Question about lifting routine during a cut phase...

[W8 Lifter 81]

While cutting should you switch up your lifting routine or keep the same one used during regular bulking.

Also, since you are cutting calories and eating less, it is expected that you will not go up in weight while lifting, so should you just stick with the same weights and try to maintain strength rather than try to get stronger?

Should one expect to lose any strength during a cut phase?

[W8 Lifter 81]

bump

[Most Muscular]

You'll lose some strength while dieting but I am a firm believer in keep doing the same thing that got you where you are today... if it's not broke, don't fix it. Trying to continue lifting heavy will help you maintain the muscle mass you have while cutting down on the poundage will only make you lose muscle mass.

nuff said...

[aguy fish]

I totally agree. i stay on the 6-8 reps range as in off season and I just lower my rest from 90 sec to 60 sec between sets and this has really helped me to be fuller and harder on stage.
I've friends who do supersets giant sets and high reps and that works fine for them as well.
Most muscular is totally right : if it's nor broken don't fix it!

[liftjunkie06]

stay heavy

[slvr94civic]

Stay in the 4-6 range HEAVY!!! throw some cardio in after your workout 20 minutes at most

[Ivan25]

I take a different approach... Stay heavy for 1-2 sets of each exercise... However, if you want to have the muscle density and quality that makes you look heavier than you really are b/c you are holding nothing but muscle, you need to tap into every muscle fiber-type... My goal is to keep my 1-RM's within 90-95% of what they were off-season... At the same time, after I hit the type IIb's with 1-2 sets, I do higher reps with short rest periods... This is important if you want to get shredded... The reps should be 1-4 for low rep sets, 6-15 for higher rep sets, and then > 15 for shredding sets, of which you need to know which muscle groups tend to stay big but need this higher rep range to get denser and tighter and more cut... My upperback responds to this higher rep range, so do my legs.. But my chest tends to flatten out when I go higher than 15 reps... So I stay pretty heavy for chest 2-8 reps... And a few sets at 10-12....

Ivan

[Cytrainer913]

There is no reason to change your routine as this will help to preserve lean muscle as you diet down, some strength will be lost, but overall stick with what got you there, if you switch up the process, it's kind of like hitting your muscles with double cardio sessions, how productive can that be??

But variety in the routine is good as well as sticking with heavy heavy all the time, can backfire as well (injuries and sore joints), high reps, supersets, speed tempos, alternating volume and Power workouts.