When you’re attempting to burn fat and lose some weight, you will need an adequate cutting workout and cycle plan. You need an adequate routine that will support your goals of getting lean and maintaining your muscles as you lose weight.
As you’re aiming for weight loss, it is crucial to preserve as much muscle as possible during your cutting cycle. And you do that with the proper cutting workout. Plain weight loss may be a good idea only for obese and clinically overweight people. But for the rest, males or females, maintaining lean muscle mass is extremely important to look good. So, in order to maximize fat loss and maintain lean muscle, you need to go for the proper cutting workout for weight loss.
We’re going to analyze here what a bodybuilding cutting workout program looks like. You will find the best cutting workout to get cut in no time. This program helps you get leaner, and stronger, and achieve the best version of yourself.
What makes the best cutting workout program?
It goes without saying that a cutting cycle involves a calorie deficit diet. However, correct training is extremely important as well. When we’re talking about cutting workouts, there are two important aspects:
- Cardio
- Weight Lifting
Cardio
It is quite obvious that in any cutting workout routine when you aim to lose weight and burn fat, you will need cardio. Nonetheless, the type of cardio that you’re doing in your cutting workout routine really matters. We’ll talk about them here.
It is important to pay attention to the cardio you include in the cutting workout plan because doing it wrong may encourage muscle loss. You definitely wouldn’t want it to happen. The type and the amount of cardio you do is crucial. When you find a perfect balance, you’ll get the most amount of lean muscle while making sure you melt that body fat.
Weight Lifting
During cutting programs for weight loss, most people aim to burn as much fat as possible, but this may lead to burning lean muscle tissues. As a result, they still do not get lean, or at least not the way you would love to look. This is one part of the reason why weightlifting is such an important element in your cutting workout program. Many people do not even realize how extremely efficient weight lifting is at contributing to fat loss. Cardio technically burns more calories than lifting weights in the gym. But… that’s in the gym. Calorie burning effect lasts way longer when lifting, it continues in the recovery phase.
So, weightlifting has the benefits of boosting your metabolism even more than cardio, helps you burn a lot of calories, even when you’re not in the gym, and helps you maintain your lean muscle tissues and strength gains. Should you weight lift when you’re in your cutting workout for weight loss? Definitely! It is no wonder that the guy who is doing cardio-only in the gym has made no progress for more than a year. Don’t be that guy!
Cardio For Your Cutting Workout
So, we’ve earlier said that there’s the “right” type of cardio to burn fat and keep your gains. Well, there are two ways in which you can do your cardio for the best results in your cutting cycle.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) Cardio
If you’re aiming to lose weight, you’re likely to already know what HIIT means by now. At least, you definitely should. Lots of people do not usually include it as a part of their cutting workout routine, but it is a mistake as HIIT can maximize calorie burn in a short amount of time and provide lots of other benefits that other types of workouts can’t.
HIIT allows you to burn fat much faster than longer, slower, workout sessions as it includes short bursts of intense exercise. Moreover, HIIT can be extremely helpful for your endurance, strength, getting lean, for your cutting workout plan, football training, or whatever. Also, it comes with the benefit of squeezing it into your long gym sessions as you do not need much time to get it done.
- Instead of going on the mind numbing and time consuming treadmill for an hour, go for short bursts of getting sweaty and you’ll get it done in just minutes.
How to do it?
Before you start your HIIT, you need to make sure you’re warmed up. Go on the treadmill or skip the rope for a couple of minutes. You could go for the HIIT workout involving running, rowing, cycling, or an elliptical machine.
You start doing it for a minute at 60-75% of your max heart rate, then you give it your all (over 90%) for 20-30 seconds. Repeat this 10 times – a total of 15 minutes per set. Or you could include a HIIT workout involving light weights. Go for weights that are 50% or below your max, and attempt 40 seconds as many reps as you can (with proper form) and then 20 seconds rest. Go for the next exercise. Aim for total body exercises. Aim for 4-8 exercises per set (which makes 5-10 minutes per set). Can do 2, 3, or even 4 sets if you want to.
Moreover, avoid overdoing it because you risk losing muscles. Bodybuilders aim to add this HIIT cardio cutting workout for weight loss about 3 times a week. You could go for this type of cardio post-workout with one set, or aim for 2 to 4 sets of it on non workout days. Go for a protein shake or snack to avoid muscle loss. You can always switch up exercises during HIIT workouts. You could switch from running to rowing, to cycling, and so on. Also, you could switch to various types of exercises when aiming for HIIT workouts in the second way.
Long Duration, Low Intensity Cardio
Some people may not love HIIT workouts simply because they can be hard to do. Especially for beginners. Whereas HIIT workouts are helpful, if you don’t love them, at least go for the low intensity and longer duration cardio. The problem with this type of cardio is that the risk of losing muscle mass is significantly higher. When doing the HIIT workouts with exercises this risk doesn’t exist and the risk is very low with the other type of HIIT workouts.
However, with low intensity but long duration cardio, there’s a pretty high possibility of losing more muscle mass. This cardio is focused on endurance, but it can push your body to the point where it sacrifices muscles to continue doing the workout.
- On the other hand, there are great benefits when adding long duration cardio to your bodybuilding cutting workout for weight loss. As it is low intensity cardio, it uses fat as the main fuel. It helps you save carbs for more intense exercises and will fire up the fat burning process. Do not do it for longer than 60 minutes, however.
How to do it?
Similar to HIIT workouts, you aim for 3-4 times a week. You could go 3 times a week if you’re a beginner, 4 times a week if you’re pretty fit. It also depends on how your progress goes. For example, if you notice that you start losing weight too fast (meaning that you will likely sacrifice muscles), then you could reduce from 4 to only 2-3 times a week.
Also, HIIT workouts usually last 10-15 minutes per set. And you can only do one set, up to 4 sets, depending on various factors. However, 15 minutes with slow intensity will only start using fat as fuel. That’s why you need to aim for at least 30 minutes, but no more than 60 minutes, depending on various factors. As it is a low intensity workout, aim for 60 but no more than 75% of your max heart rate to continue using fat as a fuel source, but not carbs.
Most bodybuilders do it on non-workout days considering that it is a long lasting type of cardio. However, if you have the time, you can do it post your weight lifting workout. Do NOT do it before weight lifting to have enough energy in your tank to perform the weight lifting properly. This type of workout may be more comfortable, especially for beginners. Moreover, it focuses mostly on burning fat. However, it can be a bit boring and it is time consuming.
Let’s closer analyze the pros and cons
HIIT pros
- Time saving (short bursts of exercise)
- Higher calorie burning faster
- Can easily adapt to sports-specific training
HIIT Cons
- Can be hard for beginners and people out of shape
- Carbs are the main energy source
- Doesn’t focus as much on endurance
Low Intensity Pros
- Easier for beginners and people out of shape
- The main energy source is fat, not carbs
- Focuses a lot on endurance
Low Intensity Cons
- Can be pretty boring
- It is pretty time consuming
- Higher risks of muscle loss
Weight Lifting In Cutting Workout
As said, cardio is common for cutting cycles, but weight lifting in the cutting cycle is an absolute must. That’s because weight lifting won’t only help you preserve and possibly gain muscle and strength during your weight loss program, but it does help you burn fat too. There are numerous other benefits as well such as afterburning effect, better metabolism, getting leaner, and others. But you need to do it right. Here’s how.
Focus on large muscles
By focusing on large muscles you will burn more calories. That sounds very logical. It is not hard to understand why. Larger muscles will require more energy to perform the exercise. That’s why focusing on exercising and demanding larger muscles will burn more calories and fat. That’s why doing squats will burn more fat than doing bicep curls, for example.
Hit compound exercises
Compound exercises are those that target multiple muscles at once. Then again, it is very easy to understand why we recommend doing it – working on multiple muscles at once allows you to burn more fat. Not only that, but working multiple muscles will help work out with heavier weights, increasing your anabolic hormones and leading to greater muscle stress, which ultimately leads to bigger muscle gains too. So, when you do weighted squats, for example, you’re using quads, glutes, hamstrings, and core. This helps you burn more fat than when doing leg extensions where you only engage your quads.
Keep your heart rate up
Searching for ways to burn fat fast? Avoid long rests between sets. If you’re sitting down and zoning out for minutes your heart rate decreases. But you need to keep your heart rate up in order to burn more calories. This is why powerlifters tend to have more fat and more strength. They are resting a lot with only a few reps of super heavy weights. Those who want to get learner are usually lifting lighter weights than they can, but without long rests in between sets and significantly more reps which keeps their heart rate up.
Cutting Workout Info
It is very important to understand that the best workout to get cut varies from one person to another. Everyone is different so you need to find what works best for you. While I’m going to share a few general notes, it is important to adjust your schedule to your best. For example, add more weights and reduce reps, or vice versa, reduce some weights and add more reps.
Moreover, you could focus on circuit training in your cutting workout to lose weight. It is extremely helpful for weight loss, as it gets your heart rate up and mixes it with heavy lifting. But it is not easy. Try to focus on lots of compound movements and larger muscle types. Also, if you’re an advanced lifter, try to take no rests between sets. Opt for as little rest as possible in between sets and exercises when you can’t go without rest. 10-20 seconds should be enough! Also, try to go for one circuit without stopping. Ideally, aim for circuits, doing all exercises in a row for one circuit. At least circuits until you improve to three circuits. Aim for 6-8 exercises in a circuit (as said, with little to no rest in between).
Moreover…
Go for 8-12 reps, or up to 20 reps depending on the exercise type. Choose weights that will keep it tough, but not super daunting as you don’t need to get tired too fast. You aim to keep your heart rate up. So, you need to pick a challenging weight that allows you to keep a proper form and allows you to make it to the end of the circuit. But at the end of it, you should be feeling tired.
Aim to do it all 2-4 times a week. 2 times if you’re a beginner, 3 times for more advanced, and 4 times when you have enough experience. Do not undertrain as you definitely won’t see the desired results. On the other hand, do not overtrain as it will negatively impact your progress. Remember to switch up the exercises that you are performing. It will keep you from reaching a ceiling point on your progress.
Ready For The Best Cutting Workout For Weight Loss?
It is important to understand that a cutting cycle is not easy. If you’ve ever tried to burn fat and lose weight you already know it very well. That’s why a lot of people struggle to see progress when it comes to their cutting routine. However, we can help you maximize your efforts.
Now that you are armed with this best cutting workout plan, you can get lean in no time. However, keep in mind that your diet plays a crucial role too. We can help with that too. Moreover, we can offer an extra hand too. Cycle-Gear.to is here to help you. We offer 100% quality anabolic steroids that will support your bodybuilding cutting program. Moreover, you’re going to save money as we provide the best prices. With our products and information, you are surely on your way to revealing your lean muscle mass during the cutting cycle.
Learn how to correctly use anabolic steroids, how to correctly follow the cutting workout plan, and how to correctly have the cutting workout diet. At Cycle-Gear.to you will get help with all of that so you’re on your way to success.
