with the polaski. I usually maintain most of my lower body and back strength but lose significant strength in chest/tris/and delts. So improvised movements will focus on these.[/quote]
Oh, I understand. That’s tough man, I don’t know what to tell you.
Thanks for the replies guys. I think I’m going to continue restricting Kcals until I drop to about 12-13% bf. From there I’ll start working on growth again while maintaining 3day/wk HIIT (for conditioning)and a clean diet with a caloric surplus.