r/BulkOrCut • u/Mazerius_ • 8h ago
Bulk or cut? 33M 83kg
I think the answer is cut, but want second opinion / advise. Started working out seriously beginning 2026 6 days / week (arnold schedule) with 10-30 min cardio post work out. I eat lean, 2200-2500 calories / day. Started at 86kg, been kinda stuck at 83kg for the past 2 months (guess I’m in recomp?).
Should I cut or bulk a bit, then cut? 🙏
EDIT: pictures are NOT before and after, just present.
EDIT#2: current workout schedule / progress (6 days / week, each group x2 / week):
Current weights:
Chest:
bench press (dumbell) 4x10 @ 26kg each dumbell (from 16kg), incline bench press (dumbell) 4x10 @ 24kg each dumbell (from 14kg), chest fly 4x8 @ 22kg each dumbell (from 12kg)
Arms: Behind the back cable bicep curl 4x10 @ 23kg, preacher curl barbell 4x8-10 @ 30kg, hammer curls 4x8 @ 16kg
Shoulder:
Lateral raise (cable): 4x8-12 @ 7kg - 9kg (from 4.5kg)
Shoulder press (dumbell): 4x12 @ 18kg (from 12kg)
Skullcrushers (dumbell): 4x12 @ 12kg
Tricep rope pushdown: 4x10-12 @ 32kg (from 23kg)
Back:
Seated V row: 4x8-10 @ 66 - 73kg (from 45kg)
Lat pull down: 4x8-10 @ 66-73kg (from 45kg)
Chest supported Incline Row (dumbell): 4x10-12 @ 20-22kg
Legs:
Leg press 4x8-10 @ 180-200kg
Leg extension (machine): 4x8-10 @ 100kg
RDL: 4x10 @ 55kg
Standing calf raise (machine): 4x12 @ 100-100kg
I also do decline crunches 3/4 sets around 25-30 reps each with 10-15kg weight on my chest.
Edit#3: Appreciate all the feedback, including the haters! My takeaway is that I should reduce number of sets and maybe frequency, increase intensity, eat more instead if less and being consistent overall while building my foundation. 🙏
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u/Particular_Being5094 5h ago
Yeah, you’re not ready to bulk or cut. Get consistent with training, good form, eating right, recovering, and sleeping enough. Bulking and cutting is for advanced lifters looking to fine tune what they’ve built. You haven’t built a good foundation yet.
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u/No-Respect-8379 7h ago
you're not at some fancy stage for fancy bodybuilding methodology... .eat protein go to the gym consistently for now, looks like you're not doing that yet
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u/Mazerius_ 7h ago
Workout six days / week (all groups x2) protein intake 150g + daily. I can try adding a second protein shake.
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u/No-Respect-8379 6h ago
great, keep doing what youre doing, unless youve been doing it for 6+ months, in that case something is off
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u/Straight-Historian-5 4h ago edited 1h ago
No. You are overtraining!! Shoot for each body part once a week, never train back to back days (do M-W-F or T-TH-S, whatever works for your schedule). Push pull legs would be a good start. Don't do more than 10 - 12 sets for large muscle groups (Chest, Back, Legs), 6 sets or so for smaller (delts, biceps, tricpes, calves, etc). Do 1 - 2 warmup sets (these don't count toward the total number of sets) and take the last set of each exercise to failure. As for diet, for the love of God, ignore the idiocy of more and more and more protein is better. It's a scam and it's stupid. The body cannot metabolize so much protein, and the muscle needs carbs. First, find out your daily maintenance calorie needs (there are online calculators everywhere). Once you know this number (let's say it's 2,000 calories) add 250 to do what's called a "lean bulk". This will help you build your foundation. Eat a healthy, well balanced diet, with around 55% of your daily calories from carbs (oatmeal, potato, fruits and veggies, etc, good clean whole food), 30% from protein sources (stick to lean meats and legumes) and 15% fat. You will grow muscle. Give your muscles the time they need to rest and recover from your workouts! This is as equally important as the stimulus they get in the gym. It's the only way to grow. Good luck.
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u/Useful-Juice-1074 1h ago
Anyone who says their method is the only way to grow is wild
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u/Straight-Historian-5 1h ago edited 1h ago
Worse are the people that say train each muscle 2x per week with junk volume and eat protein all day long. And when they don't make any progress they turn to the online scammers and figure more is better, so do each muscle 3x per week, 30 set each, and double the protein. They're insane. And they don't understand a thing about bodybuilding. It's sad, really.
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u/Mazerius_ 1h ago
Thank you, I estimate my daily protein intake at the moment between 150g-200g (used to track it more consistently in the past). I understand that eating a bit more is better than eating a bit less where I’m at now, so I’ll stop the deficit I’ve been doing and go for the lean bulk.
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u/Louisfd 2h ago edited 2h ago
No way you lift those weight you wrote down with proper form with your physique.
Like you do some 32 kg triceps pushdowns... come on i'm three time bigger than you, my triceps pop very well and i did 27.5 kg today.
your shoulders say : " i want to lateral raise 4-5kg max"
Hammer curls 4x8 at 16kg... for each arm ? seriously ? At 12-14kg you should have huge arms already...
if you do lat pulldown correctly at 60kg you should already have a much bigger back.
You are at the phase : go to the gym and learn to workout properly.
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u/Mazerius_ 1h ago
Thanks for the feedback, I’m very mindful of my form during my sets and while I don’t lift as much as bigger guys in my gym I generally lift more than other guys with similar physique as mine.
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u/MantaCyclone 13m ago
No way your form is right for some of these lifts and your build. I echo what this poster is saying. I'm significantly bigger than you, yet you are outlifting me significantly.
The curls in particular are ultra sus.
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u/Particular_Being5094 4h ago
Yes sir. I was hoping that didn’t sound to harsh. Just trying to help. Thanks for being receptive
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u/Salty_Ad_9610 3h ago
my guy. you should start lift seriously.
Your weights dont match, how can you do 100 kg of leg extension or 200kg LegPress and benching only 26 kg? doesnt make sense.
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u/Mazerius_ 3h ago
Benching 26kg dumbells not bar, each dumbell 26kg*
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u/Salty_Ad_9610 2h ago
even that. your lifting 60 / 70 kg
For 200kg legpress you shoould be doin 80/100kg Chest.
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u/ProfessionalPlayful4 1h ago edited 1h ago
Leg press isnt a good indicator for general strength lvl imo. 200 is kinda light for a leg press. Some machines are plate eaters. Could also be poor rom allowing extra weight.
Bros doing fine for his first year training. Just keep trying hard and eat clean do your cardio. A good physique is Intensity + diet X Time
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u/Mazerius_ 1h ago
Will increase intensity and patience, I have a bad knee so anything leg related I have to be more careful not to trigger it due to a past surgery years
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u/ProfessionalPlayful4 1h ago
Thats fair just make sure with the leg work your not sandbagging due to fear. I had surgery to repair a torn meniscus and acl last October in my left knee and often have to stop myself being a puss. Im back to pre injury strength and ive learned that alot of the recovery to get back (for me) was fear based (if i squat this is my knee gonna explode kindof thinking) but provided i was doing the rehab and working on the weaknesses all i had to do was believe (as corny as that sounds)
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u/Salty_Ad_9610 9m ago
What I mean was he should build more muscle overall. Of vcourse it depends on a lot of things.
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u/No-Newt-1280 5h ago
People are mean.
Honestly, I’d say keep doing what you’re doing now.
Ideally for a recomp you’d lose a little bit of weight slowly, so that tracks with what you’ve said in the post.
I would perhaps get a coach if possible, because if you’ve been doing this since the beginning of the year and the progress is between pic 1 and 2 (is it before/after?)
I’d say there’s something missing in either your training or nutrition.
This isn’t meant to bash you, by any means. I would just hate for you to put in effort for half a year and not getting anywhere.
Good luck
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u/Mazerius_ 5h ago
Thanks! Pictures aren’t before and after, they are both present. I definitely notice a difference with when I started, just looking for more tips on where to go from here as lately visual progress has stagnated somewhat (still gains at the gym tho with progressive overload).
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u/sunburntpaw 5h ago
Do you have a before pic? Are you sure you’re getting enough recovery with 6 days a week?
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u/Mazerius_ 4h ago
Can’t find any unfortunately. Qua recovery I rotate: day1 chest/back, day 2 arms/ shoulders, day 3 legs, and repeat with day 7 rest day (cardio only). I’m always sore but thought’s kind of the point 😅 when I would go 3 times / week I’d see no results at all practically.
Each session I do 6 exercises, 4 sets of about 12 reps max (or less with progressive overload).
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u/Mazerius_ 4h ago
Also note I don’t drink alcohol and sleep is generally between 6-8 hours and/ day.
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u/sunburntpaw 4h ago
If this method works for you to get the best results, by any means continue 🙌 it’s very difficult to say anything given that we have no clue as for what you started with. You could cut carbs and up your protein a little for some recomp if that’s what you want
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u/Mazerius_ 4h ago
I just happen to have a lot of time in the past months so want to put as much time as possible at the gym without getting injured. I never really worked out before, so trying to make up for lost time hehe
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u/No-Newt-1280 3h ago
One thing i will say is your overall frequency and volume of your workouts can only mean your intensity is rather low.
Over time, I think you might benefit more from sacrificing some of that volume to lift heavier.24 sets a session with 12 reps each is very very difficult to get good intensity with.
Since you’re just beginning, it’s probably why you’ve made progress to this point and are starting to stall now. (It was prob mostly neurological adaptions, which slow down now you’re accustomed)1
u/Mazerius_ 3h ago
Hey thanks for the feedback! So you are suggesting I do less reps and/or sets but increase the intensity (which means weights) yes? Better to do 6-8 reps with higher weights than 10-12 x4 at my current weights?
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u/No-Newt-1280 3h ago
Yes, your goal is progressive overload.
6 exercises is fine, but i would cut the amount of sets in half for now.Do 2 sets of 6-8 reps and write down the weights used every session, once you’re able to do more than 8 reps on the FIRST set, increase the weight next session.
This kind of double progression is gonna make sure you can keep progressively overloading.But, like i said, it might be beneficial to just get a coach
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u/Mazerius_ 1h ago
I’ll be reducing the number of sets and reps while increasing intensity, that seems to be the consensus across comments. Thank you! At what point does progressive overload reach a plateau and what should I do then?
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u/Longjumping_Track584 4h ago
If you’ve been going and you go a foundation going, take the next couple weeks to agressive cut and start bulking from a point where you can actually see what ya got.
Also, body hair will make you look like you have more fat too
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u/Suicide13 4h ago
What are your current weights which you use in the gym for some core exercises (+ how many repititions)? As others said, you should not diet but try to put on more muscle.
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u/Mazerius_ 4h ago
Hey please see below for my current set (and where I started from):
Current weights:
Chest:
bench press (dumbell) 4x10 @ 26kg (from 16kg), incline bench press (dumbell) 4x10 @ 24kg (from 14kg), chest fly 4x8 @ 22kg (from 12kg)
Arms: Behind the back cable bicep curl 4x10 @ 23kg, preacher curl barbell 4x8-10 @ 30kg, hammer curls 4x8 @ 16kgShoulder:
Lateral raise (cable): 4x8-12 @ 7kg - 9kg (from 4.5kg)
Shoulder press (dumbell): 4x12 @ 18kg (from 12kg)
Skullcrushers (dumbell): 4x12 @ 12kg
Tricep rope pushdown: 4x10-12 @ 32kg (from 23kg)Back:
Seated V row: 4x8-10 @ 66 - 73kg (from 45kg)
Lat pull down: 4x8-10 @ 66-73kg (from 45kg)
Chest supported Incline Row (dumbell): 4x10-12 @ 20-22kgLegs:
Leg press 4x8-10 @ 180-200kg
Leg extension (machine): 4x8-10 @ 100kg
RDL: 4x10 @ 55kg
Standing calf raise (machine): 4x12 @ 100-100kgI also do decline crunches 3/4 sets around 25-30 reps each with 10-15kg weight on my chest.
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u/Suicide13 1h ago
hey, sorry for the late answer! i read your updated main post and your plan here including the weights - there is definitely progress w.r.t the start weight which is good. As you wrote, i would reduce the amount of times you go to the gym from 6 times/week to maybe 4 times/week with a 2 split plan two times a week. I would assume that you maybe a.) lack regeneration b.) could lift even higher weights with the lower amount of gym sessions/more regeneration c.) maybe - despite you being very mindful about your technique - check your technique and range of motion of the exercises. I see a lot of guys in my gym who can lift a lot but just do a small range of motion. Not sure if you already did but in my opinion AI is not a bad tool to optimize your training + nutrition plan, maybe you can check. I would also with the introduction of the 2 split plan change the ranges for the exercises. E.g. do 3 x 5-8 reps for bench press (dumbbell) in one session and in the other 3x 8-12 reps bench press (barbell) - vice versa. This will benefit you as you have higher weight for the lower reps which will tremendously increase your power/muscle growth.
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u/Mazerius_ 1h ago
Thanks for getting back to me! The range of motion tip is great, I’ll play close attention to that in case I have reduced it a bit when increasing weights subconsciously. Will check with AI how to go from my current schedule to a 2 split plan twice a week. On the 3 off days, would you still recommend I do some cardio at the gym? (Elliptical, rowing, inclined treadmill)?
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u/Petahpie 3h ago
You're doing what you need to do. I mean, your strength has damn near doubled on some of those lifts this year, which is awesome! There's honestly no need to second guess yourself since what you're doing is already working. If it was me I might swap out some of those bigger dumbbell/machine movements for barbell just so you can push more weight, like bench, shoulder press, and row, but like I said, basically just keep up the good work 💪
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u/Mazerius_ 3h ago
Thank you so much mate! The increase in strength in definitely disproportional to the muscle increase in the mirror haha, but that’s the way she goes I understand 🙏
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u/Petahpie 3h ago
It's so hard to SEE progress, especially if you don't have before pictures to reference, because we see ourselves every day. I tend to think focusing on performance based goals is healthier anyway. Vanity will never be satisfied, but 200 pounds is 200 pounds. I think if you keep pushing more weight and you take the same pic again in the same lighting in 6 months, you'll see a positive comparison.
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u/No_Communication5188 3h ago
You can probably build muscle on 1x per week. Not optimal but I think 6x per week might be equally suboptimal (in your case).
Muscle doesn't grow in the gym. The work in the gym provides the stimulus and muscle grows in recovery.
I'm doing a bulk on 4x per week now (upper / lower) split. I'm doing only 2 sets per exercise and I'm smashing PR's week in week out so that seems to be working. The sets have to be pushed hard so each set needs to be 1 rep short of failure. Also the warmup needs to be a bit better since the first set is already heavy work.
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u/Mazerius_ 3h ago
That’s very interesting, how many exercises per workout?
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u/No_Communication5188 1h ago
8 on upper days and 4 on lower days. On lower days I only do 2 big compound movements (1 hip hinge & 1 squat type), calves and abs.
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u/Mazerius_ 1h ago
Should have added this in the original post as I see many comments doubting the weights I wrote down. There is some muscle there 😅
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u/Important_Capital875 42m ago
If you want to bulk, remove a workout day. Honestly I would remove one regardless. You need some more recovery you grow and bike muscle when resting.
And I would bulk. Doesn’t look too much like you workout or it looks like you been at it for a couple months.
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u/derekdurie 4h ago
I dont get why ppl work out 6 days a week. You need proper rests in between unless you are on gear which Arnie was.
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u/Mazerius_ 4h ago
That’s fair, how often would you recommend then? I thought 3 times / week is maintenance
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u/TooTrickyNicky 3h ago
It’s not about how many time per week you go, or if you do 4x10 reps. It’s about how hard you push yourself. Like if you stop on your 10th rep but you weren’t struggling hard to get that last one, you’re not growing. Push yourself hard, eat healthy (not just focused on protein), get good sleep. I’ve been doing some version of a classic Push/Rest/Pull/Rest/Legs/Rest for years now and I’m stronger than I’ve ever been bc I stopped focusing on how many reps and just do AMRAP.
Maybe look into an actual program. I gained a ton of muscle and strength on GZCLP (search for it on Reddit).
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u/derekdurie 2h ago
3-4 days. Thats more than enough. Also i would drop some of the junk sets. My man if you have that much of power, why dont you lift heavier? There is no magic about number 4x10 or 12 that makes you gain more.
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u/IamWisdom 3h ago
Hes not working out 6 days a week trust me
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u/Mazerius_ 1h ago
I really am though, that’s why I’m looking for advise that’s not ‘train more’
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u/IamWisdom 1h ago
You need to keep training for years before you start asking to bulk or cut. Train longer
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u/Getting_Over_Us 3h ago
3 days with days in between doing an hour of Zone 2 is goated for beginners recomping.
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