Cutting workout plans is essential for enhancing muscle definition and reducing body fat. These plans typically involve a combination of high intensity training, which includes both weights and cardio. This training plays a pivotal role in creating a calorie deficit, a key factor for diet success.
A well structured cutting workout plan should incorporate four main components: strategic cardio sessions, targeted weight training, bodyweight exercises, and a diet rich in essential macronutrients.
This multifaceted approach not only aids in shredding fat but also helps preserve muscle, which is crucial for achieving a sculpted physique.
The intensity and volume of the cutting workout should be adjusted regularly throughout the workout plan to continually challenge the body and ensure all parts are effectively engaged. Individuals can achieve comprehensive body transformations by diligently following a cutting workout plan.
What Is A Cutting Workout Plan?
A cutting workout plan is a strategic exercise routine designed to maximize fat loss while preserving muscle mass during a dieting phase. Such a plan aims to create a calorie deficit, where the body burns more calories than it consumes, typically aiming for a reduction between 10 to 20 calories per pound of body weight.
This plan usually incorporates cardio exercises, resistance workouts, and HIIT workouts to optimize fat burning and muscle retention. Cardio is crucial for increasing calorie expenditure, while weights and resistance workouts help maintain muscle strength and density as the body sheds weight.
Workouts should be varied in intensity and loads, with changes in reps and weights every 5 to 10 sessions to maximize impact and prevent plateaus. A cutting workout plan is typically structured to adjust to the body’s changing needs and ensure progressive fat loss without losing significant muscle.
How Do Exercise Programs Aid in Cutting?
Exercise can support cutting in several ways, such as maintaining strength and muscle, enhancing body composition, and promoting a quicker metabolism to facilitate fat loss.
- Preserve Strength
During a cutting cycle, keeping strength while reducing weight and body fat is vital. Lifters should manage their energy intake carefully to prevent strength loss. Adjusting the loads and weights used in training helps maintain muscle mass and strength, even as the body sheds fat.
- Retain More Muscle
In the cutting phase, the aim is to lose fat while keeping as much muscle as possible. Strength training with weights is crucial here. It helps maintain muscle mass even when you’re eating fewer calories, ensuring weight loss comes more from fat than muscle.
- Helps to Recomp Your Body
Body recomposition focuses on losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously. Using weights in your workouts can change your body composition. You might not lose much weight, but you’ll see more muscle and less fat, which makes you look leaner.
- Keeps Metabolism High
Strength workouts boost your metabolism by building muscle tissue, which burns more calories even at rest. This higher metabolism helps burn fat faster and keeps up your energy levels, making it easier to lose weight effectively while maintaining muscle mass.
Tips for a Successful Cutting Workout Plan
Lifters and coaches should consider the seven variables listed below when creating a cutting exercise program.
1. Sets
In crafting an effective workout plan, it is crucial to integrate a variety of sets and reps tailored to different muscle groups. For instance, focusing on biceps, triceps, and hamstrings might involve 3 to 8 sets per exercise. This approach helps stimulate muscle tissues effectively across multiple workouts.
Leg day, which might incorporate quad and glute work, can benefit from a structured training volume of 5 or 6 sets for each muscle group, blending strength and muscle endurance activities.
Additionally, the right amount of arm day exercises, including targeted exercises for biceps and triceps, will ensure comprehensive muscle development and work.
2. Reps
The strategy behind choosing reps and rep ranges plays a pivotal role in achieving specific fitness goals. For enhancing muscle endurance, 15 to 25 reps per set are optimal, while 8 to 12 reps are ideal for growth and strength.
Incorporating 50 reps in sets of 5 for lighter loads can boost stamina and muscle efficiency, particularly during workouts designed for muscle groups like the legs and arms.
It is crucial to balance these reps with adequate recovery to prevent strength loss and maximize energy utilization. This reflects a tailored approach that considers both body resilience and training needs.
3. Loading
When planning loading strategies during a cutting phase, managing weight adjustments becomes essential to optimize strength while maintaining muscle mass. Typical rep ranges might vary from 8 to 15 reps, with loads around 60% to 80% of one’s max.
Accessory movements, such as lunges and pull ups, should be incorporated to support the main lifts like squats, benches, and deadlifts.
The goal is to maintain strength levels even as one operates on a calorie surplus, suggesting a nuanced balance between diet, exercise, and overall workout frequency to ensure sustained progress and muscle maintenance during calorie restricted periods.
4. Frequency
Practical Frequency Training involves meticulously organizing workouts to optimize muscle group recovery and maximize strength gains. Typically, lifters aim for 4 to 6 sessions per week, each lasting between 45 and 75 minutes.
This structured approach ensures that each muscle group is targeted with sufficient volume and intensity, allowing for 48 to 60 hours of recovery between sessions.
The frequency at which one engages in these workouts fuels the desired energy expenditure and supports ongoing muscle maintenance and growth, particularly during a cut phase, when maintaining muscle mass while reducing body fat is crucial.
5. Types of Activity
Choosing the suitable Types of Activity in the Gym, such as Weights versus Cardio, hinges on one’s fitness goal and body composition desires. Weight training, involving exercises like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts, prioritizes muscle growth and strength.
Conversely, Cardio exercises, such as running or cycling, focus more on endurance and can be vital for creating an energy deficit necessary for fat loss.
Balancing both is critical, as incorporating Weights with Cardio in a single workout can maximize energy use and enhance overall muscle functionality, making the Gym a versatile place for achieving diverse fitness goals.
6. Training Splits Made Simple
Training splits are a way to organize your workouts to train all your main muscle groups—like your chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs twice a week. Here are some simple ways to set up your training:
4 Day Total Body Split: In this plan, you train all your muscle groups in one session, doing one exercise per muscle group. You’ll do 3 to 5 sets of each exercise. This way, you work out every muscle each time you go to the Gym without getting too sore.
4 Day Push Pull Split: This split is great for training all your muscle groups across four days. However, it might be challenging, especially for stronger lifters, because you’ll do squats on your push day and deadlifts on your pull day, which are significant exercises that require more recovery time. If it feels too hard, you might like the 4 day upper lower split better.
4 5 Day Upper Lower Split: This is a good choice if you work out four or five days a week. You alternate days between working out your upper body and your lower body. If you choose to work out on a fifth day, you can decide if you want to do an extra upper or lower body workout, depending on what you feel needs more work during your cutting phase.
Push Pull Legs Split: This six day split has you focus on upper body push muscles (like your chest, shoulders, and triceps) one day, upper body pull muscles (like your back and biceps) another day, and your legs on a third day. You repeat each workout twice a week.
These plans help ensure you work out your whole body evenly and keep your workouts exciting.
7. Activities Outside of the Gym
Activities outside the Gym can significantly enhance your overall lifestyle and help with fat loss. Aiming for about 8,000 steps a day boosts calorie burn and supports a cutting workout program.
Regular walks and other leisure activities help reduce fat and keep hunger levels manageable. These activities make your fitness routine more varied and enjoyable, ensuring it’s part of your daily life, not just gym time.
Quick Cutting Workout Plan for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain
Below is a sample 4 day cutting workout routine to help you lose weight and maintain or gain muscle. With this regimen, you will focus on training in all rep ranges and work on each muscle group twice a week.
Though there are some isolation workouts for minor muscle groups, the majority of the activities in the plan are compound exercises.
Day 1: Lower + Arms
Lower body exercises (5–10) reps are what you’ll be doing in this workout to build muscle and strength.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest (seconds) |
| Trap Bar Deadlift | 3 to 4 | 8 to 10 | 90 to 120 |
| Barbell Front Squat | 3 to 4 | 8 to 10 | 90 to 120 |
| Barbell Hip Thrust | 4 | 8 to 10 | 60 to 90 |
| Weighted Step Up (per leg) | 4 | 8 to 10 | 60 9 to 0 |
| Cable Bicep Curl | 3 | 8 to 10 | Superset |
| Cable Triceps Pushdowns | 3 | 8 to 10 | 60 (after superset) |
| Dumbbell Skullcrusher | 3 | 8 to 10 | Superset |
| Dumbbell Incline Curl | 3 | 8 to 10 | 60 (after superset) |
Day 2: Upper + Abs:
With this workout, you will build muscle and strength by executing lower rep upper body movements (5–10) reps.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest (seconds) |
| Barbell Flat Bench Press | 4 | 8 to 10 | 60 90 |
| Dumbbell Incline Chest Press | 4 | 8 to 10 | 60 90 |
| Lat Pulldown or Assisted Pull Up | 4 | 8 to 10 | 60 |
| Cable Row | 4 | 8 to 10 | 60 |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Press | 3 | 8 to 10 | Superset |
| Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 3 | 8 to 10 | 60 (after superset) |
| Cable Crunch | 3 | 8 to 10 | Superset |
| Hanging Straight Leg or Knee Raise | 3 | 8 to 10 | 60 (after superset) |
Day 3: Lower + Arms
This workout increases total training volume (the number of work performed, which can boost caloric burn and muscle growth) and builds muscle with higher rep lower body movements (5–10).
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest (seconds) |
| Barbell Back Squat | 3 | 12 to 15 | 90 120 |
| Leg Press | 3 to 4 | 12 to 15 | 90 120 |
| Barbell Good Morning | 4 | 12 to 15 | 60 90 |
| Barbell Hip Thrust | 4 | 12 to 15 per leg | 60 90 |
| Dumbbell Hammer Curl | 4 | 12 to 15 | Superset |
| Dumbbell Triceps Extension | 4 | 12 to 15 | 60 (after superset) |
| Cable Triceps Pushdown | 3 | 12 to 15 | Superset |
| Cable Biceps Curl | 3 | 12 to 15 | 60 (after superset) |
Day 4: Upper + Abs
This program increases your overall training volume (the number of work performed, which can boost calorie burn and muscle growth) and builds muscle with higher rep upper body movements (5–10).
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest (seconds) |
| Incline Dumbbell Row | 4 | 12 to 15 | 45 60 |
| Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown | 4 | 12 to 15 | 45 60 |
| Dumbbell Flat Bench Press | 4 | 12 to 15 | 45 60 |
| Dumbbell Incline Chest Press | 4 | 12 to 15 | 45 60 |
| Barbell or Smith Machine Shoulder Press | 4 | 12 to 15 | 45 60 |
| Dumbbell Lateral Raise | 4 | 12 to 15 | 45 60 |
| Decline Crunch | 3 | 12 to 15 | Superset |
| Ball Slam | 3 | 12 to 15 | 45 60 (after superset) |
Nutrition Tips for a Cutting Phase
Here are some things to consider and be mindful of when cutting while following an exercise regimen.
Calorie Intake for Cutting
Calorie Intake is essential when trying to lose body fat and maintain muscle during a cutting phase. A good starting point is to create a calorie deficit. For example, if your maintenance calorie intake is 2500 calories, reducing it by 500 to 2250 calories can promote safe weight loss without risking muscle loss.
It’s essential to track your calorie intake carefully, adjusting as needed based on changes in body weight and body mass loss. A calculator can help manage your intake effectively, ensuring you hit your calorie deficit target while still getting enough energy to sustain workouts and daily activities.
Macro Splits for Cutting
When setting up your diet for a cut, Macro Splits play a crucial role. For most, a balanced split might include about 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fats of your total calorie goal, 2250 calories in this example.
Carbohydrates provide the energy needed for intense training, while protein supports muscle maintenance and growth. Fats are vital for overall health and help regulate hormones.
Adjusting these macro splits can boost performance, maintain energy levels, and enhance weight loss efforts during the cut. Adjusting your macros intake based on feedback from your body’s response to the diet can further optimize your cutting phase results.
Foods to Eat When Cutting Calories
When eating less to lose weight, choose foods that are full of nutrients but not too many calories. Foods with lots of calories can make you feel hungry soon after eating.
Proteins
- Eggs and Egg Whites: Great for breakfast or a snack.
- Greek Yogurt: Good for digestion and has lots of protein.
- Chicken: Stick to breasts and skinless thighs.
- Beef and Pork: Choose lean cuts like 85/15 beef or pork chops.
- Fish and Protein Powders: Fish is light and filling, and make sure your protein powder has at least 20g of protein per serving.
Carbs to Give You Energy:
- Fruits and Vegetables: Go for whole fruits and veggies like potatoes, but not fried.
- Berries: They’re super filling, and you can eat much without many calories.
- Light Bread, Rice, Oatmeal, and Rice Cakes: These are good for energy and not too heavy.
Fats
Remember that compared to carbohydrates, lipids are much more calorie dense and have less volume (the food does not take up much space in your stomach).
For instance, a golf ball sized portion of peanut butter has 200 calories. You could consume one banana, rice cake, and two cups of fruit for 200 calories. The carbohydrates are a fantastic energy source for intense workouts and deliver more satiety than a scoop of peanut butter.
It is pretty simple to overeat fats, so if you are seeking some sources of fat, I want to encourage you to be mindful of your portion sizes:
When picking fats for your meals, it’s essential to watch how much you use because it’s easy to have too much:
- In Your Protein: Foods like chicken, pork, and beef have natural fats.
- Nut and Seed Butter: These are tasty, but use them in small amounts.
- Avocado: Great for health, but remember, a little goes a long way.
- Nuts and Seeds: Perfect for a quick snack, keep an eye on the quantity.
- Cooking Fats: When you cook with oils, butter, or coconut oil, you’re adding fats to your food without even realizing it.
Pre/Post Workout Nutrition
Good nutrition before and after training sessions is critical for better muscle repair and recovery. Pay attention to the amount and type of food you eat. Before working out, have a meal with both carbohydrates and protein foods.
Carbohydrates give you energy for your workout, and protein helps keep your muscles strong. After working out, eat carbohydrates to refill your energy and protein to help fix your muscles. Each meal lets you recover well and get the most from your workouts.
How Should I Workout When Cutting?
When you’re cutting, focus on lifting weights instead of doing a lot of cardio. This helps keep your muscles strong and might even build more muscle. Ensure you eat plenty of protein because it helps your muscles repair and grow after working out.
Try to eat at least one gram of protein for each pound you weigh. This is important because when you don’t eat enough protein while cutting, your body might start breaking down muscles instead of fat. So, lifting weights and eating enough protein is vital to staying strong and healthy while cutting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Cutting Workout?
A cutting workout is designed to reduce body fat while maintaining muscle mass, typically involving high-intensity weight training and a calorie restricted diet to achieve a leaner physique.
How Many Reps for Cutting?
The ideal rep range for cutting is one that permits you to train with moderate to light weights to retain as much muscle as possible while exercising at higher volumes (10–20 reps) and with heavier loads on occasion to preserve basic strength (5–10 reps).
Should I Lift Heavy When Cutting?
Yes, we always advise continuing with hard lifting during the cutting stage. Lower calories will cause your strength to decline, but you should still push yourself with big weights during compound exercises.