Muscle Builders: Tell Me Your Routine!

bumping this for the info. Thanks guys. Keem em coming

Bumping for reference. Thanks for the thread.

bumping for links

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Should I bulk or cut?
If you are asking this question, you are probably a new trainee with some fat but not a lot and likely not a lot of muscle either. As a brand new trainee you can gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously for 3-4 months. After that you will have to pick one or the other and cycle. A good rule of thumb I have seen stated is cut to 10%bf, bulk to 15%bf and repeat until you have the look you want. As for the first 3-4 months, eat at maintenance until your progress stalls (most notably you can no longer increase weight on your lifts). At that time re-evaluate yourself and decide whether you would be happier with less fat or more muscle first.

Firstly thanks @Determinednoo very much for all the info provided in this thread. I was already thinking of what point should I be looking to bulk or cut. Thanks for that rule of thumb. Just wondering if the age you are would make any difference whatsoever? In other words I'm 41 should I be looking to cut down to 10% and bulk to 15% as well like a younger guy.

Seperate question related to this...getting down to 10% I feel I would be looking very thin and possibly very weak. Would getting down to say 15% and cycling to 20% in the first instance while gradually moving down to cycling between 10% and 15% be a reasonable proposition. Or should I just bite the bullet and get down to 10% first! FWIW I think I'm down to around 20% now (to be confirmed by a DEXA scan in a month's time)

Age doesn't matter. You may look thin, but if you lift on a proper routine at max effort (i.e. 5 reps at your 5rm or 8 reps at your 8rm or however many reps you like although lower is better for strength) while eating enough protein, you should lose little if any strength. My understanding (well what I have seen said directly) is that nutrient partitioning is better when you are under 15% meaning more of the food you eat goes to muscle and less of it goes to fat. By the same token once over 15% it becomes easier to put on fat. These numbers are of course for men. I am not sure of the exact numbers for women.

Oh and as far as after that you would start to slowly increase cals over a few weeks and then deload your lifts by ~20% and start working back up with the expectation of pushing past your previous max.

@Determinednoo thanks once again for the info.

Sorry when I said weeks I meant days First week when cutting is done increase by around 200 per day. This is really more for if you think you will have a problem eating more. Don't be shocked by sudden increase in scale weight. It will mostly be water.

Bumping for later reference

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bump to finish reading later...

I know I'll probably get crucified on this forum, but in my OPINION, NROL4W, is not AS good as a regular beginner strength program. It introduces too many exercises too quickly, uses weaker or in some cases more advanced versions of some lifts, has you doing 3 work sets of deadlifts which is too much when you get your working weight up, changes the routine you do at arbitrary preset times when the real time to change a routine is when it stops working after proper resets\deloads, employs supersets which is not really needed for beginners, some muscle groups being overlooked in some phases.

Now this IS based on someone's training log from 2008. I don't know of the routines have been updated at all since then.

I actually agree with you on this . It's a good book, but there isn't a difference between men and women in terms of muscle. Men get bigger because of testosterone and other hormones that we women don't produce in nearly the same quantity. I lift very heavy on big compound moves and I am not bulky at all

I agree with this as well. New Rules is a good book in that it's regimented and gets people started.

I like the Starting Strength program much better, and even Stronglifts 5x5.

I always recommend the book because of the information in it. It really help women get over their fears of lifting. I agree that it is not the best program but for me it did the job

Exactly...removing that fear of lifting is the one thing that keeps me tossing it in there as a recommendation. There's SO many women doing it, that it's easier for a woman new to lifting to take the step, than it is if you present them with a program directed at men, like Stronglifts or Starting Strength, even though the principles are ALL THE SAME, and the information is far, far better.

I agree with all of this as well. I started with New Rules of Lifting and it's great for a beginner and it's nice to have a book that is for women. But, I find the options limited. I think having that book plus starting strength expands some options. I've heard of strong lifts on here, but I'm not familiar with it yet. I'm sure there are lots of other books that provide a variety of options in order to build your own workouts that work for your body (I have injuries to deal with). Online resources help as well. I like Scooby's Workshop (it has personally helped me a lot for what I need). I'm kind of glad to see I'm not the only one that feels this way.