Hello everyone.
I've been on the WS4SB (part III) program for the past 6 weeks and have seen some impressive results. My squat has gone up 65# and my bench has gone up #25, among other things. I've been eating about 500 calories above maintenance daily, and I've been eating relatively clean, except for a few cheat meals.

Anyway, I've gained about 8# so far on the program, and I'm going to stay on it for a few weeks longer. However, I've noticed I've gained a little fat too, which I want to cut off after my bulk is done. How should I go about this?

I'm thinking I should eat about 300-500 calories under maintenance, hit the treadmill 3x weekly (LISS or HIIT? Both?), and continue WS4SB, but drop the dynamic effort lower body day until the end of my cutting cycle. Sounds good?

Anyway, I've gained about 8# so far on the program, and I'm going to stay on it for a few weeks longer. However, I've noticed I've gained a little fat too, which I want to cut off after my bulk is done. How should I go about this?
Change your diet and/or do cardio. Did you look at the cardio routines and sample schedules in the WS4SB3 program? There are several great options for what basically boils down to HIIT.

I'm thinking I should eat about 300-500 calories under maintenance, hit the treadmill 3x weekly (LISS or HIIT? Both?), and continue WS4SB, but drop the dynamic effort lower body day until the end of my cutting cycle. Sounds good?
Hrm... I would leave the DE Lower Body day in there for the time being. I would do HIIT on non-training days to start with, but leave yourself one day off per week, for now. So that means 4 days of weights, 2 of cardio, and 1 off day. Do this for a few weeks and then adjust again if needed. When you're ready you can tweak your diet or add or change cardio some. 2 days doesn't sound like much when you first read it maybe, but make sure they are INTENSE and then 2 days will be plenty for now.

What's your diet look like? That is certainly important.

Good luck!

Sound good? Honestly it sounds terrible, and probably counterproductive to the physique you're trying to build.

You're 16-17 years old, have acquired a whole 8 lbs of body mass, been running a program for all of 6 weeks that is giving you consistent gains, and you're looking to change things up and put yourself in a calorie deprived state? Huh? For how long are you thinking about cutting?

If you need to tweak your diet a bit or add in some additional conditioning/speed work to keep the fat at bay, that's fine, but why would you want to get in the way of something that appears to be working pretty damn good?

Obviously this is just my opinion, and I would always encourage you to seek the advice of others.

You're 16-17 years old...
Whoops, I missed that part. OP: what are your other stats? Weight, bodyfat, etc.?

Goonie makes some decent points. Certainly you should do whatever YOU want to do, but since you're seeing so much progress I might suggest sticking with it a little longer, at least another month or so. Again though it's really up to you. :)

I'm thinking I should eat about 300-500 calories under maintenance, hit the treadmill 3x weekly (LISS or HIIT? Both?), and continue WS4SB, but drop the dynamic effort lower body day until the end of my cutting cycle. Sounds good?

Regardless of age, your maintenance calories will be higher because of your increased muscle mass and the increase in calories you've been eating. Your "maintenance" is higher.

Go down from whatever caloric range you're at now by about 250 calories. Try and lower calories only when you stall. In fact, try and lose weight without ever going below maintenance. Just add in cardio one day at a time when you stall or plateau (but don't go crazy with 5-7 sessions a week or something).

Going from 500 above maintenance to 500 below maintenance is counterproductive because it leaves you no room to cut calories further. And as a 17 year old, yeah, you shouldn't have a big deficit. But I do think a little deficit after a bulk is fine, as long as you do it in a healthy manner with only a small deficit.

Ok, I'm 5'8", 157#, 16-17% (estimated, through neck, weight, abdomen test) body fat. I haven't done any cardio at all for the past 6 weeks. I currently eat about 2.8-2.9k calories daily because I'm trying to gain mass. I was just thinking of cutting for 3-4 weeks, just to shed some extra fat that I just don't like to have, then maintain for 2 or 3 weeks and back to bulking.

If I don't change my caloric intake, and add some HIIT to the mix (1-2 times weekly I guess), will I lose the extra fat, while continuing to gain muscle mass? Thanks for the replies.

Ok, I'm 5'8", 157#, 16-17% (estimated, through neck, weight, abdomen test) body fat. I haven't done any cardio at all for the past 6 weeks. I currently eat about 2.8-2.9k calories daily because I'm trying to gain mass. I was just thinking of cutting for 3-4 weeks, just to shed some extra fat that I just don't like to have, then maintain for 2 or 3 weeks and back to bulking.

If I don't change my caloric intake, and add some HIIT to the mix (1-2 times weekly I guess), will I lose the extra fat, while continuing to gain muscle mass? Thanks for the replies.
Please list out your diet in detail if you can. :)

Maybe this idea might work best (let me know what you think): instead of going on this 3-4 week "minicut," let's just see if we can tweak the diet slightly so that fat gain is kept at a minimum. That, and/or we can add some cardio. 1-2 HIIT sessions per week would be plenty IMHO. Again, look through DeFranco's program because he gives examples of how to incorporate this (good examples too I think).

JMO of course; if you want to switch gears and cut then that's ok, it's your decision afterall. I do agree with Goonie though in that since you're seeing good progress you might want to just continue on for a little longer.

Gaining extra body fat just bothers me... I used to be really chubby as a child so I guess that might have something to do with it.

Anyway

Breakfast:

1 cup oats, 8 walnut halves, 1 tsp. brown sugar, pinch of cinnamon, 2 scoops Webber Naturals protein powder (17g protein/scoop)
1 glass of skim milk
Lunch:

1 apple
1 chicken sandwich (2 slices whole wheat bread, 1 chicken breast, chopped up with a tbsp. of miracle whip)
Snack:

2 whole wheat toasts with 175g 1% cottage cheese
1 glass of skim milkSnack 2 (taken within 30 minutes of working out, or on non-training days, about 2-3 hours after the last snack)

1.5 glasses of skim milk
1 banana
1 tbsp. peanut butter
1 tsp. coffee
1 cup oats
3 scoops webber naturals protein powder(Note: I love this stuff, I'd rather not play around with this snack at all)

Dinner:

1 chicken breast
1 cup brown rice
~175g 2% yogurtTOTAL: 2800-3000 calories

I'm really disciplined when it comes to food, and I've followed this eating schedule almost perfectly for the past 6 weeks, minus a few cheat meals here and there. Goonie has a point, my indicator lifts have gone up, so I guess I should stick to what I've been doing and reap the benefits, I'm just bothered by the extra fat. I'm more than willing to do HIIT cardio, I actually enjoy it, and its been a while since I last hit the bike/treadmill for more than a warm-up.

I'm really disciplined when it comes to food, and I've followed this eating schedule almost perfectly for the past 6 weeks, minus a few cheat meals here and there. Goonie has a point, my indicator lifts have gone up, so I guess I should stick to what I've been doing and reap the benefits, I'm just bothered by the extra fat. I'm more than willing to do HIIT cardio, I actually enjoy it, and its been a while since I last hit the bike/treadmill for more than a warm-up.
I see some areas of your diet we could improve, but I'm not sure if you want to do that yet.

The indicator lifts going up is a good sign for sure.

What about the idea of simply adding in one, MAYBE two HIIT sessions a week? Did you see the samples in DeFranco's documentation? They fit in really nice with his lifting schedule/routine. You also have the added benefit of feeling better about pre/post nutrition still hanging around during a day when you don't lift weights; I still consume pre/post nutrition meals before and after an intense HIIT session.

Ok, thanks for the reply. I'll add in one or two HIIT sessions during my next cycle and see what happens. Also, I was wondering what you were thinking on how to improve my diet routine, I'm welcome to suggestions. Thanks for your help.

Ok, thanks for the reply. I'll add in one or two HIIT sessions during my next cycle and see what happens.
Check page 12 of 22 of the PDF (if you don't have the PDF version of the routine, I strongly urge downloading it: http://www.elitefts.com/ws4sb/default.asp). He's got some speed training in there on Tuesday:

A. General Warmup/Movement skills
B. Ground-based mobility
C. Frequency drills
D. Speed training
1. 10-yard sprints – 10 sprints with 1 minute rest
2. 20-yard sprints – 6 sprints with 2 minutes rest
3. 40-yard sprints – 4 sprints with 4 minutes rest

That's just one example. Here's another (p. 14):

OPTION 3 – General conditioning...
...Here is a sample general conditioning workout we performed with our football players this summer:

1. Mountain climbers into 10-yard sprint – 8 sets with 30 seconds rest between sets. After you complete the 8 sprints, rest 1 minute before moving onto the 2nd exercise.

2. Wideouts into 15-yard sprint – perform wideouts for 5 seconds and then sprint 15 yards on command. Perform 6 sets with 45 seconds rest between sets. After you complete the 6 sets, rest 2 minutes before moving onto the third exercise.

3. 60-yard shuttle – perform 4 shuttles with 45 seconds rest between sets. After you complete the 4 sets, rest 1 minute before moving onto the final exercise.

4. Illinois Drill – perform 3 sets with 1 minute rest between sets.

So, there are some ideas in his documentation that you could incorporate. I like them because they're more fun than sprinting on the treadmill. :) But, of course, you could do something like that too, or an elliptical or bike, whatever. I really like hill sprints if you have somewhere outside to do this near your house.


Also, I was wondering what you were thinking on how to improve my diet routine, I'm welcome to suggestions. Thanks for your help.
Right now I wouldn't suggest messing with it too much. You're seeing results, and 1-2 brief cardio sessions per week alone might make you more satisfied.

But if I was going to nitpick... Eat your vegetables. :) Possibly remove some of the bread (not all, some).

I'll try DeFranco's methods during summer. I live in Quebec, and right now the streets are icy and covered with snow. In the mean time, I'll hit the bike for a while.

I was dreading the vegetable question. I guess I'll add some broccoli to my rice or something, I'll figure it out.

Anyway, one last thing is on my mind: When should I start cutting? I'm at 16% right now, and I do care about aesthetics as well. I'd like to be around 10-12 percent at some point.

Again, thanks for your help, its greatly appreciated.

Uh, problem... I sprained my ankle. I can't continue WS4SB for the next month or so since half the exercises are for lower body. I'm thinking I'll switch routines right now, lower caloric intake by 300 cals or so. I doubt I'll be heading to the gym for the next 2-3 weeks either, until I can at least walk.

(edit: ankle is feeling better, should be able to do upper body lifts at the gym and maybe stationary bike too by next week, taking this week off to recover and prevent over training anyway)