Want something that might work well for you from here?
I train four days a week so I'll set it up for Monday Tuesday, Thursday Friday.
The diet I generally follow is EITHER flat-out Atkins (high fat, moderate protein, low carb) OR carb cycling, as set up in my blog:
Got Built? » How to set up a diet – basic carb cycling
Like you, I tend to start with low carb and move toward carb cycling as the cut progresses.
Here's a sample workout
Monday: horizontal push pull (5x5T-bars, 3x8 one arm rows, 2-3x12cable rows; 5x5 barbell bench, 3x8 dumbbell bench, 2-3x12 flyes)
Tuesday: quad dominant, ham accessory (5x5 below-parallel barbell squats, 3x8 front squats, 2-3x12 walking lunges; 3x8 Romanian deads, 2-3x12 SHELC)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: vertical push pull (5x5 weighted chins or negative chins, 3x8 unweighted chins or lat pulldowns, 2-3x12 single arm lat pulldowns; my shoulder module from my blog for vert push
Got Built? » The Shoulders of Giants)
Friday: ham dominant, quad accessory (5x5 deadlifts or Romanian deads, 3x8 good mornings, 2-3x12 SHELC; 3x8 back or front squats, 2-3x12 stepups)
Saturday: no lifting
Sunday: no lifting
The movement planes always starts with a 5-rep heavy compound and works its way down the rep ranges, although you can vary the workout order according to equipment availability.
For instance, Monday's workout, horozontal pushing and pulling.
5x5 T-bar rows
3x8 one-arm dumbbell rows
2-3x12 seated cable rows.
5x5 flat or low incline barbell press
3x8 flat or low incline dumbbell press
2-3x8 flyes, cable flyes or pec deck
You could do the T-bars, then the one-arm rows, then the barbell bench, then the seated cable rows, then the dumbbell press and then the pec dec, for instance. But you wouldn't start with the cable flyes or the dumbbell rows. Make sense?
If you're bulking, you'd do the entire workout, and make sure you consistently eat more food than you require, in order to ensure that you gain weight.
Since you're cutting, you'd do only the 5 and 8 rep work, and as the cut progresses, you'd drop to 4x5, and then 3x5 for the heavy compounds, and perhaps only do 2x8 for the 8-rep work. The reason is because on a cut, you don't have that much energy and it's important to save what little you have for the heavy stuff, to stimulate muscle-retention. You're not going to build any muscle while dropping weight, the best you can hope for is to not LOSE any muscle. Hitting the muscles hard in short workouts, and hitting them frequently (you pretty much hit everything at least twice a week) helps stimulate them to stick around without overtraining them to death.
If you're going to do cardio, you can follow the setup offered in "how to do cardio if you must", copied below:
Got Built? » How to do Cardio if you MUST!
Day 1 – Horizontal Push Pull – high (or medium) carb day
Week 1. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM or 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 2. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting
Week 3. 25 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 4. 30 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting.
Max 60 minutes SS cardio for the day as your cut progresses
Day 2 – Quad Dominant – high carb day
Week 1. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM or 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 2. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 3. HIIT in the AM OR right after lifting; 5 – 20:40 work:recovery intervals;
– start and finish with SS for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 4. HIIT in the AM OR right after lifting; 6 – 20:40 work:recovery intervals;
– start and finish with SS for a total of 20 minutes.
Add one extra sprint per week – Max of twelve 20:40 sprints as your cut progresses
Day 3 – Rest – low carb day
Day 4 – Vertical Push Pull – high (or medium) carb day
Week 1. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM or 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 2. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting
Week 3. 25 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 4. 30 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting.
60 minutes max for the day as your cut progresses
Day 5 – Ham Dominant – high-carb day
Week 1. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM or 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 2. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 3. 20 minutes of SS cardio in the AM and 20 minutes right after lifting.
Week 4. HIIT in the AM OR right after lifting; 4 – 30:60 work:recovery intervals;
– start and finish with SS for a total of 20 minutes.
Add one extra sprint per week – Max of eight 20:40 sprints as your cut progresses
Day 6 – No lifting – low carb day
Week 1. Half hour moderate intensity SS cardio
Week 2. 20 minutes of hill-repeats
Week 3. 25 minutes of hill-repeats
Week 4. 30 minutes of hill-repeats
Max for hill repeats is 40 minutes. You’ll know why when you do ‘em. <smirk>
Day 7 – Rest – low carb day
**Always give yourself at least one full day without training**
Keep up the good work.
