Stalling / Regressing / Lack of Motivation

[Scott Stevenson]

Scott.. My mannn (Or anyone else that fancies chipping in).

Just to bring you up to speed..

Have been in a lean gaining phase for around 3-4 months and gained around 8lbs total. My blast before last was 5 weeks long and I rebounded nicely which I haven't done before. My last blast was 6 weeks as I felt I could push a bit further this time round.. did a 2 week cruise as I felt the cruise during the 5 week blast with it being shorter, threw my training a little by coming back a couple of days earlier etc.
Anyway.. I felt that over the course of this "gaining phase" that I have gained a little bit of unwanted fat which is inevitable but more so throughout the last blast so felt like a mini cut would be in order so that I could in turn prolong the gaining phase for as long as possible. I decided upon this approach as last year I did a 16 week prep and it wrote me off completely.. I was doing 2 hours cardio a day + 2 hours training (tier 2 turbo) along with 18k steps via NEAT. This was not fun at all but one thing for sure was that I managed to keep food relatively high in comparison to other years as the deficit was brought on by expenditure. On top of this my lifts progressed for the majority of it and strength didn't diminish at all if I remember rightly. The end result of this was being lean but I was so over trained that it took me 3 months + to get back to feeling half decent so to speak. NEVER AGAIN!

So as mentioned my last blast was 6 weeks and then did a 2 week cruise. I decided that now would be a good time to do a mini cut of 5-6 weeks which is the duration of a blast. Immediately I dropped food by a few hundred calories and upped my expenditure via neat by approx 5000 steps up to 10k on both training and rest days (I kind of wanted to do this aggressively so that I could drop 5-6lbs of fat then repeat the slow process of adding muscle ASAP).

I have ran tier 1 basic the first week and now on tier 2.. I find my motivation really lacking soon as I get in the gym. The hours preceding etc I'm thinking to myself I am going to smash it but then soon as I get in I am thinking damn.. I cant wait to get out of here. On top of this my lifts are suffering, predominantly legs, I am finding legs really tough this time round both the pump sets and the load, everything feels heavy, the pump is brought on sooner so the sets are ending sooner due to accumulation of lactic acid which in turn results in total volume via load being significantly less.. Also my intensity feels a bit mehh...
I think to myself that I've worked a damn sight harder before, don't get my wrong.. I am focused throughout the set however I am thinking that the reason I am dilly dallying about is due to the influx of new gym goers so the equipment always seems to be hijacked or in use.

That is a little or a LOT of information regarding my situation so my question is

How do you think I should progress?

I'm not 100% sure but I believe that this (lift regression) has been brought on by the sudden increase of NEAT expenditure and me being on my feet a lot more but then I am thinking how I managed to get through the whole of my last prep relatively unscathed apart from it being a living hell at the time.
The sessions were still really productive.

Do you think I should get out of this mini-cut phase and return into my surplus gaining phase? I think my body is trying to tell me in a way that what I am doing right now is not favorable.

Do you think it's wise to take a few additional days rest?

My rest days I have 30-40g carbs from trace sources.. and on training days I have pro fat up until my pre workout meal where I then consume around 300g carbs peri.

I am wondering if I should take a few days off and eat up with some carbs etc.

Thanks

I'll simply here as I think the issue boils down a lack of motivation.

The solution then is to find something that motivates you.

So, there are a couple things to consider:

Are the "Newbies" in the gym the issue (this can be legit) or an excuse?...

What is your long term goal here as far as gaining muscle?... Are you sabotaging yourself by letting this (small?) amount of fat gain keep you from gaining the muscle you ultimately want?...

You may be having some cognitive dissonance here in that you want to body cut body fat, and thus sacrifice muscle gain, but also gain more muscle (as you have some goal in mind that you've maybe not made concrete).

I'd set out your yearly long term goal and consider where this cut fits in?... You can even do the dreaded 5year goal, too - how much muscle do you want?...

Maybe, assuming you're in the N. hemisphere, doing another gaining-oriented blast woudl be best and then cutting down during the warmer months would make more sense in terms
-Long term goal
-Time of year: Clothing you'd be wearing and effect of appetite on heat
-New Year's resolutions would be out of the gym.

-S