ok .. currently at 74kg 172 cm .. for mon, wed, and fri.. My workout is like madcow 5x5 (not super heavy lifter yet) and i am done with week 8 .. feeling much stronger now. So, i decided to give myself a cut. So, in your opinion.
1) can i continue my workout like the previous 5x5 with additional HIIT on my rest day ?
2) calories deficit of 200 cal ?
3) or should i reduce weight to like 70% or 80% of my 5RM and increase reps to hit higher volume ?
4) should i include more isolation exercises ?

i just need opinion. thank you

i choose 2nd option in anyday. wat u can do is, u can slot in high carb / refeed day in which day u r taking heavy load

If you do 5X5 on a cut you will fail miserably... and if you add HIIT on top that you will be under-recovering, stalling on everything, and even your progress will start going backwards. Total recipe for disaster.

If you want to cut, it's better you work in the 10 rep range and do a less aggressive program. Agree with your option no 3. But still don't do HIIT or you will even suffer in the 10 rep range.

This is a good program that you can do and progress on a cut:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=160947761

But still, no cardio pls.

Why so? CNS fatigue aside (only an issue if you're going absolutely balls to the wall every single session without ever deloading), cardio allows one to eat more food, which is important for satiety and generally keeping sane on a cut.

thx for the feed back guys .. but for armesh , why u dont really recommend HIIT ? if i am doing it on a rest day how?

so ? whats your call on that ? increase volume with lower weights and add on some cardio with minimal amount of cal deficit ?

Cutting = calorie deficit. Alter your diet, not the workout.

Ok for cardio, if OP is already eating in a calorie deficit, and on top of that he does cardio/HIIT, that will be too extreme of a deficit especially while weight training.

If OP wants to do cardio, he can do it by first eating at the current maintenance, then adding in the cardio. In that case he will be in a deficit but not a extreme deficit. So it's like your deficit you factored in the cardio, rather than calculating your deficit first, then adding in the cardio. Hard to explain, it depends on how u calculate the TDEE.

I do not know what is your goal, but I know that in order to lose fat you do not need to do any cardio, just eat at deficit. So that's another reason why I said dun do cardio. If you get hungry often, eat alot of vegetables.

Conclusion, if you are smart and know how to keep a 15~20% deficit while also doing cardio, then you can do it. Make sure you calculate it right.

This post has been edited by Armesh: Sep 4 2014, 07:54 PM

Maybe the diet one's deficit until 30%~40% so basically putting themselves in extreme starvation mode. You should deficit at 20% max.

"cardio way will be more toned". No such thing.

Cardio does improves cardiovascular health.

I see what you're trying to say. Though in the end, there won't be a difference in the net deficit if things are factored correctly, like you've concluded. There will however be a difference in satiety and general satisfaction if doing the cardio allows one more freedom in their diet. And yes there should already be lots of vegetables in the diet to begin with. Though, I will admit this is a bit of a digression since satiety usually is only an issue in the latter stages of a cut when calories are restricted more.

My take on the original question is, cardio or not, just focus on being in a caloric deficit and try to keep strength up.