Reps vs weight ........

drefaw

I have been out of the gym for almost 18+ yrs now. I was in great shape back then, trying to attain or bypass that now.

Any body know of any current research on reps vs weight while cutting??

ie..... this morning I did OHP's. my sets were;

10 x 110 for a gross of 1100lbs
10x130, for a gross of 1300lbs,
7 x 150 for a gross of 1050lbs.
5 x 150 for a gross of 750lbs
6 x 130 for a gross of 780

that gives me a total of 4980 lbs lifted.

wouldn't I have been better off to stick with 5 sets of 10 x 130, for a total of 6500lbs lifted at the end of my sets??

even 8 x 140 is 1120 lbs total, which is more than the 7 x 150 total of 1050 lbs ..

SO, during a cutting cycle, while you are eating at a deficit, (ie... not going to be adding mass) wouldn't it be better to have stuck with the 10 x 130 lifts, of maybe have tried to go 8 x 140 for a much higher TOTAL lifted weight at the end?????

I'm just trying to get the most out of my time in the gym. And wondering what the latest research has shown .....

TIA ......

Hendrix7

When I'm cutting I'm trying to maintain as much strength as possible, this is the best way to preserve lean mass IMO.

I find that easiest in the 5 x 3 to 5 x 5 rep range.

StaticEntropy

When I'm cutting I'm trying to maintain as much strength as possible, this is the best way to preserve lean mass IMO.

I find that easiest in the 5 x 3 to 5 x 5 rep range.

I agree. Volume should not be increased while cutting. You just won't recover well enough at a deficit. But you do want to lift heavier weights at a lower rep range.

lockebright

I disagree with lifting heavier while cutting. I am on a cut right now, and all I am trying to do is keep the workouts as close to as what they were when I first started. You will get weaker, losing 40 pounds has dropped my bench press and shoulder press working sets down almost 20 pounds. This is pretty much un avoidable. I think a lot of people put too much broscience into lifting. Just lift hard, all the time. Things will come around.

StaticEntropy

I disagree with lifting heavier while cutting. I am on a cut right now, and all I am trying to do is keep the workouts as close to as what they were when I first started. You will get weaker, losing 40 pounds has dropped my bench press and shoulder press working sets down almost 20 pounds. This is pretty much un avoidable. I think a lot of people put too much broscience into lifting. Just lift hard, all the time. Things will come around.

You are making an assumption that makes you believe we are disagreeing. We are not disagreeing. When you are cutting, you are trying to maintain as much strength as possible, but depending on the length of the cut, strength will eventually go down. Now, when I say "lift heavier", I don't mean to say that the OP should keep putting more and more weight on the bar. If he can do this, great, but it is a certainty that eventually his strength will drop as his cut continues.

Now, the OP mentioned that his working sets on the OHP are around 6 reps @ 150 lbs. He asked if he should increase his reps to 10 at a lower weight (130 lbs). He should not do this for two separate reasons:

1) He wants to do this to increase the total volume of his workout as he cuts. He should not do this.

From (http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-2.html):

[A] common idea during fat loss dieting is that training volume and/or frequency should go UP (compared to where it was when more food was being eaten). This is, simply, idiotic. Recovery will always be impaired when calories are restricted and trying to add more and more training to an already heavy load may explain why so many people end up so severely overtrained at the end of extended diets: the combination of too much training and too few calories is a bad, bad thing.

2) Increasing the reps (to 10) while reducing the weight (to 130 lbs) will reduce the high tension stimulus that his muscles have been experiencing. I maintain that he should keep his weight heavier (150 lbs) while keeping the reps lower (5-7 reps, exactly what he has been doing).

From (http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html):

So perhaps you can guess what happens to muscle mass when you reduce weight on the bar to use higher reps and shorter rest intervals. When you remove the high tension stimulus, you remove the signal to build (or in the case of dieting, maintain) muscle mass. What do you think happens next? Right, muscles get smaller.

drefaw

^This makes sense to me ^

SO, I will just keep doing what I have been. As it is what I learned in the past. Just wanting to make sure I wasn't just "spinning my wheels", so to speak.

Thanks guys ......I believe I will continue to cut until I am at 12%BF, then bulk for a couple/three months, then finish my cut down to 10-8% BF.

Hopefully by this time next year I will be close to my goals ......


OH, and thanks for posting those links, I don't know how I missed them in my searches, but I did ......Thanks....