Type of Training to Keep Muscle While On Cut

[Dlauth]

I know its a long article but it states that if you could only pick one type of workout during a cut, it should be high weight / low rep routine in order to keep muscle mass.

bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html

This is talking about a drug-free lifter that would have to worry about muscle loss during the cut.
A lifter on gear would have a higher recovery and also higher test would keep his muscle mass which is why Im thinking the higher rep workouts are better for this type of lifter.

I like the fact of the extra cal burn from higher reps but also want to keep my muscle mass that was built on low rep / high weight workouts.

Also, I am asking this from purely a training standpoint. If total cal in/out and macros were exactly the same with both routines.

Questions:

1. Cant you build muscle drug-free on a higher rep/low weight workout anyway? If so, isnt it contradicting the article?

2. I am wondering why you wouldnt be able to keep muscle mass with high rep/ low weight instead as long as calories werent really low.

3. Doesnt your body only know total workload?

3x5 on 300lbs = 4500lbs of weight moved
3x15 on 100lbs = 4500lbs of weight moved

Is this train of thinking wrong and why?

 

[ZiR RED]

Yes and no.

The answer to your question has to do with stimulus and adaptation. Training applies the stimulus, and the body adapts to be able to better handle that stimulus. The higher the reps and lower the weight, the more the stimulus trends towards muscular endurance adaptations. If you do not have enough muscle force output to handle the weight, then the body will adapt by increasing muscle size. Once ample force output is achieved, then it will continue to adapt in ways that allow you greater endurance, of which, hypertrophy is not necessarily one.

Consider an endurance runner, who does thousands of leg extensions with partial body weight. At first his legs will grow to accomodate the weight, but do you see endurance runners with massive quads?

So, in brief, lifting heavy stimulates the need for greater force output to handle the load the next time. Muscular force output is directly related to the cross sectional area (muscle size) of the contractile proteins. Continue to challenge the muscles with a progressively greater requirement for force, and they will adapt by increasing in muscle size (progressive overload).

Of course...that is a very simple explanation, and if I don't make mention, some other educated muscle head like Rodja or Josh will mention something about increasing force without an increase in muscle size via neural adaptations....but that's another story for another day.

 

[hvactech]

Yes and no.

The answer to your question has to do with stimulus and adaptation. Training applies the stimulus, and the body adapts to be able to better handle that stimulus. The higher the reps and lower the weight, the more the stimulus trends towards muscular endurance adaptations. If you do not have enough muscle force output to handle the weight, then the body will adapt by increasing muscle size. Once ample force output is achieved, then it will continue to adapt in ways that allow you greater endurance, of which, hypertrophy is not necessarily one.

Consider an endurance runner, who does thousands of leg extensions with partial body weight. At first his legs will grow to accomodate the weight, but do you see endurance runners with massive quads?

So, in brief, lifting heavy stimulates the need for greater force output to handle the load the next time. Muscular force output is directly related to the cross sectional area (muscle size) of the contractile proteins. Continue to challenge the muscles with a progressively greater requirement for force, and they will adapt by increasing in muscle size (progressive overload).

Of course...that is a very simple explanation, and if I don't make mention, some other educated muscle head like Rodja or Josh will mention something about increasing force without an increase in muscle size via neural adaptations....but that's another story for another day.

Did you move yet?

 

[ZiR RED]

Moving in early August. Found a place in Surfside (town south of Myrtle). Not sure about a gym there yet...Coastal has a really nice gym, but I'd like to find one off campus too.

 

[Dlauth]

Sounds like what I was thinking but what Im having trouble with is moving away from 1-5 reps(which is what I used to build most of my mass) to 8-12 reps and trying to keep the same stimulus.
So as long as Im not able to do more than 12 reps and pushing the max weight for those reps, I should be building muscle.

 

[iForce Dave]

I try to also keep my reps low when dieting, but if I am feeling especially tired or something I will do higher rep workouts every now and then

better than to risk injury trying to match reps/weight on a day you arent 100%

 

[iForce Dave]

I3. Doesnt your body only know total workload?

3x5 on 300lbs = 4500lbs of weight moved
3x15 on 100lbs = 4500lbs of weight moved

Is this train of thinking wrong and why?

I never bought into this... think about it... that would mean you could just add more and more volume and get more and more gains... that doesnt make sense to me

 

[Dlauth]

Well from my limited knowledge, adding volume can give gains up to a certain point. When im talking higher reps, im talking absolutly no more than 15 and more around 10. As long as Im doing weight that I cant rep past this point, I should be in the target stimulus zone and adding weight when I can do tons of reps.

EX:
You can only do 20lb curls for 5. You add a rep every workout, which should give you gains up until you get around 12 reps. Then you add on some more weight and start again. This should give you progressive overload.

Correct my thinking if that is wrong.

 

[jo1054]

I been cutting for almost a month I think and I been doing 5sets of 5 for almost all my lifts and my bench has gone from
1st week - 165 and I couldn't get all 5 sets of 5
To right now I'm at 185 and can almost do all 5 sets of 5 only got 4 on my last set
So that's 20lbs increase
Ive lost about 15lbs so I kept all my muscle and got stronger
But after I bench I do 2 Burn out sets with 135 as many reps as possible

 

[asooneyeonig]

I never bought into this... think about it... that would mean you could just add more and more volume and get more and more gains... that doesnt make sense to me

zir red posted a link some time back talking about something that applies here. it was a study that showed even at higher reps you stimulate growth. with that knowledge i would say it adds to the variables that decide whether your grow or not. the trick is learning how to put the variables together to get what you want/need.