Just wondering what everyone does for their workout during a cutting phase while trying to keep strength. I just finished a program similar to GVT (for bulking) and am looking for some new suggestions.
I’ve found going heavy using a 5x5 on the major compound movements to be good for maintaining during a cutting cycle.
You have to use heavy weights to keep your strength. Read some of Chad Waterbury’s stuff and follow a good nutrition plan.
It’s all a matter of how much you eat versus how much you actually burn. Use the heavy weights to keep strength and mass while you diet down.
I train just as heavy when dieting as I do when gaining. The only time my weights decrease is if, through dieting, I am simply weaker on certain exercises. The goal, however, is to maintain my strength throughout because this is a direct indicator of muscle tissue loss.
Alright, one more question: Since strength training isn’t very glycogen demanding, would I still need to take a high carb recovery drink?
I still do.
I just keep my carbs lower for all my other meals, but I still take Surge after my workouts.
Who told you that training for strength isn’t “glycogen demanding”? I train for strength and size. Both are probably equally important to me. Either way, glycogen is used during a set. I am not sure why you would think otherwise unless you are only doing one rep and calling it a day.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Who told you that training for strength isn’t “glycogen demanding”? .[/quote]
In the “Ripped Rugged & Dense” article:
[quote]T-man wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Who told you that training for strength isn’t “glycogen demanding”? .
In the “Ripped Rugged & Dense” article:
http://t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459419[/quote]
Then I disagree with that statement. Strength training goes hand in hand with training for size. The only difference is if we are now specifically talking about powerlifting. Who do you know that trains for size, gets much bigger, and then loses strength in the process? This has never happened to me. May I also suggest that you stop getting everything you believe in from one article on the subject? I have read many books over the years and countless magazines. All either contradict each other at times or completely disagree. To get bigger, you have to get stronger. I don’t even understand the process of seperating the two unless you are training for sports and/or in the name of increasing power. When I lift, I am depleted after training. There is no doubt in my mind that my glycogen stores are empty. My reps are usually in the 4-10 range over as many as 4 sets for each exercise. This has allowed me to get strong and much bigger. I can curl more weight with one hand than some people can use for dumbbell presses. Why would you train as if this is one or the other? Even that article stated that you get stronger as you build size and you only took one sentence and ran with it.
This is from an upcoming book of mine…
"I’ll say it once and for all: the purpose of strength-training while dieting is primarily to prevent muscle loss while on a caloric deficit diet. A lot of gurus now like to use strength training exercises to burn fat by using long series (15-20+ repetitions) and short rest intervals (30-60 seconds). Their logic is that this form of training increases growth hormone output. GH being a lipolytic (increase fat usage) hormone they argue that a training method leading to a production of GH will naturally lead to an important fat utilization. This theory is interesting however in the real world it is just not that effective. Why? Consider that when a bodybuilder uses exogenous human growth hormone a minimum dose of 2IU per day for at least 3 months is required to produce noticeable changes. Many bodybuilders even argue that below 4IU per day is useless for body composition purposes. The medical dose recommended for GH is around 0.20 to 0.5 IU/kg per day, so for a 90kg individual (200lbs) this comes up to a daily dose of 2.6 to 6.5IU. And this is for medical use, which is often too low to cause any “bodybuilding” results. As a comparison, the natural production of GH by the body varies from 1IU to 2IU per day (so maybe 0.25 to 0.5IU during exercise). So it is unlikely that the slight, transient, increase in GH levels from strength training would cause any significant short term improvements in body composition.
High-intensity strength exercises (in the 70-100% range) are better than low intensity strength exercises (in the 40-70% range) while dieting. The higher training loads helps you preserve strength and muscle while on a hypocaloric diet much better than super-high volume/low intensity workouts.
We’ve been brainwashed by the various muscle magazines to believe that you should do high reps training for definition. This is absolutely ridiculous! Sure you use a little more energy, but think about it: the higher the training volume, the more energy you need to recover. The more glycogen you burn while strength training, the more carbs you’ll need to recover and progress. While on a hypocaloric diet your body has a lowered anabolic drive, meaning that it can’t synthesize as much protein into muscle as if you were eating a ton. A super-high volume of work leads to a lot of microtrauma to the muscle structures; a lot of microtrauma requires a great protein synthesis increase.
So if you use high-volume/low-intensity training while dieting you’ll breakdown more muscle and build up less. Not exactly good news! Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of high-reps training is an increase in blood and nutrient flow to the muscles, but if you have a reduced amount of nutrients available in your body, this benefit is pretty much wasted."