@Ypso You will feel a bit smaller when cutting because, well, you are, happens to all of us haha. And unfortunately you do have to sacrifice some muscle. The other thing is because you are probably carb depleted, you won't look as full as possible either. If you're keeping your protein high and still training hard, you'll be maintaining as much muscle as possible.

 

If your knee is still giving you issues, avoid doing too much with it until it feels solid / secure again. Maybe bodyweight step-ups and bodyweight leg extensions to test it out. Double check your squat form - you could be letting your knees cave in which could be causing pain? Or squatting on your toes which can also cause issues.

 

Make sure you lift safe man! Don't want to hear that you get a really bad injury. Lift heavy, but lift smart. Use a belt if you need to, and ALWAYS do really thorough warm-ups before squats and deadlifts (and any workout for that matter).

 

I'd love to make more nutrition videos! Maybe I will when I am actually in my new house and have a good kitchen to use lol. I like carb cycling for cutting and bulking! High carbs on intense training days (e.g. legs), moderate carbs other days, and low carbs on your days off.

 

When cutting, pretty much always go low carb (everyday), and maybe even lower on your off days if you're struggling to lose weight. That would be my suggestion.

Hey @Scott_Herman, Thanks for this long, and as always, helpfull reply.

 

So I am not alone at feeling thinner during cutting lol. Fortunately there is muscle memory!

 

My knee is feeling better. I guess I will give it like 2 weeks more in order to reduce pain and recover. But now there is another problem. Like I mentioned in my last post, my lower back got injured.

I did deadlifts like 2 weeks ago. I am really convinced that my form is proper. Trainers told me that it is fine. I have never really had problems with my lower back that much. Only like 2-3 day pain and then it has been gone again. Besides that, on this specific day I was hella cocky (dumb me) because there were a bunch of ppl who I wanted to impress by my heavy deadlifts. I usually do the 4 rep and 3 rep set from PushPullLegs with 115kg and 120kg. This day I went way heavier on all sets. So my last 2 sets were likee 125kg. I tried to use the weight belt which I usually don't do cause it is offered by the gym and everyone is sweating into it and I don't like the the way it fits lol. I felt so uncomfortable during the heavy set with the belt. I definitely knew that this set has been reallllllly bad. I decided to take off the belt do my last set.

With the next day my lower back was like: What the heck did you do to me?! Since I had this pain (rarely) in the past for like 2-3 days as I've already mentioned I wasn't aware of how disgusting it'll get. 1 week later after trying to spare my lower back I decided to deadlift (also the romanian/stiff) again with like 100kg. *facepalm*

No I am afraid to do lower body movements and I dunno when to start doing them again.

I saw a video today which contained some stretching/relaxing movements on the ground for the lower back. Guess Imma do these 2-3 times a day now.

Do you have any other advice? (I really have to do warm-ups!!!!!!)

 

Since these injuries hinder me to do Cheat and Recover properly, would you suggest to delay it at the end of this year? Can I do a maintenance during December? (I don't want to continue cutting coz all these Christmas specialities in Germany are damn tasty and giving me that kind of the Christmas feeling haha) That does not mean that I will eat "dirty" This just means eat something tasty on weekends hehe. How should I manipulate my macros for a maintenance? Maybe like 250g of carbs? 250g Proteine? rest fat?

 

Another question: Are you at the Fibo in Cologne this year? I really would like to meet you in Person and give my rolemodel a high five!

 

 

I wish you a good start into the new week Scott!

 

Best regards,

Hannes :)

@Ypso That really sucks about your lower back injury Hannes, they are the worst. There must have been something going a little wrong with your form when you did that heavy pull unfortunately. Maybe the belt wasn't in the right place for support if you're not used to using it as well.

 

Have you seen my video for fixing lower back pain? If that's what you're talking about doing multiple times a day, then great! If not, do what you're already doing, but add the exercises from my video in as well. And probably stay away from deadlifts until it's totally healed and maybe focus on front squats for a bit to take pressure off your lower back while squatting.

 

It might be a good idea to wait until your back is fully healed before doing Cheat & Recover, yes. You don't want to overload more than you can handle and make the injury worse. As long as you're still training, you can keep your macros pretty much the same though.

 

Not sure if I will be at FIBO or not yet man. I will let you know though!

 

Have a great week man!

Hello @Scott_Herman,

 

How's it going? It's been a while since our last conversation :)

 

My back got a lot better. I visited the doc and he told me that it's been like a muscle stiffness but I am getting back on track more and more. 75 Kilos during deadlifts are already possible again. Additionally I use Horse Balm which helps a lot healing my back.

Furthermore I started bulking again. I lost some weight during christmas (crazyyyy right?) because I only ate the Christmas food and no other stuff. I ate really unclean food, became ill and didn't hit the gym for 10 days. Despite that, I am already into my new meal plan for lean gains since the very beginning of the year. Aiming for a weight increase from 78 kilo (almost 2 weeks ago now I am already back to 79) to 84/85 kilo until the start of April. I kindly ask you if you can confirm my macros.

 

carbs: 355g

protein: 255g

fats: 134g

 

this equals about 3650ish calories per day.

 

I am feeling a lil bit uncertain 'bout that, because during my last bulking I had like 3800 calories... (btw the last month of my last bulk I had more cheat days than usual, so I ended up going from 78 to 85 Kilo with the consequence of losing my 6pack (ofc during right light conditions).. don't wanna get that chubby again)

Imma start cheat and recover in around 4 weeks, would u increase calories then?

 

btw a quick overview of my attributes:

 

male

20 yrs old

79 kilo (174 lbs)

height: 5'9" (about 176/177cm)

body fat: guess it is around 15-16% since I am able to see my 6pack with appropriate light conditions :D

training: push,pull,legs -> 5-6 days a week

goal: lean bulk -> 84/85 kilo

 

Just watched your 2019 checklist vid man, really great video. Gotta show this to my girlfriend. And thanks for ur new full body routine, I will also show it to my girl because it seems like it will fit perfectly for her.

 

I wish you have a really nice day and that you can finish your new home gym soon, I bet it's gonna be amaziiiiiiing!

 

See you :)

 

PS: Best luck for pulling Blue Gogeta/Broly when they come to glb! I was lucky enough to get one copy of Gogeta on my jp acc 💪 

@Ypso Hey man!

 

Glad your back is feeling better and you're able to start deadlifting again, that's great! That's too bad you got sick though, maybe it was your body rejecting all of that junk food! Haha.

 

Those macros look really good for a bulk! Carbs are high but not too high and you have plenty of fats and protein too. I would definitely run with that for now and see how it goes! If you notice that you don't gain weight (because it's not as many calories as your last bulk) you can always bump it up another 200 - 400 calories. You can probably increase all of your macros evenly to get those extra calories too.

 

You might need to increase your calories when you start Cheat & Recover because you'll be burning through a lot of energy. But see what happens over the first week or two of the program, you might not need a big increase.

 

Thanks man, it will be really useful for your girlfriend, for sure! Can't wait to get my home gym finished AND I can't wait for Gogeta Blue and Broly to arrive on Global! Not to mention the Broly movie coming out this week! So excited! Sending you lots of #SpiritBombLuck!

 

Keep up the good work Hannes!

Hey @Scott_Herman,

 

I've finally started Cheat and Recover yesterday! Seriously... I am feeling totally destroyed. This routine ain't a joke.

However I have one question regarding Shoulder Press on the push day. Since I am not that comfortable with the barbell military press, can I switch to the dumbbell shoulder press with a spotter for the cheat reps?

 

For the length of CaR: I was planning to do CaR for 6-8 weeks (around mid april) Then I would like to stat cutting again in order to get that lean summer look hehe. Does this schedule sound appropriating for u? Should I go back to PPL for my cutting phase?

 

Another thing: Since I've started following your warm up tips for my knees they don't hurt at all after squats - I am amazed how important warming up is! I will never be again such a fool and start without warming up properly. Despite my not hurting knees, I usually get pain in my left leg in the adductors/abductors section. It's like a stretching deep pain.. how can I warm up this area? any tips for reducing pain in this area??

 

My gf started with the full body workout and is amazed! It's a really good workout!

 

I wish you a nice week Scott!

C U :)

 

Best regards,

Hannes :)

 

 

 

@Ypso You can move the the dumbbell shoulder press for the cheats, just remember you won't be able to go as heavy. And you can make it a push press too - give yourself a bit of momentum to get the weight up, but still have a spotter just in case as well.

 

That sounds appropriate for sure. You could technically do C&R while cutting but it would take a massive toll on your body trying to overload so much, so often, while being in a deficit.

 

Glad the knee pain has gone away! For your abductors / adductors, try lying on the ground on your side. Keep your legs together and do some abductions like that to warm up the area (if your gym doesn't have an adductor / abductor machine). You can use a resistance band by wrapping it around your legs too if you like!

Hey @Scott_Herman!

 

I'm getting to the end of my bulk at the end of April which means that I will go back to PPL for my shred.

 

I have to tell you that your Cheat and Recover program has been a blessing for me. I gained so much muscle. If I hadn't known myself before, I would have thought that I was on juice haha. I'll definitely will go for C and R on my next bulk.

 

Btw. There's a bug wit your app. In the app it says that I am a gold member. However, I am a platinum member. Any idea how to fix that? I want to use this super cool app!

 

Best regards,

Hannes :)

@Ypso Hey Hannes. So you're unable to access the programs through the app? Do you get a message saying it's only for PLATINUM members only?

 

As for supplements, protein and creatine are the best. But pre-workouts can be useful for sure, especially if you feel like you lack energy before some workouts. But they're not super important. It depends on your budget - if you can afford it and want to see if it makes a difference for yourself, then buy some and try it for a month or 2 and see how you feel.

 

If your budget is tighter, sticking with protein and creatine is good - maybe use coffee as a pre-workout!

Hey my man @Scott_Herman,

 

how's it going?

Haven't been active in the community for a while :/

 

 

Did my shredding/maintaing the last months and it was a huge successs. But next time, I want even moreeeeeeeeeeee! So lean bulk +150% disciplanation instead of 140% hehe.

 

Since I am going to have a photoshooting in the gym in 2 weeks, I wanted to ask you something bout prep for it.

 

I watched some videos for that. Here is my preliminary plan:

 

photoshooting is on the 29th of September 6pm (Sunday).

 

- Day 1 and 2 (Sunday and Monday the week before): 75g carbs + 2 gallons of water. Upper + Lower body workout with a high rep focus.

first questions: How should I fill up my other macros and calories. Should I eat my maintenance calories? Should I continue taking creatine for the prep?

 

- Day 3 and 4 (Tue and Wed): 50g carbs + 3 gallons of water. One day break from training + Upper body workout with a high rep focus.

again, the question regarding calorie-intake.

 

 

- Day 5 and 6 (Thu and Fri): only vegetables for carbs (around 30g carbs) and only drinking water when necessary (like 3 cups of water). Lower body workout with a high rep focus + Rest .

 

- Day 7 (Dat --> Day before Shooting): around 700g carbs + only drinking water when necessary (like 3 cups of water). Full body workout with high reps.

question: Do the carbs need to come from c/lean food? Cuz I guess that is kind of hard to eat since it'll make ya belly full.

question: Which meals can you suggest to achieve such an amount of carbs? And how much calories should I eat this day and how will my fats and protein look like?

 

- Day 8 (Sun --> Shooting Day): Fruits and Rice crackers in the morning. Mid day a snickers bar? Around 4pm/5pm small meal with protein, fats and carbs (but a meal which don't get me bloated. Any suggestions?) Question: How should I eat on this day to be ready at around 6pm to hit the window in which my body seems super dry?

 

 

That's it my man. Looking forward to hearing from you. Keep up your great content. I luuuuuuuuuuuv it.

 

BTW: I DID NOT GET GOHAN BUT NOW I HAVE A RAINBOW C17 and I HADN'T HAD ONE IN MY BOX BEFORE SUMMONING :(

 

Greetings from Germany :)

@Ypso Welcome back man!

 

Glad the shredding / maintaining went well! A lean bulk with a 150% increase? Is that what you mean? Lol.

 

Oh that's awesome you've got a photoshoot coming up man! Well you can keep taking the creatine, definitely, but maybe for that week you can take it out just to get rid of a little bit of that water retention. And yes I would suggest eating at maintenance right throughout to maintain as much mass as possible, assuming you're already happy with how lean you are.

 

Damn 700g of carbs is a lot!! I would mostly try to get it from good food, yeah. Having a bit of sugary stuff on the day of the shoot is OK but still, don't overdo it or you'll spill over. Lots of rice and sweet potato and oats and rice cakes etc. Just make sure you still get enough protein (1.2g - 1.5g per pound of lean bodyweight) and then fill in the gaps with fat. If you don't have room for fat, I would reduce carbs slightly.

 

On shooting day, just make the meal small so you're not over filling yourself. Having one hour to digest it should be plenty, plus I'm guessing you'll pump up before / during the shoot so that will be what the food helps with the most, getting the pump. Just don't drink too much water around the shoot.

 

And congrats on the rainbow man!

Hey buddy!

 

I mean I will discipline myself by 150% hehe! Looking forward to your new program! When will it be released?

 

Alright Scott! Thanks for the advice and approval! Prep week is gonna staaaaaaaaht Sunday. I will definitely let you know how the pictures will have turned out eventually! :)

 

Have you seen the V-Jump scans for JP? Another Future Gohan :o not that hyped bout that (unless he has only one arm). What s ur opinion on that?

 

Btw, I really love your "roasting" videos! Can I suggest YouTubers that claim to be f-ing natty while they're livin in a juice factory?

 

Have a nice day bro! 💪