Progressive overload when cutting?

84creative

Morning, I’m looking to cut soon and I’m relatively new to this process. I’ve lost weight before by eating less whilst not training and I’ve cut using a keto diet with depletion workouts and refeeds but that was over 10 years ago now.

What I’m wondering is should I do the same weight and reps whilst cutting to maintain my current strength and size or should I aim for progressive overload, adding reps of weight etc

Guess I’ll find out whether that’s even possible when cut my calories.

ElizabethKalmbach

Following for ideas, as this is essentially what I am doing (though "doing" suggests a lot more planning/control than I have, really), under different circumstances from yours entirely.

Justin_7272

During a cut the goal is to at least maintain lifts. It's simply much harder for the body to maintain-let alone grow-in a deficit. If you can't maintain you're losing too fast. If you can progress than that's awesome, however as long as you're maintaining you're good.

Lifting on a progressive overload program is the right start. What program are you running? Some are quite aggressive with progression (Strong Lifts) while others have a similar overall progression but smother curve (All Pros).

You should establish your baseline lifts; I'd suggest 10RM. During a cut if you fall below 9 you need to reevaluate as you've lost strength.

84creative

The routine I’m following is one I’ve created due to working out from home with dumbbells only.

Monday- Chest, Triceps, Shoulders.
Tuesday - Back and Biceps
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Chest, Triceps
Friday - Back, Biceps, Shoulders

I’ve been adding weight each week (wave loading Periodisation, I think it’s called).

I’m switching to linear periodisation now (same weight and adding reps, then weight). After a few weeks of this I’ll begin the cut.

Alia_R

This is exactly what I plan on doing soon; planning on ending my recomp and doing a cut while maintaining my lifts. I'm interested in seeing what others have to say here as well. 😊

84creative

Forgot to add I’m around 10RM and 15RM for most exercises with 8 to 10 sets per muscle group in total.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

My programming doesn’t change between a cut and a bulk. I’m not that advanced though. I just follow the programme as written.

Are you doing yr own programming?

84creative

I am at the moment. It seems to be working but my knowledge is limited and im
Learning as I go.

From looking online it sounds like if you’re 15% bodyfat (male) you can try to progressively overload but as you get down to 10% it gets harder to gain muscle and you end up working out to maintain by that point. Not sure if this is correct or not so I’ll have to give it a try and see what happens.

jdog022

Your goal should be to try to maintain lifts thru the cut but eventually they’ll drop a bit if we are talking about getting to very lean levels. Eventually you’ll have to drop volume. Eventually everything feels heavy and tiring. Again it comes down to what kinda cut we are talking about. Your lean-ish now so going from 15-8 % is the above. A newbie going from 30-18% is a lot different

84creative

Thanks for the feedback so far.

EliseTK1

I'm doing this now. I'm only cutting ~300 kcal/day to minimize muscle loss. I am able to progress, but it's gotten much slower. I was killing it at the gym every week while I was maintaining. I've incorporated running to increase calorie burn which has added a layer of difficult to recovery, but so far it's working. I'm sure it will get harder once I'm leaner.

Best of luck to you in your cut!

giancarlov1191

Justin_7272 wrote: »

During a cut the goal is to at least maintain lifts. It's simply much harder for the body to maintain-let alone grow-in a deficit. If you can't maintain you're losing too fast. If you can progress than that's awesome, however as long as you're maintaining you're good.

Lifting on a progressive overload program is the right start. What program are you running? Some are quite aggressive with progression (Strong Lifts) while others have a similar overall progression but smother curve (All Pros).

You should establish your baseline lifts; I'd suggest 10RM. During a cut if you fall below 9 you need to reevaluate as you've lost strength.

I asked my trainer about this, and this is basically bang-on what he told me. This is what I'll be doing in the spring most likely.

GaryRuns

What level of body fat are you looking to cut to? As a male, from my understanding of the literature, until you get very low, sub 10% at least, you can still build strength and perhaps some muscle while cutting. Yes, your progression will likely slow due to the calorie defecit, but as long as you maintain your protein intake and stay on a well structured lifting program you may see some gains, or at worst no losses. You'll also want to keep the calorie deficit reasonable.

I will say the literature isn't too extensive in this arena. Most of the literature either deals with untrained individuals or competitive body builders looking to get to very low levels of body fat, not in betweeners like myself. But, in the end, does it really matter? If you keep your protein intake up and stay on a well programmed progressive lifting plan that's the best you can do. From there your body is going to do what your body is going to do.

Chieflrg

Without knowing your current training and training history there is no clear cut answer.

I will say there are many ways to progressive overload.

My default on a cut is usually a hypertrophy driven volume instead of a development of strength. Though there are other options if you are creative.

Generally speaking you could see a upwards tick of intensity at the same exertion and it wouldn't surprise me just from added volume.

There is no "find out" if you can overload, more if you are dosing it correctly for your current adaptation.

84creative

GaryRuns wrote: »

What level of body fat are you looking to cut to

By the end of the cut I’m hoping to see my abs. Not looking to be shredded just lean ish.

84creative

Thanks @Chieflrg