Thread: While cutting...

A combination of both works well, but I believe higher weight, lower reps helps maintain mass better. I would lift at least three days per week, if not more. Yes, do cardio, and monitor your calories and weight loss. You don't want to lose too fast. If you're losing more than two pounds per week, you're probably losing some muscle.

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Originally Posted by Dusters

A combination of both works well, but I believe higher weight, lower reps helps maintain mass better. I would lift at least three days per week, if not more. Yes, do cardio, and monitor your calories and weight loss. You don't want to lose too fast. If you're losing more than two pounds per week, you're probably losing some muscle.

Alright thanks a lot dude. But I my routine would be lift push (Monday), legs (Tuesday), pull (Wednesday), break (Thursday) than Friday back to push.

Not neccisarily do push on all Monday and Friday's, just those days as an example.

You could do a 5x5, a 3x8 and a 2-3x12 for the movements you choose on those days. That's how I structure it. As my cut progresses, this drops to 4x5, then 3x5 and I ditch the 12-rep stuff.

Originally Posted by Built

You could do a 5x5, a 3x8 and a 2-3x12 for the movements you choose on those days. That's how I structure it. As my cut progresses, this drops to 4x5, then 3x5 and I ditch the 12-rep stuff.

Sure, I'll give it a try. But once you ditch the 12 rep stuff isn't that a pretty short workout?

Originally Posted by N_I_C_K

Sure, I'll give it a try. But once you ditch the 12 rep stuff isn't that a pretty short workout?

High volume and cutting don't mix well. Typically, you want to keep the workouts as brief yet "intense" as possible. Keep in mind that you don't have the same amount of resources (i.e. calories, macro- and micro-nutrients) as you do when bulking. And so, to damange your muscles beyond a certain point becomes problematic because your healing abilities are impaired.

I'm currently cutting and I use only three exercises a session. Even with sub-maximal lifting my session from first to last working set is done in about 45 minutes.

Remember, you're not trying to trigger new growth (because you can't) or bust through plateaus (you CAN increase in lifts, but it's less likely). You're only trying to train and diet in such a way that your brain signals to the muscles that they need to remain at their current mass.

Like government ministries need to submit to cabinet estimate notes detailing the rationale for their proposed budgets -- essentially justifying their existence -- so too must you justify to your brain that those muscles (government programs) need to stay large (funded) amidst a calorie deficit (economic downturn).

The brain is a powerful tool, but not so powerful that it can't be outwitted.

Speaking of which, are you refeeding?

Originally Posted by Phineas

Like government ministries need to submit to cabinet estimate notes detailing the rationale for their proposed budgets -- essentially justifying their existence -- so too must you justify to your brain that those muscles (government programs) need to stay large (funded) amidst a calorie deficit (economic downturn).

That was intense...

Originally Posted by Phineas

High volume and cutting don't mix well. Typically, you want to keep the workouts as brief yet "intense" as possible. Keep in mind that you don't have the same amount of resources (i.e. calories, macro- and micro-nutrients) as you do when bulking. And so, to damange your muscles beyond a certain point becomes problematic because your healing abilities are impaired.

I'm currently cutting and I use only three exercises a session. Even with sub-maximal lifting my session from first to last working set is done in about 45 minutes.

Remember, you're not trying to trigger new growth (because you can't) or bust through plateaus (you CAN increase in lifts, but it's less likely). You're only trying to train and diet in such a way that your brain signals to the muscles that they need to remain at their current mass.

Like government ministries need to submit to cabinet estimate notes detailing the rationale for their proposed budgets -- essentially justifying their existence -- so too must you justify to your brain that those muscles (government programs) need to stay large (funded) amidst a calorie deficit (economic downturn).

The brain is a powerful tool, but not so powerful that it can't be outwitted.

Speaking of which, are you refeeding?

I think I get what your saying. Basically, Since I'm cutting, I'm not getting as many calories, macro, and micro nutrients while cutting, like I do when I bulk. Therefore a lot of reps will actually damage the muscles since they don't have enough 'resources' to repair and build like they do while bulking. So because of all this less reps and more weight will not get me any stronger, but they won't get weaker either. Correct?

By refeeding you mean 'cheat' days, right? If so, as of now, no I'm not. I started re-cutting yesterday so I haven't yet. I plan to though, yes. How often should I refeed though? Also should I refeed on a 'rest' day or on a day when I workout, or does it not matter?

Originally Posted by N_I_C_K

I think I get what your saying. Basically, Since I'm cutting, I'm not getting as many calories, macro, and micro nutrients while cutting, like I do when I bulk. Therefore a lot of reps will actually damage the muscles since they don't have enough 'resources' to repair and build like they do while bulking. So because of all this less reps and more weight will not get me any stronger, but they won't get weaker either. Correct?

By refeeding you mean 'cheat' days, right? If so, as of now, no I'm not. I started re-cutting yesterday so I haven't yet. I plan to though, yes. How often should I refeed though? Also should I refeed on a 'rest' day or on a day when I workout, or does it not matter?

I didn't mean that high reps are necessarily bad. As Built said, a bit of both is good.

High reps don't necessarily constitute high volume. You could lift at 5 x 12 @ 17RM or 5 x 3 @ 3-4RM, and the latter would be more stressing on your body.

What I meant was just don't do too much overall work. It's still wise to use a variety of rep ranges/intensites, etc, but now is not the time to bring in difficult programs with heavy volume. Keep it simple and right to the point.

A lot of people find heavy lifting, as in submaximal lifting, works best for maintaining mass. Really, there's a multitude of variables in maintaining mass. Diet is far more important.

Anyway, back to the question, feel free to use some high reps. Last night I did a simple 3 x 10 @ 10-11RM. However, with only 3 exercises the workout was brief and just what I needed (remember I'm cutting).

Just make sure you're not damaging your muscles too much. Failure sets should be used sparingly, and ROM and control is more important than ever. You need to stimulate the muscles properly to trigger to your brain that those muscles are still needed.

As for refeeds, frequency depends on your BF, metabolism, and how great a deficit you're running. Someone who's running a moderate 300 calorie deficit at 17% BF may need to refeed only once a week or less, whereas someone running a 700 calorie deficit at 10% BF may need to refeed every 2-3 days. This is the tricky part, as you need to get a feel for how often. I'm still learning this, but I've been doing mine every 5 days. I'm about 11% BF with the weight I've dropped so far and I'm running a 500-700 calorie deficit. However, I think I've been losing too fast. I'm worried I've lost a pound or two of muscle, so I'm probably going to refeed every four days. I'm taking a few days off to refeed and give my body a break, as I've been cutting pretty aggressively.

Why not try running a 500 calorie deficit and refeed every 4-5 days? See how that goes. The theory is keep fat to 50g or less while carbs are 1-3g per pound of LBM. Obviously, protein is the same. I don't understand the rationale for the low-fat, as to my understanding the point of a refeed is to provide for one day a calorie surplus to prevent catobolism and the metabolism to slow down. I can certainly understand the rationale for emphasizing carbs, but I don't understand why fat can't exceed 50g.

This isn't necessarily a "cheat day". If you want to have someone that's not ideal I don't see the big deal. We need those breaks to keep our willpower going steady. Foods you want to load up on are pasta, bread, bagels, rice, etc.