[Brad]

It’s whatever is holding your weight now , maintenance is a state of maintaining , why are you currently eating to maintain. That’s your current maintenance calories . It’s not a fixed number , it’s a number that adjusts.

For example to explain more ; currently I take in 5200 cals to maintain me at 275 . If I lowered to 4800 cals I would then be in deficit for maybe 2 weeks – my weight would lower to 270 ish. Once my weight no longer drops , my new maintenance calories are 4800 to maintain me at 270. All make sense ?

Yeah that makes sense thanks Jordan. Judging by the pictures i’ve posted as you can see the last few days my weight has actually been dropping on 3,500 calories. I’m 5 foot 8 and 80kg so would you say my maintenance is higher than 3,500 then? Seems a lot of food for maintenance.

I’ve never gone above 3,500 even during my blast i started out at 3,000 and gradually went up to 3,500 over the 16 weeks. Unfortunately i didn’t have scales at the time to track the weight every day, however i went from around 69kg to 81kg.

[Brad]

In a maintaince bud my goal would to literally maintain, pushing food whilst in a cruise you’ll likely get fatter

Use this time as an opportunity to hold new tissue built and set your self up for next push through not letting Strenght dip

Or condition slip

No worries thanks. I was still trying to carry on with bulking even though i’m cruising on lower test have i misunderstood here then? Can i not do that? My strength is still increasing not seen a stall in that, which is good.[/quote]

If your Strenght is increasing don’t go off bodyweight bud[/quote]

Sorry Kuba don’t understand what you mean by this? [/quote]

If your gaining Strenght don’t worry about bodyweight not going up as such especially whilst your off

Focus on getting stronger then improving visuals bodyweight should be 3rd in that order if your gaining Strenght and look is improving stick at it don’t change yet [/quote]

Understood, thanks. Would you still advise trying to find my maintenance and sticking to that during the cruise dose? As surely my maintenance can’t be 3,500 like i’m on now. Only weigh 80kg and i’m 5 foot 8.[/quote]

Totally, maintance or build up very slowly I would

Go off performance here [/quote]
Appreciate the help Kuba!

[Brad]

In a maintaince bud my goal would to literally maintain, pushing food whilst in a cruise you’ll likely get fatter

Use this time as an opportunity to hold new tissue built and set your self up for next push through not letting Strenght dip

Or condition slip

No worries thanks. I was still trying to carry on with bulking even though i’m cruising on lower test have i misunderstood here then? Can i not do that? My strength is still increasing not seen a stall in that, which is good.[/quote]

If your Strenght is increasing don’t go off bodyweight bud[/quote]

Sorry Kuba don’t understand what you mean by this? [/quote]

If your gaining Strenght don’t worry about bodyweight not going up as such especially whilst your off

Focus on getting stronger then improving visuals bodyweight should be 3rd in that order if your gaining Strenght and look is improving stick at it don’t change yet [/quote]
Understood, thanks. Would you still advise trying to find my maintenance and sticking to that during the cruise dose? As surely my maintenance can’t be 3,500 like i’m on now. Only weigh 80kg and i’m 5 foot 8.

[Brad]

In a maintaince bud my goal would to literally maintain, pushing food whilst in a cruise you’ll likely get fatter

Use this time as an opportunity to hold new tissue built and set your self up for next push through not letting Strenght dip

Or condition slip

No worries thanks. I was still trying to carry on with bulking even though i’m cruising on lower test have i misunderstood here then? Can i not do that? My strength is still increasing not seen a stall in that, which is good.[/quote]

If your Strenght is increasing don’t go off bodyweight bud[/quote]
Sorry Kuba don’t understand what you mean by this?

[Brad]

In a maintaince bud my goal would to literally maintain, pushing food whilst in a cruise you’ll likely get fatter

Use this time as an opportunity to hold new tissue built and set your self up for next push through not letting Strenght dip

Or condition slip

No worries thanks. I was still trying to carry on with bulking even though i’m cruising on lower test have i misunderstood here then? Can i not do that? My strength is still increasing not seen a stall in that, which is good.[/quote]

You can still gain on a cruise certainly. However the ratio of fat gain will be potentially much higher than it would be when on cycle.

Most use cycle phases to push

Cruise phases to maintain / tidy up

If your not gaining – you simply need more food.

3000-3300 is not much of a change at all.

However body comp depending here / digestion etc etc [/quote]Thanks Hilly. I’ve searched around the forums after making this post (probably should of done before) and seen replies you’ve made aswell as others suggesting to drop to maintenance on cruise so i’m going to do that. Will find out my new maintenance and see how i go from there, then on my next blast push the calories back up. Makes sense now, didn’t realise this was a thing, new to this.

My only concern is that on 3,500 calories now my weight is only just sticking where it is so surely if i lower it i’ll drop weight. Can’t see my maintenance being 3,500 calories haha.

[Brad]

In a maintaince bud my goal would to literally maintain, pushing food whilst in a cruise you’ll likely get fatter

Use this time as an opportunity to hold new tissue built and set your self up for next push through not letting Strenght dip

Or condition slip

No worries thanks. I was still trying to carry on with bulking even though i’m cruising on lower test have i misunderstood here then? Can i not do that? My strength is still increasing not seen a stall in that, which is good.

[Brad]

Keeping cardio in during a gaining phase can certainly help with fitness levels, however I would be mindful of what methodology you use and where you place it. HIIT cardio can sometime impact recovery and disrupt performance in training sessions. If it works for you, great, but I’d consider a more low to moderate form of cardio to compliment recovery as well as keep fitness levels in check.

On a side note, if you’re doing true HIIT, then you’ll struggle holding 1 minute sprints. I think 20 seconds is more realistic if you’re going all out, maximum 30 secs.

Thanks what low/moderate intensity cardio would you recommend to keep fitness up if i wasn’t to recover properly from HIIT?[/quote]

It doesn’t really matter. Just choose which ever method you prefer, enjoy and recover the best from. I like using a spin bike. Just aim to keep your heart rate up consistently throughout.

I’m not saying don’t use HIIT. It’s very person dependant, so play around with methodologies and timings and see what suits you the best.

[/quote]

Gotcha thanks what kind of heart rate do you aim to stay at during your cardio?[/quote]

Between 120 and 140.

[/quote]

Thought so, i think my plan is to try and get a cardio session in everyday for 30 mins keeping the heart rate between 130-140. Doing this in the morning and training in the evenings, or reversed if i train in the morning on some days. Would this be fine to recover from with it only being moderate intensity?[/quote]

Sounds like a plan.. try it and see!

[/quote]
??

[Brad]

Keeping cardio in during a gaining phase can certainly help with fitness levels, however I would be mindful of what methodology you use and where you place it. HIIT cardio can sometime impact recovery and disrupt performance in training sessions. If it works for you, great, but I’d consider a more low to moderate form of cardio to compliment recovery as well as keep fitness levels in check.

On a side note, if you’re doing true HIIT, then you’ll struggle holding 1 minute sprints. I think 20 seconds is more realistic if you’re going all out, maximum 30 secs.

Thanks what low/moderate intensity cardio would you recommend to keep fitness up if i wasn’t to recover properly from HIIT?[/quote]

It doesn’t really matter. Just choose which ever method you prefer, enjoy and recover the best from. I like using a spin bike. Just aim to keep your heart rate up consistently throughout.

I’m not saying don’t use HIIT. It’s very person dependant, so play around with methodologies and timings and see what suits you the best.

[/quote]

Gotcha thanks what kind of heart rate do you aim to stay at during your cardio?[/quote]

Between 120 and 140.

[/quote]
Thought so, i think my plan is to try and get a cardio session in everyday for 30 mins keeping the heart rate between 130-140. Doing this in the morning and training in the evenings, or reversed if i train in the morning on some days. Would this be fine to recover from with it only being moderate intensity?

[Brad]

Keeping cardio in during a gaining phase can certainly help with fitness levels, however I would be mindful of what methodology you use and where you place it. HIIT cardio can sometime impact recovery and disrupt performance in training sessions. If it works for you, great, but I’d consider a more low to moderate form of cardio to compliment recovery as well as keep fitness levels in check.

On a side note, if you’re doing true HIIT, then you’ll struggle holding 1 minute sprints. I think 20 seconds is more realistic if you’re going all out, maximum 30 secs.

Thanks what low/moderate intensity cardio would you recommend to keep fitness up if i wasn’t to recover properly from HIIT?[/quote]

It doesn’t really matter. Just choose which ever method you prefer, enjoy and recover the best from. I like using a spin bike. Just aim to keep your heart rate up consistently throughout.

I’m not saying don’t use HIIT. It’s very person dependant, so play around with methodologies and timings and see what suits you the best.

[/quote]
Gotcha thanks what kind of heart rate do you aim to stay at during your cardio?

[Brad]

Keeping cardio in during a gaining phase can certainly help with fitness levels, however I would be mindful of what methodology you use and where you place it. HIIT cardio can sometime impact recovery and disrupt performance in training sessions. If it works for you, great, but I’d consider a more low to moderate form of cardio to compliment recovery as well as keep fitness levels in check.

On a side note, if you’re doing true HIIT, then you’ll struggle holding 1 minute sprints. I think 20 seconds is more realistic if you’re going all out, maximum 30 secs.

Thanks what low/moderate intensity cardio would you recommend to keep fitness up if i wasn’t to recover properly from HIIT?

[Brad]

Thanks all for the feedback will make sure the sprints stick within the 20/30 second time frame then. Regarding when to do it i’m thinking if i do my Push or Pull session in the morning i can do a HIIT session in the evening? That way i can still utilise the full Rest days between either side of Legs.

[Brad]

Little quiet in here as we had an early surprise.

Baby Arilena Hill born Sunday morning 9:39AM.

7 Lb 3 ounces and perfect in every way

Congrats Hilly! ??

[Brad]

Seems a good workout. I would increase the rep range on the isolation movements, specially on push session and/or, depending on your training experience, add an advanced techique (cluster, rest pause or drop set). You did all the heavy work, so that´s where they have their place. Also on the leg workout, you can do the compound movements on the lower rep range (5-9).

Thanks for the reply much appreciated. So i was thinking of doing drop sets on the isolation movements depending on what recovery is like, if i was to opt to changing the rep ranges what ranges would you advise?

Another thing i was wondering was i’ve seen most have different workouts for each Pull/Push/Leg session just wondering why i’d need to switch things completely up? I understand maybe doing my Chest compound movement first on Push 1 then Shoulder compound on Push 2 then starting with Width work on Pull 1 and Thickness on Pull 2… but do all exercises need to be changed?[/quote]

So, in regards of the rep ranges you can choose a higher rep range (15-20) or a mid term (8-12 or 12-15), because, despite you want to increase the rep range you still want to give the muscle a propper load .
As to the number of workouts. I personally have 2 rotations. The movements are different, yes, but have the same pattern (for example, in legs 1 i have pendulum and legs 2, have hack squat). Yes, u can use that to bias more some body parts (hams in one session and quads in the other). Also, you can build your strenght in different exercises.
The most important thing you can get from this is: Use those tools (rep ranges and different workouts) to get stronger in every movement and every rep range ?

[/quote]
Sorry one more question i forgot to ask. Regarding deadlifts would you advise having them in one pull session or both? And if just in the one what would you replace with in the other? Cheers.

[Brad]

Seems a good workout. I would increase the rep range on the isolation movements, specially on push session and/or, depending on your training experience, add an advanced techique (cluster, rest pause or drop set). You did all the heavy work, so that´s where they have their place. Also on the leg workout, you can do the compound movements on the lower rep range (5-9).

Thanks for the reply much appreciated. So i was thinking of doing drop sets on the isolation movements depending on what recovery is like, if i was to opt to changing the rep ranges what ranges would you advise?

Another thing i was wondering was i’ve seen most have different workouts for each Pull/Push/Leg session just wondering why i’d need to switch things completely up? I understand maybe doing my Chest compound movement first on Push 1 then Shoulder compound on Push 2 then starting with Width work on Pull 1 and Thickness on Pull 2… but do all exercises need to be changed?[/quote]

So, in regards of the rep ranges you can choose a higher rep range (15-20) or a mid term (8-12 or 12-15), because, despite you want to increase the rep range you still want to give the muscle a propper load .
As to the number of workouts. I personally have 2 rotations. The movements are different, yes, but have the same pattern (for example, in legs 1 i have pendulum and legs 2, have hack squat). Yes, u can use that to bias more some body parts (hams in one session and quads in the other). Also, you can build your strenght in different exercises.
The most important thing you can get from this is: Use those tools (rep ranges and different workouts) to get stronger in every movement and every rep range ?

[/quote]
Thanks. ??

[Brad]

Seems a good workout. I would increase the rep range on the isolation movements, specially on push session and/or, depending on your training experience, add an advanced techique (cluster, rest pause or drop set). You did all the heavy work, so that´s where they have their place. Also on the leg workout, you can do the compound movements on the lower rep range (5-9).

Thanks for the reply much appreciated. So i was thinking of doing drop sets on the isolation movements depending on what recovery is like, if i was to opt to changing the rep ranges what ranges would you advise?

Another thing i was wondering was i’ve seen most have different workouts for each Pull/Push/Leg session just wondering why i’d need to switch things completely up? I understand maybe doing my Chest compound movement first on Push 1 then Shoulder compound on Push 2 then starting with Width work on Pull 1 and Thickness on Pull 2… but do all exercises need to be changed?