[Matthias]

High incline dumbell press is the absolute goat, I only stopped as I was doing the 85kg db and it was just annoying as fuck at that point . I would probably still do them if I trained at strength asylum though , they had the best db ever

Alright Sir ! Doing them

[Matthias]

For future reference, in my opinion I don’t think there’s usually a need to drop calories weekly. You want to do a “big” enough drop initially to get the ball rolling, and carry that out a few weeks until you see the progress stall and the need for further reduction is there, and continue that process.

I lost around 7,5 kg in 8 weeks and reduced the calories by 200 every 2 weeks.

Only the last 2 weeks were combined with weekly reduction down to 1500 cal.

Now I reduced the morning cardio down to 10 mins from Monday – Friday and feel good so far.
Workouts stay the same, 3/week full body (upper body focused).

I’m now in push week #2 and eat 1700 cal daily.
I chose the approach high carb on training days and low carb on rest days and will see how it works for me.

[Matthias]

You should keep your current routine until it stalls.
Focus on each set and progress.
Than you reach weights by time, that challenge you enough !

[Matthias]

30 pounds over 24 weeks would be great yes

Great, I’ll shoot for that !
Thank you very much

[Matthias]

I agree with J – i would push up very slowly from her – Defo not 1kg per week – I would be looking for around 2kg per month –

Okay, I just followed JPs recommendations: 20-24 weeks for 30/40/50 lbs weight gain

[Matthias]

I don’t think you should be dropping calories every single week an the fact your at 1500kcal would tell me you’ve gotten there too quickly and unnecessarily. I’d hold and allow the set up to pull some more off before pushing back up now.

I followed the frame of 8-10 weeks for cut diet, to strip off.
I reduced the calories approx. every 2 weeks around 200 cals.
What would you do differently and how to lose fat more without reducing further cals ?

[Matthias]

Go up slow!! The slower the better 🙂

Alright Sir – it sounds like, you say my push approach seem to be too ambitious/too fast for quality gains ?

So more like 20 kg over 24-26 weeks ?

[Matthias]

I agree a nice slow push up is best the slower the better. You won’t need to increase food weekly just where it’s needed once to stall or recovery slows etc

So you mean more observative and less strict and static ? Fine, I’ll try to implement it.

[Matthias]

Daily steps could be better, atm not that much time to get enough… 🙈
Maybe my last weapon to get the very last rest of fat off

What do you all think???

Thank you in advance…

[Matthias]

How did you proceed ?
How many Cals at which rate of progress did you make ?

[Matthias]

I increased my rest periods and decreased the weight more than before on the 2nd set.
Result:
The performance went up and I felt fresher in the session.

So, no need to change the split – great news !

Thank you all for the feedback and support !!!

[Matthias]

I would try a 20% weight reduction and aim for 10-15 rep range

Take minimum 2-3 minutes between top set and back off

What are your feeder sets looking like? Are you accumulating too much fatigue here for your work sets?

Maybe start leaving 1 RIR on both sets until you have built up your capacity of work so you can tolerate more volume. Then go to failure on your back off set. From a safety perspective

Then when you have nailed this love to failure on both sets. Until you need to deload/devolume or take some time out the gym.

You will always find your total volume and performance in a deficit will deteriorate slightly especially as a natural. But I think if you implement the above and what the other guys have mentioned you will be back in the right track

Great and comprehensive feedback !
Thank you

[Matthias]

I work from 9-6 h, mostly desktop work.
I’m natty, my sleep is plenty and solid.
Atm I’m in caloric deficit. (The weight issue also occurs in surplus).

My main confusion comes from JPs advice I read to reduce weight by 10% from set #1 to #2.

I’ll try the bigger weight reduction first and keep on. If it doesn’t work, I’ll switch to upper/lower.

Thank you all very very much for support and tips.

[Matthias]

So your simply carrying too much accumulated fatigue , change to upper lower

Thank you for the feedback !
I had the same issue when I tried your training approach 2 years before, even with upper/lower split 🙈

Maybe keep going and try to adapt or reduce the weight on back off set more ??

[Matthias]

How much rest are you taking between sets?

Mostly 90-120 sec.
Never had any issues before with different Trainings styles etc.