Cutting workouts

I switched back to HST for my summer cutting workout. I am beginning to think it might be better than a traditional 3 x 10 split or 5x5 workout because it allows higher intensity circuit type training in the early phases and muscle retaining heavier sets during the end of the workout. I also like hitting every muscle group every lifting day. Thoughts?

Still doing HIIT during non-lifting days.

I think cutting is mostly dependent on caloric intake anyways, but I like lifting heavy weights at low reps during cutting to ensure muscle maintainance.

My HST workout uses 2 sets of 10 exercises @ 12, 9, and 6 reps, not 5. My 5x5 workout was a cutting workout not bulking, simply because it focuses on strength rather than hypertrophy. The "cutting" part of the workout is caloric restriction and cardio, not weights. Getting "ripped" is about diet and to some degree exercise, not really weight training. You can get "ripped" doing only body weight exercises without difficulty. The purpose of weight lifting during cutting is muscle maintainance. Doing low weight high rep is just going to act as a glorified form of cardio, and not accomplish much, although HST advocates the high rep relatively low weight part of its workout as increasing neurophysical stamina. I'm not sure if I buy that. I'm doing the low weight high rep part of HST with high intensity and supersetting.

As far as 5x5 for cutting, I think it's a pretty effective workout if done right, however, I find at least the 5x5 routine that I'm doing a bit too time intensive, and also not very suited for recovery, at least with the weight and intensity that I'm doing. That said, I think HST is probably better overall for either cutting or bulking. I'm doing HST with somewhat less weight than I would during my bulking phase with caloric excess but not by too much, 10-20% less or so weight with caloric deficit in the 500 kcal/day range. My goals are essentially loss of fat only, with very little if any loss of LBM so my workout/diet will be quite different than a traditional cutting workout, this is because my ideal body type is somewhere around 10-12% BF while carrying the same or slightly more LBM than I currently have, which is probably around 210-215 lb for my frame, about 10-15 lb less than where I am at now. I'm comfortable with cutting 1 lb a week.

As far as the weight lifted in my routines, I was lifting a bit more in 5x5 than I was in HST simply because the number of total reps per workout were a bit less. I base my workouts around total work done based on reps weight and the exercise in question, and try to keep the workouts fairly close. My current HST cycle is about 20% lighter than the last one I did and significantly lower in weight than my 5x5s. The 5x5 workout was still quite effective for cutting, though, to be honest. From the end of HST in March to June which is about 3 months, I cut 12 lb, with no change in supplementation, which is consistent with my daily caloric deficit of 500 kcal.

Cutting workouts refer to what you're lifting during cutting phases.

I just switched the 15/10/5 to 12/9/6 which I think is a more versatile and useful range.

That's obvious but it follows that they aren't able to sustain a sufficient diet to lower their BF%.


My goals are 100% muscle maintainance and ideally hypertrophy, combined with fat loss.


Hypertrophy requires muscle damage. Low weight high rep sets (depending on the amount lifted) don't cause significant muscle damage, meaning that they don't really cause hypertrophy. While it's potentially possible that they are OK for maintanance, there have been a number of articles lately suggesting that work done is the metric you should use when evaluating a cutting workout. Hypertrophy, or at least repair, uses energy, specifically protein, which is good for cutting because of the thermogenic effect as well. I think a 12/9/6 HST split will be effective, especially because of its periodiziation and changes in intensity.