Learning olympic lifting during a cut

Erik8484

Starting assumption
It's my understanding that during a cut, in order to retain as much muscle as possible, it's important to:
1. Eat sufficient protein;
2. Lift heavy things.

Background for my question
I've been training 4-5 days a week in a surplus for 7 months or so, following a variety of programs focused around heavy compound lifts.

I'm starting a cut, but also want to get into olympic lifting 2 days a week. The remaining 2-3 days a week will involve me following some sort of a program focused around heavy compound lifts. I'm aware that olympic lifts are much more technical and will (at least initially) involve me lifting lighter weights as I learn.

My question
Will this have a (material) negative impact on muscle retention during a cut? In other words, will I lose all of my hard earned gains during this cut because beginner olympic lifting does not stimulate my muscles with sufficient intensity?

subcounter

Honestly, unless you use steroids, its very very rare (unless you are like 0.00001% of the gene pool as an Olympic athlete) to not lose any muscles in the process of fat loss. Even then, you most always will. I think the important thing is to not lose strength. I've done big cuts without any loss of strength. This also depends on how advanced you are on your weight training, your muscle ratio etc too. I mean a beginner can still make a lot of muscles while an advanced bodybuilder usually hit a threshold if he is natural, and this threshold is usually passed with more fat in the body.

Another point I would like you to be careful about is not to push yourself on Olympic lifting (no ego lifting). This will only lead to injury = huge losses in muscle in the long run. I would be very careful about the movements, and wouldn't increase the weights until I was intermediate.

Hope that makes sense.

Erik8484

subcounter wrote: »

Honestly, unless you use steroids, its very very rare (unless you are like 0.00001% of the gene pool as an Olympic athlete) to not lose any muscles in the process of fat loss. Even then, you most always will. I think the important thing is to not lose strength. I've done big cuts without any loss of strength. This also depends on how advanced you are on your weight training, your muscle ratio etc too. I mean a beginner can still make a lot of muscles while an advanced bodybuilder usually hit a threshold if he is natural, and this threshold is usually passed with more fat in the body.

Another point I would like you to be careful about is not to push yourself on Olympic lifting (no ego lifting). This will only lead to injury = huge losses in muscle in the long run. I would be very careful about the movements, and wouldn't increase the weights until I was intermediate.

Hope that makes sense.

Oh yeah I get that I'll lose some muscle, what I really hope someone will be able to help with is whether I will lose more muscle by cutting out 2 days of heavy volume and replacing them with lighter olympic drills.

Thanks for the tip on not injuring myself.

psuLemon

subcounter wrote: »

Honestly, unless you use steroids, its very very rare (unless you are like 0.00001% of the gene pool as an Olympic athlete) to not lose any muscles in the process of fat loss. Even then, you most always will. I think the important thing is to not lose strength. I've done big cuts without any loss of strength. This also depends on how advanced you are on your weight training, your muscle ratio etc too. I mean a beginner can still make a lot of muscles while an advanced bodybuilder usually hit a threshold if he is natural, and this threshold is usually passed with more fat in the body.

Another point I would like you to be careful about is not to push yourself on Olympic lifting (no ego lifting). This will only lead to injury = huge losses in muscle in the long run. I would be very careful about the movements, and wouldn't increase the weights until I was intermediate.

Hope that makes sense.

That is a completely false generalization. There are a lot of variables that would dictate if the OP would lose muscle during their cut; muscle is not to be confused with lean body mass, since modifications to glycogen stores and water weigh would influence lbm but not muscle mass. Whether or not you would lose muscle would highly depend on how aggressive your cut it, how much protein you eat, how good your lifting programming and the progress that is being made, genetics, and how new to lifting you are. There are countless number of studies and anecdotes on this board that demonstrates that muscle can not only be maintained by gained during fat loss.

Even so, if you are making progress, improving your lifts and physique, does it exact matter if you gain, lose or maintain your muscle mass? Are you even going to have measurements to validate that? And honestly, if you are super worried, you can always recomp instead of cutting.

Having said that, in cuts, i tend to get protein near 1g per lb of weight. I cut 10-15% below my TDEE. And I track my lifts to ensure I am making progress. I would probably incorporate deloads in your programming and potential refeeds if you stop seeing increases in your lifting. Personally, i spread protein out through my day and time some nutrients pre an post workout. There is some evidence that it may be beneficial, but recognize that timing isn't as important as calories, macros or micros.

rybo

Erik8484 wrote: »

Starting assumption
It's my understanding that during a cut, in order to retain as much muscle as possible, it's important to:
1. Eat sufficient protein;
2. Lift heavy things.

Background for my question
I've been training 4-5 days a week in a surplus for 7 months or so, following a variety of programs focused around heavy compound lifts.

I'm starting a cut, but also want to get into olympic lifting 2 days a week. The remaining 2-3 days a week will involve me following some sort of a program focused around heavy compound lifts. I'm aware that olympic lifts are much more technical and will (at least initially) involve me lifting lighter weights as I learn.

My question
Will this have a (material) negative impact on muscle retention during a cut? In other words, will I lose all of my hard earned gains during this cut because beginner olympic lifting does not stimulate my muscles with sufficient intensity?

You're still lifting heavy 2-3 days a week, you'll be fine. And probably better off overall as trying to lift with high intensity & volume 4-5 days a week AND cutting could prove to be pretty rough.

cwolfman13

You're still lifting heavy with traditional compound 3 days per week so you'll be just fine...Olympic lifting is also awesome.

Erik8484

Thanks for the input guys, I'll continue learning olympic lifting then!