I started a cutting 3.5 weeks ago and very quickly noticed a reduction in strength in my seated military press and bench. Initially I just chalked it up to being off/not a great workout for that day, which we have all had. Then @Christian_Thibaudeau posted an awesome snippet on IG on August - as he always does - that your pressing movements will suffer, but maybe not isolated movements. As time has moved on I am feeling the loss of strength in other movements. So, I am wondering, do I reduce the weight to be safe? I don’t know if that is an obvious question. This is my first cut while lifting weights after having been on maintenance/surplus for 2+ years. I will say my number one goal right now is fat loss (to fit into my clothes). Also, just here to vent and see any thoughts/experiences with this.
A few weeks later @Christian_Thibaudeau posted yet another mind reading snippet that people often give up because they start feeling flat (this does not bother me as a female lifter) but also losing strength and not quite yet seeing the result of the cut - it truly is a mindfuck as he put it.
Yes you lose strength while cutting thats why one needs to bulk carefully. The longer you cut the more you lose of what you gained. Its just that simple.
Stay the course. Make sure you’re cutting at a sustainable rate.
In terms of whether or not you should reduce the weight, it really depends on what workouts you’re doing. If you’re doing low rep bench and you feel like you’re going to be flattened, reduce the weight. If you have a prescribed rep range and you can’t hit the bottom limit, reduce the weight. If you’re simply not getting the reps you were getting before, who cares - it’s part of a cut, keep the weight the same.
Good luck with everything, and I think someone told you in another thread, but go make a training log if you want some accountability and help along the way.
In my experience or at least with my shit genetics, i cant gain muscle without gaining fat. It all comes down to experience and knowing yourself - how much can you gain, how much of that is fat, and trying to minimize it. But you still will gain fat, and you should because gaining fat is the only way of knowing you gain all the muscle you can. If you dont gain fat you might also be gaining 10% of the muscle you could be gaining - you will never know from day to day, because not gaining fat and gaining muscle is a very very fine line which changes from day to day.
I’ve run strength programmes while cutting before and added strength to my press and bench. There are quite a few on this forum who have done this as well.
For me it’s about timing your food so you have energy at the gym and making sure you recover as well as you can.