Cycle Prep

[the small soldier]

OK I was a member here from long ago. Took a break to do some powerlifting. Actually I went to Raw nationals and did well for my first show. I'm taking a break from powerlifting and I want to give bodybuilding a try. I'm currently training for a show, but I'm no where near ready. I'm 5'6 205 pounds and 19% BF I want to get my bodyfat down to 12-15% and then do a hardcore bulk of test and DBOL with HCG and arimidex during cycle. my question is. DO I cut naturally and risk losing muscle, or would it benefit me to use some DBOL or ANAVAR as a cutting aid only to help maintain muscle. I will be following a strict diet and I do cardio 5 days per week. HIIT 3 MWF after I lift and T TH I do steady state. My problem is I tend to lose muscle eaisly and I'm thinking 4 weeks of low dose orals will allow me to push harder with the cardio and drop the calories to about 2100 and still keep a lot of muscle. I would welcome any inputs...Also I'm 26 years old and have done one cycle before htis in 2008. I gained and 30 pounds and kept 24 before losing it all doing P90x and training for a half marathon.

 

[Judo Tom]

at 19% you can cut and not lose muscle very easily. just eat a clean diet, high in protein and do some am cardio and the fat will melt off.

 

[blue_steel74]

OK I was a member here from long ago. Took a break to do some powerlifting. Actually I went to Raw nationals and did well for my first show. I'm taking a break from powerlifting and I want to give bodybuilding a try. I'm currently training for a show, but I'm no where near ready. I'm 5'6 205 pounds and 19% BF I want to get my bodyfat down to 12-15% and then do a hardcore bulk of test and DBOL with HCG and arimidex during cycle. my question is. DO I cut naturally and risk losing muscle, or would it benefit me to use some DBOL or ANAVAR as a cutting aid only to help maintain muscle. I will be following a strict diet and I do cardio 5 days per week. HIIT 3 MWF after I lift and T TH I do steady state. My problem is I tend to lose muscle eaisly and I'm thinking 4 weeks of low dose orals will allow me to push harder with the cardio and drop the calories to about 2100 and still keep a lot of muscle. I would welcome any inputs...Also I'm 26 years old and have done one cycle before htis in 2008. I gained and 30 pounds and kept 24 before losing it all doing P90x and training for a half marathon.

Heres what id do if i were you. Keep in mind that i went from 230@ 25%bf to 170@ 4.5%bf naturally in about 7 months. Since you wanna compete, 19% is way too high of bf to carry even when bulking. Id get it down to around 6-7, and then bulk.

And i definitely wouldnt use dbol to cut with bc of the water retention and lethargy. Id just diet hard until i got to atleast 7-8% and then maintain that for awhile so ur body gets adjusted to being that lean. Id then pick a show that allowed me a few months to bulk and 16 weeks to cut. Then id run my bulk cycle, pct and after a few weeks off pct, id start my contest prep.

 

[blue_steel74]

Also, try to keep your bodyfat to 12 or under in the offseason. Makes for a lot easier of a diet and cardio routine when your contest prep starts. But the max id go to is 15%. Good luck man

 

[littleb]

you can cut bf pretty easy at 19% natty..I am doing it right now lol. I tried to bulk natty for the last 8 weeks now that is a little harder hence bf up to 17-20 range.. I just cut carbs back added 20 more mins to cardio so 40 mins now and cleaned up the diet and fat is falling off.. you powerlifted so solid base= more muscle= you will burn fat quicker.. I am almost exactly where you are, I too was going to go on a cut cycle, but decided to lose the bf first then go for a mild cycle and bulk..

 

[blue_steel74]

you can cut bf pretty easy at 19% natty..I am doing it right now lol. I tried to bulk natty for the last 8 weeks now that is a little harder hence bf up to 17-20 range.. I just cut carbs back added 20 more mins to cardio so 40 mins now and cleaned up the diet and fat is falling off.. you powerlifted so solid base= more muscle= you will burn fat quicker.. I am almost exactly where you are, I too was going to go on a cut cycle, but decided to lose the bf first then go for a mild cycle and bulk..

Now thats great to hear man. Best of luck to you. You can do it

 

[the small soldier]

Heres what id do if i were you. Keep in mind that i went from 230@ 25%bf to 170@ 4.5%bf naturally in about 7 months. Since you wanna compete, 19% is way too high of bf to carry even when bulking. Id get it down to around 6-7, and then bulk.

And i definitely wouldnt use dbol to cut with bc of the water retention and lethargy. Id just diet hard until i got to atleast 7-8% and then maintain that for awhile so ur body gets adjusted to being that lean. Id then pick a show that allowed me a few months to bulk and 16 weeks to cut. Then id run my bulk cycle, pct and after a few weeks off pct, id start my contest prep.

Sounds solid to my but, getting to 7% BF really scares me because the last time I was that low I was 190 and ended up 155 but i was flat and weak and I just didn't look good at all. I have a hard time keeping muscle when I go low carb, Ive tried dieting with a moderate carb approach and that's currently what I'm doing, but I've never gotten below 13% using a high/mod carb approach I need diet help

 

[the small soldier]

you can cut bf pretty easy at 19% natty..I am doing it right now lol. I tried to bulk natty for the last 8 weeks now that is a little harder hence bf up to 17-20 range.. I just cut carbs back added 20 more mins to cardio so 40 mins now and cleaned up the diet and fat is falling off.. you powerlifted so solid base= more muscle= you will burn fat quicker.. I am almost exactly where you are, I too was going to go on a cut cycle, but decided to lose the bf first then go for a mild cycle and bulk..

I'm glad we are in the same boat, I really don't mind dieting,but natty bulking is so hard I don;t want to lose much muscle. I KNOW I WILL LOSE SOME, but I want to keep in minimum, since we are about the same size and BF, what's your diet look like. Right now Im doing 50% carb 30% protien 20% fat and I'm adding cardio in two more times per week Also im gonna add a fat burner once i hit 15% or so.

 

[blue_steel74]

Sounds solid to my but, getting to 7% BF really scares me because the last time I was that low I was 190 and ended up 155 but i was flat and weak and I just didn't look good at all. I have a hard time keeping muscle when I go low carb, Ive tried dieting with a moderate carb approach and that's currently what I'm doing, but I've never gotten below 13% using a high/mod carb approach I need diet help

Well, i know it sucks losing muscle, but its gonna happen. If u know that goin super low carb hurts you, then keep em moderate and increase the intensity of ur workouts. Take shorter rests between sets, use drop sets, rest pause, or supersets to keep ur heart rate up during training. I have faith in u man and i dont even kw you. Just pay attention to ur body and listen. But i know for me personally, if i diet long enough, eventually i look a lil flat. But as for the strength side of it, you have to understand that if you drop a significant amount of weight, your strength is gonna go down some too

 

[the small soldier]

Well, i know it sucks losing muscle, but its gonna happen. If u know that goin super low carb hurts you, then keep em moderate and increase the intensity of ur workouts. Take shorter rests between sets, use drop sets, rest pause, or supersets to keep ur heart rate up during training. I have faith in u man and i dont even kw you. Just pay attention to ur body and listen. But i know for me personally, if i diet long enough, eventually i look a lil flat. But as for the strength side of it, you have to understand that if you drop a significant amount of weight, your strength is gonna go down some too

What I'm going to do is keep carbs up and just drop overall calories. i eat 10 huge meals im gonna just make it 8 medium size meals, no added fats, NO SUGAR at all (which I started about 3 weeks ago) and i'll just keep increasing the cardio. I already take minimal rest between sets, sometimes as little as 20 seconds for isolation movements. I think I'll just give myself four solid weeks of the this. i'll recheck my bodyfat in april if I can get from 19% to 15% by may 1st I'm going to run a 10 week bulk cycle