Lil help please.

Arctic89

Just wanted the people of the forum here to help me make a decision, I've used the advice from people here loads of times before and it's always been great.

Basically, I'm a GAA player, off season at the moment so this is the only time of year I get to train completely by myself for a long spell.

2 years ago, I was doing starting strength, making great gains, but then got injured and went away for the summer, got fat and didnt bother myself getting the weight off till this year due to college and laziness.

I was 12 stone 6 lbs in March and I lost weight over the summer and I'm now about 11 stone/70kgs and I want to properly set out my winter training. My GAA suffered while I was dieting but it had to be done,I was always kind of focusing more on 2011 anyway.

Also ran the Phoneix Park 10 mile and half marathon this year too!

My dilemma is as follows:

I want to get reallllly strong, my lifts are pathetically weak (Bench 40kg, Squat 80kg and Deadlift 100kg) but dont want to gain bodyfat as I like not being fat anymore. I'd estimate myself at 14% bodyfat (using Lyle Mac Donald's table in the Guide to Flexible Dieting)

I kind of still have a bit of a pot belly which isnt budging much which I'd really like to see gone before I start putting weight back on. Having said that I dont want to spend all winter dieting down to 10 stone, I'd be murdered on a GAA pitch at that weight.

I'm unsure what to do at the moment, my plan was to stick with the cut for a few more weeks until I get down to 10% bf then start Starting Strength again properly, do 2 conditioning days per week and eat like a horse to get my lifts, strength and aerobic fitness up for the new season.

Alternatively I could just keep dieting until the belly is 100% gone, could mean another 8-10 weeks of it and then work the heavy weight gain in with the pre season training in January.

Third option is just to jump straight into SS and conditioning work this week and worry about getting rid of the belly come January.

I dont know if its relevant but I'm also doing a fair amount of flexibility work aswell at the moment, started following Kelly Starlet's Mobility WOD and do about 30 mins stretching at home after the gym or training. When I get the funds, I'll buy myself a foam roll and get working on that.

Sticking to the training/nutrition wont be a problem, I'm fairly good at that sort of thing, its just the order to go about them has me a bit confused, as I dont want to get fat again, nor do I want to have to go to 10 stone just to see my abs and end get a thumping on the pitch cos of it.

So in summary, my three options as I see them

1. Cut for 3-4 more weeks, then hit Starting Strength.
2. Cut till January, work Starting Strength in with pre-season training.
3. Start Starting Strength now, worry about getting rid of the last bit of flab in January.

What would you do if it was you? Is there a 4th option Im not thinking of and how do you think would be the most effective way to go about the option I pick. Im going to start a log when I make my decision and start going 100% at the training.

Thanks for any help.

Stats:

Male
Height: 5'10''
Weight: 11 stone/ 70kgs
BF % : 14%
Bench : 42.5 kg
Deadlift : 100kg
Squat : 80kg All 5RMs

d'Oracle

Your 5'10" and 70kg and you want to loose weight?
I didn't play GAA but I'm sure from watching it you need people to move when you hit them.

The lighter you are the less that happens.

Turbo_diesel

If you play Gaa I would just worry about getting stronger for the minute especially upper body. If your bench is only 40kg but you can squat 80kg?? Ask Will Heffernen on here for advice they have a couple of Gaa clubs training at IP.

Arctic89

Thanks for the replies but yeah, think both of you guys have a point, really need to get stronger and bigger when I have the chance. Think I'll continue the cut for 1 more week then get stuck into starting strength again, that;ll give me a 12 week run up to Christmas to get really strong.

Can I ask what sort of stuff you guys generally do for flexibility work? What sort of static stretching and how long to hold for etc?

Would still be interested in hearing Will's or anyone else's whos more in the know opinion on this anyway!

FastFullBack

I'm not an expert but I'm in kinda of a similar situation. Off season GAA playing looking to maximize the 3-4 months before the team is back training. Starting next week I'm back in the gym either doing starting strength or strong lifts program.

It sounds to me that your a bit obsessed with cutting weight. If I were you I would get into the gym straight away and not bother with another week of cutting. Come February we'll be back on the pitch training and lucky to get to the gym once a week so there's plenty of time then to cut.

These 3-4 months are the only time of the year you'll have a chance to make any serious strength gains.

Doctor_Socks

I wouldn't bother with the cutting, just get straight back into strength training. The additional muscle you build will help with the fat loss in the long run and to get your lifts up higher you're goin to have to eat like an ape anyway.

By the way, 70kg for a 5'10 person isn't overweight by any stretch of the imagination!

Khannie

Doctor_Socks wrote: »

By the way, 70kg for a 5'10 person isn't overweight by any stretch of the imagination!

Fully agree with that. Medium term I'm aiming for 70+ myself and I'm short.

TommyKnocker

I'm only 5' 6" and 77kg @ ~12% BF and would like to add another 6-7kg of leans mass as I class myself as skinny

M

Bottle_of_Smoke

Ay I reckon your pot belly is as much psychological as anything else. I thought you must have been only 5'6/5'7 reading the details of your post

Go straight at the weight training.

Arctic89

Thanks again for the replies guys.

You could be right about it being a psychological thing thinking I still need to cut weight. Its driven by a Lyle Mac Donald (I'm a big fan of his stuff) article that I read where he said you should be at least 10% bf before you start gaining weight, so I was a bit worried about putting on weight at 14% and thought better keep cutting.

You are right tho, 70kg is far too light for GAA so I'm going to hit the weights on Monday. Still a bit of a dilemma whether to go the Rippetoe method of 4000 kcals a day on SS or else just use a 500 kcal surplus, bringing me to about 3100 kcals a day, as recommended by McDonald, suppose its just a trial and error thing.

d'Oracle

Arctic89 wrote: »

Thanks again for the replies guys.

You could be right about it being a psychological thing thinking I still need to cut weight. Its driven by a Lyle Mac Donald (I'm a big fan of his stuff) article that I read where he said you should be at least 10% bf before you start gaining weight, so I was a bit worried about putting on weight at 14% and thought better keep cutting.

You are right tho, 70kg is far too light for GAA so I'm going to hit the weights on Monday. Still a bit of a dilemma whether to go the Rippetoe method of 4000 kcals a day on SS or else just use a 500 kcal surplus, bringing me to about 3100 kcals a day, as recommended by McDonald, suppose its just a trial and error thing.

If you go the rip way you will probably get fat faster and strong faster.
If you go the Lyle way you will probably get strong slower but also fat slower.