Does your training change when cutting

[bmp]

What is the goal of a cut? To lose fat while retaining as much muscle as possible

Assuming the diet is in line, how would you change your training? Since your body is depleted, you probably can't handle as much volume as normal. But you still want to maintain the intensity so you can hold on to muscle.

For simplicity's sake let's say you following a split

Day 1: Back 16 sets
Day 2: Chest 8 sets and Shoulders 4 sets
Day 3: Legs 12 sets Calves 4 sets
Day 4: Biceps 9 sets Triceps 12 sets

Would you lower volume and try to increase the poundages you were working with? You'd probably wan't to keep the same exercise selection, right?

Or is is true that you just want to change as little as possible and only manipulate diet?

[bmp]

The reason I'm asking is because higher carb intake usually lends itself better to certain types of training in terms of the pump and your endurance...but on a diet you are probably going to be on lower carbs most of the time, so physiologically, your muscles aren't going to be able to sustain the same type of training as one thats carbed up

[Ken "Skip" Hill]

It is pretty individual and at first you likely won't have to change anything but as you get deeper and deeper into a prep, those changes will need to be made.

Volume is one but also a lot of people will find that adding a day to the overall split helps, as well. Example: Doing the same muscle split over 5 days instead of 4 or 4 days instead of 3 can make a big difference.

Ideally, though, you shouldn't be training with a volume or a style in the off season that you can't maintain in a contest mode.

Skip

[rynobull]

People are different. For me, I keep trying to break PR's until I start feeling beat up or feeling like I am pushing to the point of injury. Then I will start decreasing volume and intensity at around the same time a little bit..

A few weeks later and I am feeling the same symptoms I will decrease a little more. It has worked well for me, but my schedule is quite tight and can only really train 3x a week. Hell, I know Jim Wendler was gaining strength training twice per week and only a few exercises each training session....

Food for thought.

[CJ Hartley]

Training does not change, only diet and cardio. About 4 weeks out I dont push to failure anymore and reps dont go below 6.

[Kag94]

I can move this question if I hijack the thread but I've been on a cut for the past six weeks. Lost about ten scale lbs. And my squat went from a smooth 405x5 to just earlier bearly being able to get 385 for five. Is this much of a drop in strength "normal"? While I have improved in all other leg lifts my squat has really left me demoralized for the past month... This and all of my overhead pressing.

[v1hyp]

For my last show in 2010, I pretty much stayed with a 2-way split the entire time and felt like I got some nice results from it.