Vladimir M ( Zatsiorsky
Why? Whats the point in training for hypertrophy when your not gonna gain any size anyways since your not eating enough? Lifting heavy will convince the body to hold on to its muscle because it thinks that it needs it.
When you are cutting the goal is not to lose lean mass. Adding in some hypertrophy type training here will prevent the loss of lean mass. Especially since strength tends to drop some during cutting.
See, there are 2 types of strength (more actually, but this illustrates my point), there are those that are nervous system strong, efficient at recruiting muscle in short times. (type II muscle fibers) Examples would be Oly weightlifters, sprinters, and other power athletes. These can be really strong compared to bodyweight, but since the nervous system adapts so fast (hours and days) training has to be consistent because strength drops pretty fast.
Then there are those who are muscle strong. Here the trainee has larger muscles with a less efficient nervous system. (type 1 muscle fibers) Bodybuilders are good examples. Since increasing muscle mass takes time, losing it also takes time. Meaning that after spells of not training these people will not have lost as much strength as the nervous system strong people.
(some people are a little of both, powerlifters, strongman competitors, lineman in american football are all good examples. also there are more than just type I and II muscle fibers, read Science and Practice of Strength Training, Vladimir Zatsiorsky)
So, why all that information? If you are cutting the goal is to maintain lean mass. Training in a way that will normally increase lean mass will help to do that. i.e. using bodybuilding type sets and rep ranges so as not to neglect type 1 muscle fibers. (that is not to say that training in lower rep ranges with heavier weights is not also a good idea) My goal here was to illustrate why BB style sets and reps should be used in this situation.
This higher rep (8-12, 12-15) lower weight vs. lower rep (3-8) higher weight theme seems to be a reoccurring discussion on this forum. I do not understand why that is. Both of these can be trained in the same week / workout, taking advantage of the benefits of both types of adaptation.
Even better, "power training," "strength training," "hypertrophy training" in the same week / workout will keep from neglecting any type of muscle fiber, thus creating a better, faster result.
Thanks for reading this inordinately log post.
if the bolded statement is true, could it be possible to cut and still gain some (not alot) muscle by consuming enough protein (via shake, food, etc..)?
The above statement will only be true for some people, yes you can cut and still gain some muscle, your diet has to be tight. You may need different rep / set ranges to get this to happen as everyone is unique.