Who trains differently during bulk and cut?

[Deleted member 123722]

Does anyone here change their training methods, such as frequency, volume, and intensity while cutting? Some guys say don't change anything and train just as hard. Some say doing that can lead to injury being that your deficit will inevitably make you weaker, so throwing around heavy poundages is just risker.

We also know that it takes much less to maintain muscle than to build it. So wouldn't it make sense to do the bare minimum to keep what you have and focus more on diet than trying to add tissue in a deficit?

Thoughts?

 

[Evom1]

General training method stays the same. As the cut/prep progresses sets are not taken as close to failure and training volume will reduce to manage overall fatigue

 

[Deleted member 123722]

General training method stays the same. As the cut/prep progresses sets are not taken as close to failure and training volume will reduce to manage overall fatigue

My recent bulk I did PPLPPL OFF and it worked great; I'm wondering if keeping that would just be overkill since I won't be adding new tissue. Thing is, I love my split, and perhaps I can keep it and just not go to failure.

 

[eery]

My recent bulk I did PPLPPL OFF and it worked great; I'm wondering if keeping that would just be overkill since I won't be adding new tissue. Thing is, I love my split, and perhaps I can keep it and just not go to failure.

keep the split, alter the volume and intensity based off of wants, needs and recovery.

 

[shartking]

I drop the weight and up the reps.

 

[Deleted member 123722]

I drop the weight and up the reps.

Yea, makes no sense to try to break PRs and get injured. Dorian get destroyed because he kept going HAM to the very end lol.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Yea, makes no sense to try to break PRs and get injured. Dorian get destroyed because he kept going HAM to the very end lol.

You should maintain intensity as long as possible even if it means cutting volume. Intensity should be the last thing to drop. That doesn't mean you use the same weights as your offseason. Just means you maintain doing sets to/near failure with weight appropriate for the rep range and your current strength.

The issue with the build vs maintain argument is guys usually reference studies done in caloric surplus or even, but when in a deficit it's a good idea to give your body reason to not sacrifice muscle because it will want to.

 

[Deleted member 123722]

You should maintain intensity as long as possible even if it means cutting volume. Intensity should be the last thing to drop. That doesn't mean you use the same weights as your offseason. Just means you maintain doing sets to/near failure with weight appropriate for the rep range and your current strength.

The issue with the build vs maintain argument is guys usually reference studies done in caloric surplus or even, but when in a deficit it's a good idea to give your body reason to not sacrifice muscle because it will want to.

Thing is, due to my PPLPPL Off split, I was already doing low-volume. Chest, arms, calves, got two exercises; back and shoulders got three; legs got four....all exercises got two working straight sets to failure after proper warm up. I wouldn't go any lower than 8 reps, and I would go as high as 15. Once I could fail twice with a weight at 15 reps, I upped the weight. Best progress I've ever made.

I think in order to keep this style of training, I will have to resort to only ONE all out set to failure rather than two, so the intensity is there, but the fatigue won't accumulate up so fast. Each muscle group got several sets of failure in each session. I.E. I could only do this in 6 week blocks, due to the fatigue finally catching up, then deload for a week.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Thing is, due to my PPLPPL Off split, I was already doing low-volume. Chest, arms, calves, got two exercises; back and shoulders got three; legs got four....all exercises got two working straight sets to failure after proper warm up. I wouldn't go any lower than 8 reps, and I would go as high as 15. Once I could do fail twice with a weight at 15 reps, I upped the weight. Best progress I've ever made.

I think in order to keep this style of training, I will have to resort to only ONE all out set to failure rather than two, so the intensity is there, but the fatigue won't add up so fast. Each muscle group got four sets of failure in each session. I did this in 6 week blocks, due to the fatigue finally catching up.

Removing a working set is exactly how you manage fatigue going to failure. Slowly remove working sets. My last prep finished with 6 total working sets a day on a PPL which is half my normal working volume during off-season.

What I often find is people THINK they're fatigued and getting weaker far more than they are.

 

[Deleted member 123722]

Removing a working set is exactly how you manage fatigue going to failure. Slowly remove working sets. My last prep finished with 6 total working sets a day on a PPL which is half my normal working volume during off-season.

What I often find is people THINK they're fatigued and getting weaker far more than they are.

Good thing I intuitively did that today. I only did one working set to failure for each exercise. Appreciate the feedback; it's always good to know I'm on the right path from an advanced bodybuilder lol.