Is it time to cut?

[userS8WAHVOZATJ]

Hi, I'm kinda new to all of this. I started working out two years ago in my sophomore year of high school because I was super skinny at around 105 lbs. I used to get made fun of by my friends but in a lighthearted way. I didn't really start doing it regularly until last year, and I didn't start bulking till early June this year. Starting in June I was around 118 lbs and now I'm around 142 lbs. So approximately 20ish lbs have been gained. I was actually proud of my progress since I definitely could see a lot of progress since two years ago. I'm definitely not skinny anymore. Now recently I've been made fun of as being chubby, once again just as lighthearted jokes, but I didn't realize this until these jokes started. I suddenly realized I actually was kinda chubby now. My plan was to bulk until March and then cut for 3 months so I could have a decent summer body. However, I calculated my body fat percentage to be a little less than 20%.

My question is should I cut now for two months and then continue bulking? My goal is to in the long term get much more muscle mass. I have been aiming to train for hypertrophy and not strength. But also I want to have a nice summer body for at least this summer in particular. What steps should I take in order to get lean for this summer but still build muscle in the long term?

I'm 5 feet 7 inches male, 142lbs. I'll attach some pictures of me now for reference both flexing and unflexing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you, guys.

[TolerantLactose]

You have very little muscle mass for someone who has trained for 2 years. What was your training programming like?

[BBryan098]

Seems you're skinny fat. What has your protein intake been like? You also said you haven't trained for strength, but rather for hypertrophy. You still are supposed to progressive overload, and lift hard in order to grow. Have your workouts been easy? Have you gained strength? What's your actual routine and numbers?

[Garage Rat]

Restart.
Lose body fat first and slowly gain.
Muscle is gained slowly over time.
You must be patient,have the right training,recovery and diet for you.
If one thing is off it won't go as planned.
Rethink where your at and where you want to go.

[getbigordie18]

Hi, I'm kinda new to all of this. I started working out two years ago in my sophomore year of high school because I was super skinny at around 105 lbs. I used to get made fun of by my friends but in a lighthearted way. I didn't really start doing it regularly until last year, and I didn't start bulking till early June this year. Starting in June I was around 118 lbs and now I'm around 142 lbs. So approximately 20ish lbs have been gained. I was actually proud of my progress since I definitely could see a lot of progress since two years ago. I'm definitely not skinny anymore. Now recently I've been made fun of as being chubby, once again just as lighthearted jokes, but I didn't realize this until these jokes started. I suddenly realized I actually was kinda chubby now. My plan was to bulk until March and then cut for 3 months so I could have a decent summer body. However, I calculated my body fat percentage to be a little less than 20%.

My question is should I cut now for two months and then continue bulking? My goal is to in the long term get much more muscle mass. I have been aiming to train for hypertrophy and not strength. But also I want to have a nice summer body for at least this summer in particular. What steps should I take in order to get lean for this summer but still build muscle in the long term?

I'm 5 feet 7 inches male, 142lbs. I'll attach some pictures of me now for reference both flexing and unflexing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you, guys.

Don't think about cutting. You are young. Save cutting for when ur older. Use your teen years to focus on growing and adding size! Hope the helps!

[anytimes]

Restart.
Lose body fat first and slowly gain.
Muscle is gained slowly over time.
You must be patient,have the right training,recovery and diet for you.
If one thing is off it won't go as planned.
Rethink where your at and where you want to go.

I agree

[userS8WAHVOZATJ]

You have very little muscle mass for someone who has trained for 2 years. What was your training programming like?

I actually should have said that I only started eating right in May when I was around 115 lbs, It was only after I maintained a calorie surplus that I saw growth. I did push, pull, legs, and tried to go to the gym every day. For push days I would start with bench and do 5x5s but I realized that was more for strength so I recently started 3x10s. Then I do 3x10s for incline dumbbell chest press, crush press, lateral raises, shoulder press, bent over reverse fly, tricep pushdown, and tricep skull crushers. For pull, I do 3x10 barbell curls, concentration curls, hammer curls, low rows, lat pulldown, dumbbell forearm curls, and reverse dumbbell curls. For legs, I do 5x5 squats but I will switch to 3x10, I do 2 sets of 20 calf raises, 3x10 on each leg for leg curls.

[userS8WAHVOZATJ]

Seems you're skinny fat. What has your protein intake been like? You also said you haven't trained for strength, but rather for hypertrophy. You still are supposed to progressive overload, and lift hard in order to grow. Have your workouts been easy? Have you gained strength? What's your actual routine and numbers?

Yeh I haven't been incorporating progressive overload as much as I should have, thank you for the advice. They haven't been necessarily been easy but I have seen growth in strength as when I started bulking in May I could only do 75 lbs for 5x5 and now I can do 95 fo 5x5 bench press. See my reply above for my routine.

[Brandon2576]

I actually should have said that I only started eating right in May when I was around 115 lbs, It was only after I maintained a calorie surplus that I saw growth. I did push, pull, legs, and tried to go to the gym every day. For push days I would start with bench and do 5x5s but I realized that was more for strength so I recently started 3x10s. Then I do 3x10s for incline dumbbell chest press, crush press, lateral raises, shoulder press, bent over reverse fly, tricep pushdown, and tricep skull crushers. For pull, I do 3x10 barbell curls, concentration curls, hammer curls, low rows, lat pulldown, dumbbell forearm curls, and reverse dumbbell curls. For legs, I do 5x5 squats but I will switch to 3x10, I do 2 sets of 20 calf raises, 3x10 on each leg for leg curls.

5x5 isn’t necessarily just for strength. It will cause you to grow quite a bit. Usually 5x5 or 3x5 is prescribed to beginners because the reps are a good middle point of low and high reps and it also allows for practice on technique without having to worry about fatigue messing up form. 3x5 or 5x5 is also really easy to track and progress.

You split seems a bit lopsided. Your pull day seem to be focused around the biceps instead of the back. I personally don’t see the point in three bicep curl variations. I would instead replace one bicep curl with shrugs and another bicep curl with either another row or pulldown variation.

You seem to not give your legs much attention. You have 3 exercises for them. They can probably handle a bit more volume than just three exercises. For example, I would either throw in a RDL or just regular deadlift on your leg day. That way you can add more leg volume and you can make up for the fact you didn’t have a deadlift in before. Plus, if you want to, you can add in leg extensions. I personally prefer to do my leg curls and extensions unilaterally to make sure my legs are staying somewhat symmetrical.

[TolerantLactose]

I actually should have said that I only started eating right in May when I was around 115 lbs, It was only after I maintained a calorie surplus that I saw growth.

Considering you are 25+ % bf, I wouldn't say you were eating correctly.

I did push, pull, legs, and tried to go to the gym every day. For push days I would start with bench and do 5x5s but I realized that was more for strength so I recently started 3x10s. Then I do 3x10s for incline dumbbell chest press, crush press, lateral raises, shoulder press, bent over reverse fly, tricep pushdown, and tricep skull crushers. For pull, I do 3x10 barbell curls, concentration curls, hammer curls, low rows, lat pulldown, dumbbell forearm curls, and reverse dumbbell curls. For legs, I do 5x5 squats but I will switch to 3x10, I do 2 sets of 20 calf raises, 3x10 on each leg for leg curls.

5x5 would have promoted better growth than 3x10 in your situation. You're using far too many exercises, resulting in a lot of junk volume, imo.