[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
[quote]ESX wrote:
Hi Stu,
Quick question with regards to when you cut down? Do you bother doing any high intensity sets like drop sets, supersets or 3 second negatives? Do you see any point when as a natty its mostly about holding muscle when cutting, rather than growing? The way i see it is its just making there more to rebuild, when there aren’t enough blocks. [/quote]
I used to be a big fan of drop sets, rest pause, and the usual ‘intensifiers’ that you always read about in the magazines. The last few years though, aside from my preference for pre-exhaust work when addressing a stubborn or naturally weaker bodypart, I’ve really adhered to a very basic, straight forward method of training. That’s not to say that they’re a bad thing.
Whether training for gains, maintaining, or even cutting, the bottom line with adding any aspect to your training (drop sets or other intensity techniques, more volume, more frequency…) is that your individual recovery abilities, and similarly, your diet have to be able to support what you’re subjecting your body to. Some people can train in such an intense manner all the time, and have no ill effects on their gains while others have to walk a fine line in terms of doing too much.
I understand what you’re getting at, with the goal of holding muscle while cutting. Some people will oversimplify what’s going on though. You will often hear about the following types of dieters:
1-very little cardio, but lengthy and frequent weight sessions
2-Lots of cardio, and very short, infrequent weight sessions
You have to view your weight work while cutting for everything it is going to be relied upon for.
-Signaling the body that the muscle tissue is needed, so no atrophy occurs
-Using up ingested nutrients via recovery/building so that little to none are left to feed adipose tissue
-Simply expending calories during gym sessions
It has been my experience that the more weight activity you engage in, the higher you can keep your nutrient intake. Sure, it gets somewhat more complicated than that, as you don’t want to excessively run your body down by doing 100 drop sets, all to failure 7x a week, but there’s a point of balance where everything is working together as you move steadily towards your goals.
The idea that you can’t make gains while dieting is a widely believed one, and I guess if you go by the notion of there not being “enough building blocks” as you put it, it would make perfect sense. However, the fact that the body is redirecting the limited foods you ingest, so long as your training is synced up correctly, you will not only NOT see a drop in your strength levels, but you will maintain, and in some cases, even be able to add muscle.
Is it an ideal environment? Of course not. But as Jim Cordova once explained to me (in very simplified terms)… the body is in a state of emergency, and it’s the perfect time to make gains if you’re smart about it.
S
[/quote]
Cheers for the response Stu. I was never really a fan of dropsets or anything other than the odd rest pause; but since doing a sort of Mountain Dog style, where Volume and Intensity are increased over the weeks, i’m really enjoying it, and find it a fun way to train. I’m liking changing everything up on a weekly basis, and doing things like triple drop sets on the hack Squat! Brutal, but enjoyable all the same. I just never really trained like this weekly, and now that i’m starting a long ish cut, i’m not really all that confident of carrying on doing 2-3 intense sets per body part. Not when calories are limited.
