High Reps-Low weight VS. Low reps-High weight for cutting-your thoughts?

[X-Zit]

So I've been doing lots of reading, lots of talking--and I'm REALLY confused right now in whats better:


So really in general it all comes down to---
Doing high reps low weight
Or Low reps higher weight
for cutting.


I hear that doing high reps low weight will get you cut, and your muscles will get denser-thus stronger.
Yet I hear that doing low reps higher weight youll get larger muscles e.t.c.



Help me out here guys.
btw--yes I am trying to cut, or just get my muscles more definiened.
I've just heard/read lots of conflicting evidence/stories for whats better.
Some guys say that doing high reps low weight is useless--some say they swear by doing it.



Your thoughts?



peace

[THe WeapoN]

when cutting u keep the same program as when you were bulking the only thing that changes is your diet and the input of cardio sessions

[ironchest]

when cutting u keep the same program as when you were bulking the only thing that changes is your diet and the input of cardio sessions

Exactly, change your workout will have little to no impact on being 'cut' or not, changing your diet appropriately will have a drastic effect on looking cut.

Oh yeah and doin tricep kickbacks are a great cutting exercise too.

[Vinny_Au]

looking cut or toned is all about you body fat percentage.

In order to acheive your goals you shoulda pay alot more attention to your dieting rather then the actual trainng program.

Although i personally think its better to stick to heavier weights, don't see the neccesity or even proof that high reps=cut, all it does is train you endurance wise.

Keep your training program, but take closer look to your cardio and diet.

[Lee Hsiao Lung]

all im gonna say is this, you have 2 types of muscle fibers, some do not even get worked unless the weight is heavy enough
even if you do 1000000 reps, you will only exhaust one type and the other type will not even pitch in help
if you get the weight past a certain point, both types will work

-id find that weight and do relativly high reps so you exhaust both types of fibers

[X-Zit]

thanks guys.
Becuase I remember back in highschool we had a big "toning" workout where it was all high reps, low weight.
So I always thought that doing that would make your muscles more dense/"cut"


I"ll probally just stick to what I'm doing---HIIT cardio, and heavyier weights-low reps.


pz

[Jneves]

Heavier weight = denser muscle just wanted to clear that up. Low weight/high rep training will cause mostly sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, or in other words hypertrophy of non functional mass.

I agree with the fact you don't need to change your entire plan... to a big extent you have to keep working the muscles in a similier manner to how you built them. On the other hand I have had success and it just makes sense to me to go slightly heavier when cutting. This allows you to recruit alot of muscle fibers with less total volume, and this is benificial because with restricted calories you may not be able to recover from your normal training at higher volume.

All that really matters is high reps DO NOT EQUAL MUSCLE DEFINITION! Its all about muscle mass vs. body fat. The more muscle and less fat you have the more definition you will have. You just need to find a diet and exercise routine that allows you to keep as much mass while losing the fat.

[Swollberg]

Keep your program, incorporate deloads when needed. Try to maintain as much strength as possible. Goal should be to keep volume and intensity the same.

[rdferguson]

If in doubt, do both. Work up to a heavy set of 3-5, then take the weight down by 25% and do 20 reps or AMRAP. Then move onto the next exercise.

[8eggs]

Well you could use light weights as your cardio ..say in a full body routine using tri-sets and super sets.

For tri sets set them up in a legs/push/pull format with all the big movements first. Then work isolations in supersets.

It sure beats the hell out of the dreadmill

[Retardo-pex]

¿por qué no las dos?


But really changing your sets/reps isn't going to have an enourmous effect on your cutting. If anything you should still be striving for weight and rep PR's as much as your body allows you to, you need to give it a reason to retain as much muscle as it can. A good program utilizes many rep ranges and you should always be running a good program right?

Now obviously depending on how much you intend to cut you may or may not have an easy time with this. Mentally it can be rough if 3 months ago you could bench 225x5 and now you can barely handle 205 x5 but this is not always the case. If you are someone with a decent amount of fat on you to begin with you can easily lose little to no strength while cutting. If you are someone who sits around 9-12% year round and want to get into contest conditioning you will most likely lose some strength in the process.

[bmontgomery87]

when cutting u keep the same program as when you were bulking the only thing that changes is your diet and the input of cardio sessions

this.

[Jasonk282]

lift heavy, eat light, do some barbell complexes...you can still gain strength on a cut.