How to maintain strength when cutting

What’s up guys.

The other day I put out a tweet which asked the following question: “What’s your biggest problem with your training and nutrition?”

I got such a variety of responses that will be the content of my blog posts for a long time, in fact, 157 questions in total that need answering.

And that’s what I’m gonna do.

One of the first responses I got was from @VdG1524 who said, “Strength loss when cutting always seems disproportionately high.”

So, today I’m going to cover how NOT to lose strength whilst cutting.

1. Don’t cut your calories too much too soon

Calorie restriction is the most important part of any successful cutting phase. However, a lot of the time guys are too impatient. They don’t see results straight away so they decide to slash their calories waaay too much too soon.

What this leads to?

Severe strength loss. With less calories comes less strength and slower recovery between sessions. 220lbs on bench press suddenly feels like 300lbs. You feel weak and sluggish. Not good.

So start with a small calorie deficit, anywhere between 200-300 calories below maintenance calories and slowly increase the deficit from there. You’re much more likely to retain the strength you built during your bulking phase following this protocol. Weight loss might be slower, but you don’t want to lose those hard-earned, rhino strength gains, do you?

2. Do less work in the gym

You’re more likely to retain your strength if you lower your volume. There’s no need to be doing high volume workouts when you’re cutting. If anything, you’re actually increasing your chances of losing strength by doing a lot of sets across exercises because your central nervous system will go into overdrive.

Now as you are already aware, my approach is full body training and I focus on keeping volume as low as possible so the above scenario isn’t relevant for you if you’re smart and listen to my advice.

So, what is my advice?

Stick to three sets maximum per exercise. If you’re finding this tough, drop it to two sets per exercise. The latter scenario is very rare and you shouldn’t have to drop this low. By doing this, you’ll retain your strength much better and retain your hard earned, rhino strength.

You might know how much of a calorie deficit you need, but you don’t know what personalised calorie intake you need to get shredded whilst minimizing strength loss.

You may also know how to do less work in the gym, but you don’t know what intensity you need to be training at.

This is answered when you join my new AlphaBoss Membership Program.

In the AlphaBoss Membership Program you get monthly personalised calories and macros designed to get you shredded, ripped and rock hard baywatch abs so that you look younger, feel awesome and sky rocket your confidence.

You also get a specific training protocol so that you know what intensity you need to be training at to maintain gorilla strength whilst sizzling body fat like steak on the BBQ on a hot summers day…

Join here:


James Clewlow

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