How to Do Weight Training while Cutting

The “rules” for productive weight training while cutting are not as clear cut as they are for nutrition. There are however a few basic principles that any productive workout routine for fat loss must be based on. We’ll discuss these principles in today’s article.

By the end of this (long) post you’ll have a good understanding of why muscle growth is slowed down during a cut and how our training may need to change to match our diet and sub-optimal recovery. You’ll also find a few workout routines I like for cutting.

Let’s dig in. We’ll start with some context first.

What makes muscle grow?

Before we explain how nutrition affects our training, I think it will be helpful for beginners to first understand the causes of muscle growth. This section will explain why they probably shouldn’t train like their favorite youtuber/fitness model when cutting.

The causes of muscle growth are not yet completely understood. We have about 90-95% of the picture. The best categorisation of these causes I found in one of Brad Schoenfeld’s papers. In that paper he concluded that the 3 main factors leading to muscle hypertrophy are:

• Progressive tension overload (lifting heavier and heavier weights over time)
• Muscle damage (micro-tears of muscle fibers that necessitate repair)
• Cellular fatigue (pushing a muscle to its metabolic limit through high reps)

Out of the three, progressive tension overload has the most profound effect (by far). So although you can stimulate growth through muscular damage and fatigue, if you’re not progressively lifting heavier and heavier weight you’re not going to grow very well.

That is because you’re not targeting the growth “pathway” that matters most for myofibrillar hypertrophy.

Two types of muscle growth 

In the scientific community it is generally accepted that there are two types of muscle growth:

• Myofibrillar hypertrophy
• Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy

Myofibrillar hypertrophy refers to the actual growth of the muscle fibers while Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy refers to the growth of the non-contractile tissues found in muscle (glycogen, triglycerides, water, minerals, etc.).

The way we train (the number of reps we do, the weights used, the rest periods, etc.) determines which type of muscle growth we’re stimulating the most.

Lifting heavy weights in the 4-10 rep range, with long rest periods mainly generates myofibrillar growth. The reason for this is because after you’ve made your neurological adaptation and your exercise technique is efficient, the only way to get stronger is to get bigger muscle fibers.

Lifting lighter weights for 10-15 reps, with short rest periods generates more sarcoplasmic growth than myofibrillar. This type of training depletes high quantities of muscle glycogen which forces the super compensation of the glycogen stores to better handle future workouts.

The key point here is this:  Only a small percentage of the overall muscle growth comes sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. That is because you quickly max out the amount of glycogen the muscles can hold. Afterwards, the only way to continually add muscle size is to get stronger.

Probably 70-80% of the overall muscle growth a natural can get will come from the increased size of the muscle fibers. Usually you can only gain about 6-10 lbs with pump training. For this reason the main focus of your workouts should be strength gains, not fatigue, DOMS, or burns.

Muscle Growth when Cutting

In the previous section we concluded that the type of training you do determines the type and degree of hypertrophy that occurs. Now let’s see how nutrition fits in all of this.

You may have heard that you cannot gain muscle when cutting; or if you can, the rate of growth is significantly reduced. That is true. The reason for that is because a large part of the nutrients necessary to create new muscle tissue are restricted. Although training stimulates the same degree of growth, nutrition doesn’t “permit” the adaptation.

The availability of nutrients is the reason you gain muscle faster during a bulk than during a cut, using the same workout routine. From the total amount of nutrients we eat our bodies must get:

1.  The energy needed to maintain life (breathing, body temperature, pumping blood, etc.)
2. The energy expended through daily activities (any type of movements outside of training)
3. The energy expended through training
4. The nutrients necessary for recovery
5. The nutrients necessary for growth

So you can see that it’s difficult to cover all 5 points while eating a deficit of calories. Usually by the time you get to number 4 or 5 you’ve used up all the available energy.

That’s completely the opposite of what happens during a surplus. When you’re bulking you’re deliberately eating enough calories to cover the energy cost of living, exercise, recovery, and muscle growth.

Training while Cutting – What to do

Ok, now that you’ve seen why muscle grows and how nutrition affects our progress, you’ll understand the logic behind the practical recommendations we’ll discuss next:

1. Focus on Strength Training not Pump Training

When cutting, our main focus should be strength training.

The reason for this because pump training relies on high carbohydrate intake to work. The only way you can super compensate muscle glycogen is if you eat a lot of carbs. So while cutting, there’s no point in depleting your glycogen stores too much (unless you’re doing some sort of cyclical dieting).

Oh and sometimes else worth mentioning here is that high rep training doesn’t lead to local fat loss. As Eric Helms one time said: “If high rep training led to local fat loss, every teenager would have one normal forearm and one shredded forearm.” You can’t beat this argument haha.

Strength maintenance = Muscle maintenance

A big mistake some people make when leaning down is to reduce the intensity of their workouts and increase volume. Remember from the previous section that progressive tension overload was the main factor that got your muscles to their current level. If you now remove the stimulus, you’ll lose the adaptation.

On the other hand if you keep the weight on the bar the same, you can maintain all of your muscle mass even if you reduce the volume by two thirds.

2. Focus on just a few compound movements

For a lower volume routine to be efficient, it must be based on compound movements.

The key exercises that will bring you the most bang for your buck are: Weighted Chin-ups, Incline Bench Press, Standing Shoulder Press, Squats, Deadlifts/Hang Cleans.
*Squats and Deadlifts can be replaced by other exercises after you’ve reached the leg development you’re happy with.

Beginners and intermediates will be able to make strength gains on these main movements even while cutting. This will lead to muscle growth.

On the other hand intermediates to advanced lifters may not be able to progress because of the reduced energy intake. That’s fine. If their strength remains the same and their body weight is going down, they are still improving their relative strength (which is the key to a great looking body).

A workout routine I like to use when cutting is this:

Monday

• Weighted Chin-ups – 5, 6, 8 Reverse Pyramid Training
• Deadlifts – 5, 6, 8 Reverse Pyramid Training
• Barbell Rows – 6, 6, 6 Straight Sets
• Calf Raises – 3 sets to failure

Wednesday

• Incline Bench Press – 5, 6, 8 Reverse Pyramid Training
• Flat Bench Press – 5, 6, 8 Reverse Pyramid Training
• Biceps Curls – 10, 10, 10 Straight Sets
• Bent-over Flys – 12, 12, 12 Straight Sets

Friday

• Standing Shoulder Press –  5, 6, 8 Reverse Pyramid Training
• Squats – 5, 6, 8 Reverse Pyramid Training
• Lateral Raises – 12, 12, 12 Straight Sets
• Skull Crushers – 10, 10, 10 Straight Sets
• Calf Raises – 3 sets to failure

This is a routine suitable for intermediates.

3. If you’re going to do cardio, do Low Intensity Steady State (LISS) or low impact High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Cardio is not necessary for getting shredded but it helps in certain situations. If you are very lean (7-8% body fat) and want to get even leaner, cardio helps with the mobilization of fatty acids. Also, it allows you to eat more food which can be a great psychological relief.

Outside of those situations, the whole point of doing cardio is burning calories. And if that’s the case then we should choose a type of cardio that doesn’t interfere with our recovery and strength progress.

LISS would be the best choice in my opinion. 45-60 minutes of walking burns 200-400kcal  (depending on the weight of the person) and your muscles don’t need recovery after that. In addition you don’t need to go to the gym to do it which saves you time.

HIIT would be the second best choice. 20-25 minutes of HIIT would burn about the same amount of calories without needing much recovery. Also, because HIIT is very similar to weight lifting, it won’t interfere with your workouts.

It’s best to avoid high impact cardio (when your legs repeatedly hit the floor) because it creates much more muscle damage and may sap your recovery capacity if done in excess. Please note the “in excess” part. 2-3 sessions of 20-30 minutes per week are completely fine.

Training while Cutting – What not to do

Now let’s see what we should avoid doing.

1. Don’t increase your training volume

As we said before, high rep training doesn’t lead to localized fat loss. Training techniques like super sets or drop sets may cause a good burn but they don’t lead to better fat loss and are also inefficient for maintaining muscle mass.

If your recovery is reduced because of the caloric deficit, it makes no sense to increase your volume.

2. Don’t lift weights to burn calories

This ties directly into the previous point. It’s not worth increasing your training volume just so you can burn 200-300 more calories.

Your recovery capacity is reduced because of the energy deficit so a high volume routine would not bring you any benefits. In fact it may negatively affect your strength.

You don’t want to deplete your muscle glycogen every workout because you’re not eating enough carbs to replenish it.

3. Avoid training to failure (or don’t do it at all)

Hitting failure in your first sets overburdens your central nervous system and can make you weaker for the rest of the workout. If your nervous system cannot keep up with what your muscles can lift, muscle loss happens as a consequence of never being able to apply adequate stress/perform optimally.

Also you shouldn’t use forced reps. In order to maintain or gain strength while cutting you must perform each rep on your own. Once you have someone step in and help you lift the weight, you are training yourself to become weak.

4. Don’t train heavy two days in a row

Some people are able to training heavy two days in a row without losing performance but from my experience the most consistent progress comes with an every other day lifting set up.

Training every other day allows for much better neural recovery. It also creates a desire to train because you never get burnt out from the gym. This psychological shift is much more important than some people think.

When you lift 4-6 days per week, you’re going to be lifting under different conditions each session. Somedays you’ll feel strong and powerful and other days you’ll feel wiped. Somedays you’ll be excited going to the gym, other days will feel like a drag.

5. Don’t do moderate intensity steady state cardio (especially high impact)

If conditioning is not too important for you and you only want to get ripped, then you shouldn’t do a lot of moderate intensity steady state (MISS) cardio. MISS would be things like running, cycling, or swimming at a moderate intensity and long distances.

A number of studies have shown that aerobic exercise and weightlifting produce different adaptations in the body. Cardio trains endurance, while lifting weights trains explosiveness. If you try to progressively overload both of them, it’s hard to make progress in either one. 

3-4 session of 20-30 minutes of jogging a week is completely fine and won’t influence your training in any way. But, 3-4 hours of running every week usually negatively impacts progress in the gym.

6. Don’t change your workout routine too often

Consistency and not variety is the key success.

It’s a mistake to change your routine too often. Working out is also a skill and if you change the exercises you do too often you won’t have time to learn them properly and make progress. You should also keep the order of the exercises the same and should not change the rep range often.

The temptation to modify your routine, add in new stuff, or improvise as you go may be high but resist it. You don’t fix what’s not broken.

 

What’s your opinion on strength training while cutting? Do you have any questions? Anything else to add? Let me know in the comment section below! 

Sources:

• Schoenfeld BJ. The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. J Strength Cond Res.2010 Oct;24(10):2857-72. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e840f3.  [PubMed]
• Matthews M. The Definitive Guide to Muscle Hypertrophy [muscleforlife]
• Goldberg AL, et al. Mechanism of work-induced hypertrophy of skeletal muscle. Med Sci Sports. 1975 Fall;7(3):185-98. [PubMed]
• McDonald L. Categories of Weight Training Series [bodyrecomposition]
• McDonald L. Weight Training for Fat Loss. [bodyrecomposition]
• Donnelly JE, et al. Muscle hypertrophy with large-scale weight loss and resistance training. Am J Clin Nutr. 1993 Oct;58(4):561-5. [PubMed]
• Ballor DL, et al. Resistance weight training during caloric restriction enhances lean body weight maintenance. Am J Clin Nutr. 1988 Jan;47(1):19-25. [PubMed]
• Goldberg AL, et al. Mechanism of work-induced hypertrophy of skeletal muscle. Med Sci Sports. 1975 Fall;7(3):185-98. [PubMed]
• Helms E. Why We Grow: Separating Fact from Fiction and Focusing on the Details that Matter. [3dmusclejourney]
• Helms E. Is a caloric deficit different than a caloric surplus? [YouTube part 1] [YouTube part 2]
• Helms E. The role of the CNS (central nervous system) in weightlifting [3dmusclejourney]

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