In order for you to get the best results with this program, be consistent and always strive for progression.
Goal Of This Workout
The goal for this workout is to cut excess body fat and maintain as much muscle mass as possible.
Diet and Nutrition Tips
Going to the gym and getting active is only one part of the puzzle.
I’ve found that most people like to eat multiple times a day when they are cutting.
Be sure to have an eating schedule that works with your life schedule; no use in trying to get in trouble at work because you eat 3 meals while at work.
What I want you to do is switch out 90% of your soda and sugary drinks for water or BCAAs and save that last 10% to have at your leisure.
If you eat out a lot, this is going to have to change; prepare your meals in advance and you won’t have issues with having to eat on the run.
Eat Fewer Calories
While you work on cutting out your sodas and sugary drinks, I want you to make a food log of everything you eat.
Use My Fitness Pal to accurately record your calorie intake.
Whatever your daily average is for the week I want you to cut out just 300 calories not including the sodas you’ve stopped drinking.
This is going to be a small enough calorie deficit that will give you results without draining too much energy and creating so much of a change.
Check out these articles below to make healthier food choices.
Supplemental Articles
Here are some articles I’ve written you should read to help you make better food choices and reach your goals.
- Top 10 Healthy Plant Foods
- Cutty’s Pocketbook Guide to Intermittent Fasting
- Top 15 Muscle Building Foods
- How to Eat Healthy While Eating Out
- Keep Weight Loss Simple
- 11 Cheapest Good Protein Sources
Recommended Supplements
Without a good diet, supplementation is mostly a waste of money. I will be the first to tell you to spend money on some good meats than a jug of protein.
For those who have their diets in check, here are the supplements I would use with this routine.
Pre-Workout
I personally like apple mango, but all flavors are good.
This is a great blend without too many stimulants.
Protein
MTS Machine Whey Protein: 5lbs
This is in my opinion the best tasting protein on the market. Period.
Great blend with no secrets, no amino spiking, and it is some of the best in the industry.
So far I’ve had Red Velvet, Cookies and Cream, and Key Lime. All are A+.
BCAA
Marc Lobliner has his sweetening on point with these supplements.
I’ve used mixed berry and grape and I love them both.
Creatine
Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine
I have a review of Optimum Nutrition’s Creatine and it’s a tried and true supplement. It will help with performance and recovery. I highly recommend this.
Cardio and Conditioning Schedule
Cardio is great for optimum muscle growth and recovery and also is a great way to burn off some excess calories.
The cardio routine is simple; pick 2 exercises from this list and complete 15 minutes of each post-workout.
There are a lot of choices that you can do in the gym our out of the gym, so choose activities that you enjoy and will benefit most from.
- Sprints
- Suicide Sprints
- Treadmill Low Intensity
- Treadmill High Intensity Interval Training
- Elliptical Low Intensity
- Elliptical High Intensity Interval Training
- Stationary Bike Low Intensity
- Stationary Bike High Intensity Interval Training
- Stepmill
- Stairmaster
- Jumping Jacks
- Jump Rope
- Basketball
- Hiking
- Walking Outside
- Riding a Bicycle Outside
- Shadow Boxing
- Heavy Bag Training
- Sparring
I can go on with the list, but I think you get the point. Get off of your ass and move.
Workout Schedule
- Day 1 – Upper Back & Lats
- Day 2 – Shoulders & Chest
- Day 3 – Quads, Hamstrings & Calves
- Day 4 – Chest & Arms
- Day 5 – Upper Back & Abs
- Day 6 – Off
- Day 7 – Off
The benefit to starting on a Monday is while everyone is benching and hogging the dumbbells, you are deadlifting and on the other side of the gym.
Cutty’s 5 Day Cutting Routine
| Upper Back & Lats | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Face Pulls | 4 | 60 |
| Bent Over Barbell Rows | 5 | 48 |
| 1 Arm Dumbbell Rows | 5 | 48 |
| Shrugs | 5 | 60 |
| Lat Pull Overs | 4 | 48 |
| Shoulders & Chest | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Military Press | 3 | 45 |
| Arnold Press | 4 | 48 |
| Side Lateral Raises | 4 | 48 |
| Incline Dumbbell Flys | 4 | 60 |
| 1 Arm Incline Dumbbell Bench | 4 | 48 |
| Quads, Hamstrings & Calves | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Goblet Squats | 5 | 25 |
| Hack Squat Machine | 3 | 24 |
| Leg Press | 3 | 36 |
| Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlift | 3 | 36 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 45 |
| Seated 1 Leg Calf Raise | 3 | 45 |
| Chest & Arms | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Flat Bench Press | 5 | 25 |
| Dumbbell Incline Bench | 3 | 24 |
| Close Grip Bench Press | 3 | 36 |
| Tricep Extensions | 3 | 36 |
| Back & Abs | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Rep Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Squats | 3 | 36 |
| Deadlifts | 3 | 36 |
| Reverse Hyper Extensions | 4 | 48 |
| Rope Crunches | 3 | 60 |
| Planks* | 4 | – |
* – Planks aren’t the same rep goal scheme as other lifts. When you are supposed to do planks, do 3 sets of 1 rep and record your results for each set. The goal to beat for next time is to beat the combined time of those 3 planks. Keep the rest short; 60 seconds and really squeeze the abs and back and keep that core tight.
Deloads – I would only deload if you start to hit a multiple week plateau, start getting sick, or feeling achy non stop.
Sharing is caring, and as always leave any comments or questions below!
I love the website & the quality information provided there. I’m in the midst of your powerlifter workout, and after 7 weeks am really pleased with the results to date. Recently, I came across the 5-Day Cutting Routine workout. It seems a little unorthodox, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I understand the logic behind the cardio portion of the workout; however, can your explain the logic/science behind the ultra high reps? I don’t claim to be an expert, but have read some blogs and articles disclaiming ultra high rep workouts in general. Thanks.
Ed, I’m glad to hear that you’re making great progress, keep it up. I’m not sure what you mean about ultra high reps. It goes based off of going to near failure which will help recruit more muscle fibers and help burn more calories.
Even exercises like bent over barbell rows are basically a 9.6 reps per set average if you have to break it down like that. The idea is go push yourself to near failure and not just picking up some weights and only doing a few reps and calling it done. The exercises that have a 20 rep per set average are for very small accessory exercises that need the volume to really start building up these muscles.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask!
Cutty,
Thanks for the quick response. I completely misread the workout and saw “reps” vice “rep goal,” and fully misunderstood how the routine works/functions. After re-reading the routine in light of your comments, it makes sense. I look forward to trying it sometime in the next few months. Thanks again.
ED
Ed,
No problem. I had to check myself I thought I may have typod :).
It’s a huge difference in the way it feels to train.
So as far as rep goals is that the number per set? Meaning use a weight that will allow us to do 60 reps within 1 set or divide the rep goal with the amount of sets, meaning 60 rep goals divided into 5 sets? Bc 48 / 5 isn’t equally divisible unless that’s why you call it a goal. Sorry but I’m a newbie!
No problem John. A rep goal is how many reps you want to achieve over the total sets. So if you have a 50 rep goal over 5 sets, you can think of that as 5 sets of 10 reps. The cool thing about rep goal is you keep doing reps until you hit near failure. This increases intensity and is an easier way to gauge your progress. I will do an article on this system because I know the other page I used to link to went down.
You should pick a weight that allows you to complete the rep goal over the span of your sets. Using the 50 rep goal over 5 sets, pick a weight you can do 10-15 reps with and then basically “go until near failure” each set. Once you hit your 50 reps, you can move on. Don’t pick a weight that you can do 20 reps per set – it just won’t push you.
If it’s easier to look at it like this: 5 sets of 10 reps but don’t stop if you have a couple more reps in your tank for that set.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask. I use these questions to answer and write articles that actually help. I can look up what people are searching online (which is what I do) but until someone asks me a specific question, I’m not sure exactly what my readers want.
So thank you for the question and good luck!
I think your day 5 title is wrong, it says “Upper Back and Abs” but squats and deadlifts aren’t really for upper back I don’t think ;)
Thanks, I forgot to remove “upper” :)
Why are there no bicept workouts? Just curious?
The workout has plenty of movements that involve the bicep, but I also know that most people that use a routine I write and add in extra stuff so I figured that curls would be an automatic add-on for a lot of people. It’s not necessary but if you want to add them in then go for it :)
Looks like a cool workout…I may mod it a little bit to include more Bodyweight in there.
With these numbers of sets/reps, what do you recommend for rest time between sets?
It’s really user independent but I generally say 30-45 for accessory and then 1.5-3 min on heavy compounds.. If your conditioning is strong then you can afford to cut the rest times.. otherwise just go when you feel ready ideally.
I was wondering if i could add leg curls along with the Dumbbell Stiff Leg Deadlift.One exercise for legs biceps sounds little.Face pulls also seems a bit “extra” since the bent over barbell pulls are hitting the same spot?Also whats with your obsession with planks?It will add zero to nothing in your overall after such program.Planks is a novice exercise for me,something to strengthen your core before you start lifting weights.And final theres no “cutting” program.Cutting is all about diet.
Do whatever makes you happy bro.
Good day,
Dont know how old this post is, but quick question … In what weight range should my weights be ?!
There’s no weight range that you should use. It is all independent on the person. Whether you have to start with 1lb dumbbells or you are throwing around 40lbers, the goal is to progress. Get stronger, strive to add pounds or reps to your exercises.
That’s all fitness is – trying to better yourself one step further each day.
Hi Cutty,
I’m looking forward to starting this workout very soon. Quick question: When you’re doing your bent over BB rows do you use a supinated or pronated grip? Or do you switch off?
I use a pronated grip mostly due to tight biceps and poor mobility. I would probably switch them every month or so just to change things up, but pronated has always been a huge lat builder for me.
Try both and as long as you stay progressing with weight, changing grips will be fine.
Good luck and let me know how things go.
Hello, I’m on week two of this program and I’m really enjoying. One thing i noticed, however is that I’m far too sore on friday’s workout to do squats and deadlifts because of the Wednesday leg day. Do you have any suggestions for this?
You could change the days around as you see fit. Maybe make Leg day on Monday or Friday and then get to the squats and deadlifts later in the week.
Let me know how things work out!