Starting the thread back up soon. Since my last post, I've been spending my time bulking up a bit. I'm currently sitting around 193-196lb. I'll be finishing up my "mini bulk" at the end of this month, and transitioning back to a longer term cut back down to 10-11% body fat. Hopefully, I've put on about half of this weight as much, although it could be closer to 35-40% since a few pounds of my current weight gain is most definitely water.
I'm probably not going to follow RPT (Reverse Pyramid Training) this time around. For anybody who forgot or doesn't remember, it's essentially picking a weight about 80% of your 1RM, and going for 4-6 reps, then dropping down 10-15%, going for 6-8 reps, then dropping again 10-15%, and going for 8-10 reps. While I did find this method of training to be useful, I eventually got burnt out by it do to the higher number of reps in a set, and my low carb intake.
This time around, I'm probably going to do a 5x5 routine. For one, I think less volume and higher weight will be more beneficial to keeping strength gains during the cut. I also want to experiment a bit and see which ends up being best for me long term.
I will be lifting 3x a week (mon wed fri) and probably doing cardio 2-3x per week so I can eat a little bit more.
Although fat loss is my #1 primary goal, I would like to see some gains in strength in the long run. I'd like to see myself going for 5x5 @ 205 by summer, and DL 5x5 at 275. I'm leaving out squat because my hips and calves are just nightmares right now. I've been playing insane amounts of hockey this winter, and quite honestly, I think squatting heavy weight is going to be detrimental to me with my tight/sore & immobility joints. I'm going to focus on getting better dorsiflexion in my ankle, and opening up my hips. I'll still do the leg sled and light squats until I'm 100% comfortable putting heavy weight back on.
Thank you for reading.