Will this schedule make me "cut?"

[Sphenoid12]

I've decided to overhaul my approach to the body.

I train in martial arts (aikido) 4x a week, but I realized that I needed to add weight training to complete my training of the physical body. This is so I can feel good and enlightened and powerful and balanced.

I joined a gym and talked to a personal trainer. I told him that I roughly wanted to look like Brad Pitt in Snatch or Fight Club. The point is not to gain lots of muscle, but to fill out my body and ultimately shape it to use in aikido and life. He said that if I'm focused, I could gain 1 lb. lean body mass per month, and reach my goal in about 10 - 12 months. My body fat is already around 10%, but would need to lose about 2% to get the look.

My main question: by looking at my schedule below, is this feasible? I am already on week 3.

Weightlifting:
3x a week
These are the current exercises which will be changed as needed to work on shaping. My previous weeks actual reps to failure follow the exercises.

DAY 1 (chest, triceps, abs)
Bench press 13, 7, 6, 6
Incline press 17, 8, 6, 7
Military Press 8, 6, 6, 6
Upright Rows 25, 9, 9, 12
Cable extension 9, 10, 7, 10
Abs

DAY 2 (legs, abs)
Squats 25, 20, 20, 15
Machine Leg Curls 12, 12, 10, 15
Calf Raises 15, 12, 11, 11, 12, 11, 11, 10
Abs

DAY 3 (back, biceps, abs)
Assisted pullups 11, 10, 11, 10, 9, 9, 8
T-bar rows 17, 13, 10, 9, 14
Preacher curl 15, 7, 7
Concentration curl 6, 12, 12, 8.5
Abs

I am doing awful lot of sets. Perhaps I should do more exercises with less sets each?

Cardio: 1.5 hours of aikido 4x/week on off days from lifting. This is my only cardio exercise; I do not cycle or run.

Diet: I am vegetarian, so I already mostly eat fruits and veggies. Protein shake 2-3x a day, cottage cheese 1-2x a day. Mostly eat salads, raw fruit, nuts, beans, lentils, tea. I don't eat much carbs other than occasionally some rice or bread, but keep it to a minimum. I do have a sweet tooth which I'm working on, but never more than one dessert a day.


I would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

 

[Hard2Fit]

Yes.

 

[TyCooN]

First post is a fitness one in a forum dedicated to guys who love to go shopping?

 

[eidolon]

Originally Posted by Sphenoid12

I train in martial arts (aikido) 4x a week, but I realized that I needed to add weight training to complete my training of the physical body. This is so I can feel good and enlightened and powerful and balanced. I joined a gym and talked to a personal trainer. I told him that I roughly wanted to look like Brad Pitt in Snatch or Fight Club. The point is not to gain lots of muscle, but to fill out my body and ultimately shape it to use in aikido and life. He said that if I'm focused, I could gain 1 lb. lean body mass per month, and reach my goal in about 10 - 12 months. My body fat is already around 10%, but would need to lose about 2% to get the look. I would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!
At each part I bolded I actually laughed audibly. I pretty much never laugh out loud reading something on the internet, I just smile to myself, so I pretty surprised by this in general. I'm not going to dissect your program or write a thesis because I do not have the energy, but I'll try and give you something since I really try not to be an asshole: (1) Brad Pitt in Fight Club was rail-thin, which was evidenced by shots of his legs off set. The state he was in is not sustainable. For scenes where he looked muscular he would do exercises before the cut to get "pump," and all shots had low, professional lighting. People wanting to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club is a joke, it's brought up by people in conversations in certain circles just to mock people. You don't want to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club if you don't want to look and feel emaciated, and you can't look like him in Fight Club year-round. (2) You are not at 10% body fat. I don't even need to see a picture of you. All you did was an hour and a half of Aikido 4x a week, and you're doing assisted pull ups. You are not 10% body fat. If you were, you'd be pretty happy with yourself as it is. (3) You're doing too many calf raises, you should alternate the standing shoulder press (military press) with the incline press, I have no idea what just "cable extensions" mean, you're doing too many leg curls, you're doing too many curls (drop concentrations, alternate hammers and preachers, focus on slow negatives and hold at the top for a few seconds on the preachers), I'd personally cut back on or drop upright rows, your later squat sets have too many reps, you don't have enough lower back work, start doing some mild, steady-state fasted cardio work when you wake up in the morning (a brisk walk for 30 minutes, or something, 3-4x a week). (4) Your program has no periodization? Change it. Don't always go to failure, change it up. Change up the amounts of reps and sets each week, change up the exercises. (5) If you aren't start taking fish oil (omega-3s), Kirkland is an alright cheapo brand. Start tracking your calories closer, grab some BCAA's for in between meals. With the amount of reps you're doing I'd consider getting beta-alanine, but I'm not going to try and shove supplements down your throat.

 

[Beta]

Originally Posted by eidolon

At each part I bolded I actually laughed audibly. I pretty much never laugh out loud reading something on the internet, I just smile to myself, so I pretty surprised by this in general.

I'm not going to dissect your program or write a thesis because I do not have the energy, but I'll try and give you something since I really try not to be an asshole:
(1) Brad Pitt in Fight Club was rail-thin, which was evidenced by shots of his legs off set. The state he was in is not sustainable. For scenes where he looked muscular he would do exercises before the cut to get "pump," and all shots had low, professional lighting. People wanting to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club is a joke, it's brought up by people in conversations in certain circles just to mock people. You don't want to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club if you don't want to look and feel emaciated, and you can't look like him in Fight Club year-round.
(2) You are not at 10% body fat. I don't even need to see a picture of you. All you did was an hour and a half of Aikido 4x a week, and you're doing assisted pull ups. You are not 10% body fat. If you were, you'd be pretty happy with yourself as it is.
(3) You're doing too many calf raises, you should alternate the standing shoulder press (military press) with the incline press, I have no idea what just "cable extensions" mean, you're doing too many leg curls, you're doing too many curls (drop concentrations, alternate hammers and preachers, focus on slow negatives and hold at the top for a few seconds on the preachers), I'd personally cut back on or drop upright rows, your later squat sets have too many reps, you don't have enough lower back work, start doing some mild, steady-state fasted cardio work when you wake up in the morning (a brisk walk for 30 minutes, or something, 3-4x a week).
(4) Your program has no periodization? Change it. Don't always go to failure, change it up. Change up the amounts of reps and sets each week, change up the exercises.
(5) If you aren't start taking fish oil (omega-3s), Kirkland is an alright cheapo brand. Start tracking your calories closer, grab some BCAA's for in between meals. With the amount of reps you're doing I'd consider getting beta-alanine, but I'm not going to try and shove supplements down your throat.

lol, he has no idea why what he said was funny.

Its not a personal knock, its just that the statements made are basically an internet forum joke after hearing them so many times.

That said, the starvation diet you are following will probably allow you to become emaciated like you say you want to be, but it wont look good.

the above advise is accurate, +1 to it.

 

[why]

BCAAs are next to worthless, negatives have little or no positives, and the OP's body fat can certainly be at or under 10%.

 

[Eason]

But will that schedule make him "cut"?

 

[eidolon]

Originally Posted by why

BCAAs are next to worthless, negatives have little or no positives, and the OP's body fat can certainly be at or under 10%.
They aren't on a diet with a significant caloric deficit, not on preachers, it's not.

 

[why]

Originally Posted by eidolon

They aren't on a diet with a significant caloric deficit, not on preachers, it's not.
Ugh. 1. BCAAs are already in every complete protein source. Supplementation is pretty dumb since most people don't even know how much they have to begin with. 2. Negatives recruit more fast twitch fibers at lower intensities and elicit more DOMS. It's better just to do normal exercises with a higher intensity. There's little crossover benefit to doing negatives. 3. Why not? He didn't mention his diet, the lgenth or intensity of his aikido class, any precriptions he's taking, yet for some reason you think it's impossible for him to be sub-10%? I've seen bedridden people under 10% bodyfat from being on Adderall and not pigging out.

 

[Matt]

The Brad Pitt Fight Club program...

 

[eidolon]

Originally Posted by why

1. BCAAs are already in every complete protein source. Supplementation is pretty dumb since most people don't even know how much they have to begin with.

2. Negatives recruit more fast twitch fibers at lower intensities and elicit more DOMS. It's better just to do normal exercises with a higher intensity. There's little crossover benefit to doing negatives.

3. Why not? He didn't mention his diet, the lgenth or intensity of his aikido class, any precriptions he's taking, yet for some reason you think it's impossible for him to be sub-10%? I've seen bedridden people under 10% bodyfat from being on Adderall and not pigging out.

Ugh x2

1. There are no health risks to over supplementation, and when you're trying to lose the last 10 you're generally doing a fairly significant amount of work on a caloric deficit.

2. Preachers are not spectacular exercises on their own, the negative portion of the lift is more beneficial for the forearms, there's no point to not trying to elicit maximal recruitment

3. He mentioned the length of his Aikido class, and Aikido isn't very intense. He mentioned his diet. I don't care that you chose not to read his post closely, I don't care that you like taking contrarian stances, he's not at 10% body fat.

Originally Posted by m@T

The Brad Pitt Fight Club program...

One of the worst programs I have ever seen in my life.

 

[whacked]

Originally Posted by eidolon

(1) Brad Pitt in Fight Club was rail-thin, which was evidenced by shots of his legs off set.

Originally Posted by m@T

The Brad Pitt Fight Club program...

This is what happens when you do ZERO leg works

 

[Matt]

yup big trouble. Wearing shoes on the mat is nearly unforgivable.

 

[why]

Originally Posted by eidolon

Ugh x2

1. There are no health risks to over supplementation, and when you're trying to lose the last 10 you're generally doing a fairly significant amount of work on a caloric deficit.

2. Preachers are not spectacular exercises on their own, the negative portion of the lift is more beneficial for the forearms, there's no point to not trying to elicit maximal recruitment

3. He mentioned the length of his Aikido class, and Aikido isn't very intense. He mentioned his diet. I don't care that you chose not to read his post closely, I don't care that you like taking contrarian stances, he's not at 10% body fat.

1. No health risks, you're right. I just don't see a point in paying for them.

2. The point is that for a given submaximal load more fast-twitch fibers are used, but that's still dependent upon the muscle anyway. Generally, smaller muscles require a lesser load for maximal fiber recruitment, so if all the fibers are used concentrically there's no reason to simply encourage DOMS by doing eccentrics.

3. I'm not just taking contrarian stances. It's certainly possible to be sub-10%, especially if he's young and still growing.

 

[eidolon]

Originally Posted by why

1. No health risks, you're right. I just don't see a point in paying for them. 2. The point is that for a given submaximal load more fast-twitch fibers are used, but that's still dependent upon the muscle anyway. Generally, smaller muscles require a lesser load for maximal fiber recruitment, so if all the fibers are used concentrically there's no reason to simply encourage DOMS by doing eccentrics. 3. I'm not just taking contrarian stances. It's certainly possible to be sub-10%, especially if he's young and still growing.
1. I am not someone who believes in the all-supreme effectiveness of BCAAs (I don't believe the creatine is the best thing in the world either, although I think beta alanine and fish oil are just dandy), but they are beneficial when you're cutting, you're worried about lean mass loss and you're not getting enough protein. It's not easy to go for 1g/lb on a cut, and you have to be willing to get pretty low on calories most of the time if you're having problems getting to <10%. A month should be what you take to absolutely go all out in losing what you need to lose, and a month's worth of BCAAs is <$25. 2. You want to minimize auxiliary work in general, and both the long head and the forearms get "more" out of preachers on the negatives. I told him to focus on slow negatives because most people, when trying to do curls with more weight than they can handle, do everything in their power to get the weight up and then just drop it. I didn't want to write a treatise, I wanted to give him something to think about. I'm not talking about ridiculously slow negatives, I'm talking about slowing down, and from everything I've witnessed the negative does more to engage the forearms and the long head of the biceps than the concentric portion of preachers. 3. His diet is pretty good, yes. But up until now he hasn't been performing much in the way of rigorous exercise, and his trainer (who, I will admit, is probably a moron) is implying that he will get a "ripped" look in 12 months. People just on the threshold don't need 12 months to lose the last few pounds and to gain some mass.