Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Q&A: Volume When Cutting, Training by Muscle Fiber Type, and Best Tip for 40+ Lifters

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

I’ve churned through over 150,000 emails, social media comments and messages, and blog comments in the last 6 years. And that means I’ve fielded a ton of questions. As you can imagine, some questions pop up more often than others, and I thought it might be helpful to take a little time every month to choose a few and record and share my answers. So, in this round, I answer the following three questions: “Why should we not reduce the amount of weightlifting volume that we’re doing when we cut because you don’t need as much volume to maintain muscle as you do to gain muscle, and when you’re at deficit, you’re not going to gain muscle.” “Are there different ways to train different types of muscle fibers to gain muscle and strength faster?” “What one piece of advice would you give for continuing exercise through your 40s and older?” If you have a question you’d like me to answer, leave a comment below or if you want a faster response, send an email to [e-mail]. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 4:51 - “Why should we not reduce the amount of weightlifting volume that we’re doing when we cut because you don’t need as much volume to maintain muscle as you do to gain muscle, and when you’re at deficit, you’re not going to gain muscle.” 14:42 - “Are there different ways to train different types of muscle fibers to gain muscle and strength faster?” 22:06 - “What one piece of advice would you give for continuing exercise through your 40s and older?” --- Mentioned on The Show: Shop Legion Supplements Here: https://legionathletics.com/shop/ Want free workout and meal plans? Download my science-based diet and training templates for men and women: https://legionathletics.com/text-sign-up/

Hello and welcome to Muscle for Life. I'm Mike Matthews. Thank you for joining me today for a Q&A where I answer questions that readers and followers ask me. If you want to ask me questions that I can answer for you and that may be chosen for future Q&A episodes, shoot me an email, mike at muscleforlife, just F-O-R-L-I-F-E dot com, and let me know what's on your mind. I get a lot of emails, so it may take me 7, 10, maybe even 14 days, or sometimes a little bit longer, to be honest, to get back with you, but you will hear back from me, and you will get an answer. And if it's a question that a lot of people are asking or have been asking for some time, or if it's something that just strikes my fancy and it's something

that I haven't already beaten to death on the podcast or the blog, then I may also choose it for an episode and answer it publicly. Another way to get questions to me is Instagram at muscle for life fitness. You can DM them to me, although that is harder for me to stay on top of. I do try, but the inbox is a little bit buggy and it just takes more time trying to do it, whether it's on my phone or the windows app, but there is a good chance you will still get a reply. Email is better. And I also do post, I think it's every few weeks or so, in my feed asking for people to give me questions, give me fodder for the next Q&A. So if you would rather do that, then just follow me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness and send me a message or just wait for one of my Q&A posts. So in this episode, I answer three questions. The first one comes from

Sean Shank Redemption over on Instagram, and it's a bit long, so I'll summarize it. Basically, he's asking, why should we not reduce the amount of volume, weightlifting volume, that we're doing when we cut? Because you don't need as much volume to maintain muscle as you do to gain muscle. And when you're a deficit, you're not going to gain muscle. So why train five times a week when we could just train three times a week and maintain our muscle and then just use our diet and maybe some cardio to drive the fat loss? I guess that wasn't a short summary of his question. That was basically his entire question. Anyway, moving on. The next question comes from Jaden Brown 420, 420 bro, over on Instagram. And he asks about muscle fiber type specific training. Are there different ways to train different types of muscle fibers to gain muscle

and strength faster? Good question. Despite the Instagram handle. And the last question comes from Deb LNBZ over on Instagram. And he or she asks, what one piece of advice would you give for continuing exercise through forties and older? Also, if you like what I am doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company, Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world. And we're on top because every ingredient and dose in every product is backed by peer-reviewed scientific research, every formulation is 100% transparent, there are no proprietary blends, for example, and everything is naturally sweetened and flavored. So that means no artificial sweeteners, no artificial food dyes, which may not be as

dangerous as some people would have you believe, but there is good evidence to suggest that having many servings of artificial sweeteners in particular every day for long periods of time may not be the best for your health. So while you don't need pills, powders, and potions to get into great shape, and frankly, most of them are virtually useless, there are natural ingredients that can help you lose fat, build muscle, and get healthy faster. And you will find the best of them in Legion's products. To check out everything we have to offer, including protein powders and protein bars,

pre-workout, post-workout supplements, fat burners, multivitamins, joint support, and more, head over to www.buylegion.com, B-U-Y Legion.com. www.buylegion.com, B-U-Y legion.com. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code MFL at checkout, and you will save 20% on your entire first order. So again, if you appreciate my work, and if you want to see more of it, and if you also want all natural evidence-based supplements that work, please do consider supporting Legion so I can keep doing what I love, like producing more podcasts like this. All right, let's tackle the first question from Sean Shank Redemption over on Instagram. And he asks, why not cut weightlifting volume when cutting from, let's say, five days of lifting

per week to three because we're not going to gain muscle when we're cutting unless we're new and you don't need as much volume to maintain muscle as you do to gain muscle. This is a good question and his assumptions are correct. Obviously, we're not going to gain any muscle or strength to speak of, us experienced weightlifters, when we're cutting, and he's correct that you do not need nearly as much volume to maintain muscle and to maintain a lot of your strength as well as you do to gain muscle and strength. The research is not entirely clear, but I think it's fair to say that you can maintain your current level of muscularity and a lot of your strength with one third to maybe even one fifth of the amount of volume that it takes to gain muscle and strength. That said, what Sean is missing here is

that the amount of volume that it takes to maintain muscle and strength is greatly reduced when calories are not restricted. So that's just under normal circumstances. However, things change when you're in a calorie deficit because that primes your body for muscle loss. And the long story short here, without getting into too many technical details, is the same stimulus that it takes to gain muscle and strength, so the same amount of volume and the frequency scheme that you're using to get to that volume and the intensity scheme that you're using to get to that volume and the intensity scheme that you're using to make sure that you're lifting heavy enough weights and to ensure that you are coming close to muscle failure in your hard muscle building sets. That is also approximately the

amount of effort that it takes to maximize muscle retention when you're in a calorie deficit. And that's particularly true if you're lean, wanting to get very lean, and if you are doing a fair amount of cardio. Now, if you have a lot of fat to lose, then you are less likely to lose muscle when cutting. And so in that case, you may be able to do a bit less volume than you normally would when maintaining your lean bulking and retain just as much muscle as you would with higher amounts of volume. But for most people who are interested in this question, I'm going to guess that you are already pretty fit. You're pretty athletic. You're pretty lean. And when you cut, you are going from, let's say you're a guy, you're probably around 15% body fat, probably not any higher than 20%. And when you cut,

you're trying to get down to the 10% range or so. And if you're a woman, you're probably around 25%, certainly no higher than 30%. And when you cut, you're trying to get down to 20% or lower. And I guess that goes for men as well. Maybe you're trying to get to sub 10%. And again, in that case, it is, I think, smartest to assume that it's going to take just as much work as you normally do to gain muscle and strength to maintain maximum muscle and strength when you're cutting. Now, what you don't want to do is actually what many intermediate and advanced weightlifters do who understand the basic principles that Sean was thinking with when he asked this question, and that is reduce the weightlifting volume. And usually by

a lot, like at least 50%, if not more. So for example, if this person was doing 15, on average, 15 or 16 hard sets per major muscle group per week when maintaining or lean bulking, and then they start cutting and they're doing no more than let's say seven or eight now. And on certain major muscle groups, maybe they even reduce that to five or six. And again, they do that thinking that, hey, I'm not going to gain any muscle or strength to speak of when I'm cutting. So why waste my time in the gym grinding out workouts that feel a lot harder? I'd rather just put that time into cardio, which is the other element of this mistake. And that is to do a lot of cardio and not a lot of weightlifting. Research shows that that can significantly raise the risk of losing

muscle when you're cutting. Now, if you combine the reduction in weightlifting volume and the increase in cardio volume with very low calorie dieting, so let's say a calorie deficit larger than 20 or 25% and not enough protein, which often manifests as sporadic protein insufficiency or sufficiency, depending on how you want to look at it. Meaning that I have not found too many experienced lifters over the years who just consistently eat way too little protein when they cut, who consistently eat, let's say, it's one half of a gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. But what I have seen many, many times over the years is they'll be good about their protein intake several days of the week. So they'll be up, let's say, around a gram per pound of body weight per week, maybe a little bit higher,

maybe a little bit lower. And then there will be a couple of days per week, sometimes in a row, like sometimes it's the weekends, for example, where protein intake will plummet. I mean, for example, I have seen 170, 80, 90 pound guys eating 60 to 70 grams of protein several days of the week. And what they don't realize is while you can get away with that when you're new, that's your first year of proper weightlifting. Sure, you can get away with that and you're still going to recomp. You're still going to gain muscle and strength while cutting even with spotty protein intake. But once your newbie gains have been exhausted and you're now an intermediate weightlifter, and particularly if you're an advanced weightlifter, so you've gained a lot of muscle

and you are now trying to go from lean to really lean, that mistake alone can make a significant difference in your muscle retention. So to wrap up my answer to this question with some practical takeaways, my recommendations are when you're cutting, don't make any significant reductions in your weightlifting program, period. And particularly, don't cut your volume or intensity. Frequency is just a tool you use really to get in enough volume. So you could reduce frequency, but keep volume and intensity the same and get good results just as you can go from a five-day program to a four-day program and

still do well with it, right? So really what we want is just as many hard sets per major muscle group per week as you normally do when you are maintaining or lean bulking, unless you go crazy when you lean bulk and do 20 plus hard sets per major muscle group per week and somehow don't break yourself. I would not recommend that amount of volume when cutting, but if you are like most of us, you are probably doing 14 to maybe 16 hard sets per major muscle group per week. Again, if you're an intermediate or an advanced lifter, if you are newer, you are probably doing maybe nine to 12 hard sets per major muscle group per week. And I wouldn't change that at all when cutting. In neither of those

scenarios are those volume numbers too much for cutting. And I also wouldn't recommend reducing the intensity of your training. So if you're following a periodized program like my Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger program, then I would follow it exactly as it's laid out. So if you are in a mesocycle that has you go from, let's say, 70% of one rep max on the big lifts to 75 to 80 and then deload, and then in the next mesocycle, it's going to be 75, 80, 85 deload and so forth. Just follow that exactly as it's laid out. And if you are following bigger, leaner, stronger, it's a bit simpler. It's just double progression. You're working in the four to six rep range. You would just continue working in the four to six rep range when cutting

and you would work in a slightly higher rep range with certain isolation exercises as discussed in the book. And the point here though is I would not recommend going from, let's say, four to six on the primary lifts and six to eight on some isolation to eight to 10 or 10 to 12 or 12 to 15 or higher rep schemes when cutting. You can do just fine with higher reps. It's not going to work any worse, but it's also not going to make it any better. You're not going to get better results when cutting by doing higher reps rather than lower reps. And I would argue that you're probably going to enjoy your workouts more with lower reps because high rep training is already a more uncomfortable period, but it is particularly

more difficult when you're cutting, and especially as you get deeper into a cut. Now, if you want to reduce volume because maybe you're feeling a bit run down and a bit beat up, or maybe you have to because of life circumstances, then so be it. I would recommend though that you reduce the volume of your isolation exercises, your accessory exercises. I would recommend maintaining your volume of the big compound lifts. So do the same amount of squats and deadlifts and bench presses and overhead presses every week, and then maybe do less of the leg curls or the biceps curls or the lat pulldowns and so forth. And then as far as cardio goes, I think it's a good idea to include cardio

in your regimen when you're cutting. You will lose fat faster and there are also health benefits, of course, particularly cardiovascular benefits to doing regular cardio. But you want to make sure you don't do too much. That is the key. And a good rule of thumb is to do no more than about half of the amount of time that you are spending training your muscles. So if you are lifting four hours per week, I would recommend no more than two hours of cardio per week. And I would recommend that you make most of that moderate or low intensity cardio and don't do too much high intensity cardio. To put a number to it, I would do no more than probably one or two high intensity sessions per week. If I were lifting, let's say four hours per week, and I would make those sessions no more than probably 20 or 25 minutes. The rest of my cardio

would be moderate intensity, which means cardio that wins me a bit that wouldn't allow me to record a podcast like this, but would allow me to have a discussion with someone so long as they don't mind me catching my breath every 10 seconds or so. All right, let's move on to the next question from Jaden Brown, 420. And this is about muscle fiber types. Are there different ways to train muscles based on their muscle fiber type that will result in faster muscle growth than if you did otherwise? And let's start this answer with a quick breakdown of muscle fiber types. So generally speaking, there are two categories of muscle fibers. You have fast twitch and slow

twitch fibers. So fast twitch muscle fibers, which are also called type two muscle fibers, by the way, they contract faster and they have about a 25 to 75% greater potential for size for muscle growth than slow twitch or type 1 fibers. The downside of type 2 fibers, though, of the fast twitch fibers, is they are easily fatigued. And they also take a bit to recover their ability to perform maximally again. of the reasons why we rest two, three, or even four minutes in between sets of our big compound lifts that involve a lot of muscle tissue and of course a lot of type 2 muscle tissue. Now the slow twitch fibers, the type 1 fibers, they contract slower and they can't produce as much force and they have a lower potential for muscle growth, but they're also very resistant to fatigue and they recover quickly even after

hours of continual use. Now, most of the muscles in our body are about 50-50 fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. That said, upper body muscles do tend to be slightly more fast twitch in most people and then lower body muscles tend to be more slow twitch in most people. And some research suggests that specific muscle groups like the deltoids, for example, can be skewed pretty significantly away from this 50-50 split. And that has led people to hypothesize that certain muscle groups will respond better to certain types of training because of what we know about these different types of muscle fibers and how they respond to a training stimulus. And let's talk about that. So when you perform an exercise, your body first activates the slow twitch fibers, and then it

starts to activate more and more of the fast twitch fibers as you get closer to muscle failure. Now that got some people thinking and an idea was born that you could do a lot of lighter weight, higher rep training to target the slow twitch fibers and also to maximally stimulate muscle groups that contain more slow twitch than fast twitch fibers. And then you would do a lot of heavy lower rep training to target the fast twitch fibers and to elicit the biggest response from the muscle groups that are comprised of more fast twitch than slow twitch fibers. There are a few problems with this theory though. One is as you get closer to failure, your body starts recruiting all the muscle fibers, every kind that it can. There are also hybrid

fibers I didn't talk about, but we don't have to get into that for the purpose of this discussion here. So my point with this first contention is that whether you use sets of 15 or five reps, you are going to reach a very similar level of overall muscle activation and muscle growth if you take the set to within a couple of reps of failure. That's the key, getting close to failure. And my second quibble is studies go back and forth on whether or not some muscle fibers respond better to low or high rep training. The current best evidence shows though that both heavy training with let's say three to five reps and 85 to 90% of one rep max, as well as lighter training with let's say nine or 10 or 11 reps around 70% of one rep max

works equally well for building both fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. So your muscles don't seem to really care. They just need it to be heavy enough. And to put a number to that, I would say above 60 to maybe 65% of one rep max, you start getting below that and you're going to run into issues just regarding the intensity alone. But so long as the weight is heavy enough, it appears that so long as you take a set close to muscle failure, it is equally effective for gaining muscle both with very heavy weights. So let's say 80, 85, 90% of one rep max and much lighter weights, 65, 70, 75% of one rep max. And the third and final point I want to make here is, as I already mentioned, most muscles in the

body are roughly an even split between fast and slow twitch muscle fibers. So even if one style of training was able to target a specific muscle fiber type, you'd still want to do both higher and lower rep training to get the most muscle growth possible. And that's why one of the most extensive reviews on muscle growth conducted to date that was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research concluded that, quote, a fiber type prescription with respect to repetition range has not been borne out by research. In other words, there's just very little evidence that you should use certain rep ranges to target different muscle fibers and that you should get very particular with your rep ranges according to the muscle groups that you're training. The best evidence that we have shows that for intermediate and advanced weightlifters

in particular, using a variety of rep ranges is the best way to build muscle everywhere on your body. Every major muscle group is going to respond best to a combination of heavy, moderate, and light. And when I say light, I mean still heavy-ish, right? So no lighter than 65% or 70% of one rep max. But that approach we know works well, and particularly with intermediate and advanced weightlifters. With novices, not so much, actually. It's an unnecessary complication as far as programming goes, and it is probably not going to result in any additional muscle and strength gain. When you're a guy and you have yet to gain your first 25 or so pounds of muscle, you can keep it real simple. Bigger, leaner,

stronger, honestly, is all you need. Nine to 12 hard sets per major muscle group per week, four to six reps with about 80, 85% of your one rep max on the bar, double progression, and six to eight reps for the isolation exercises that are a bit too awkward to do in the four to six rep range. And you just get to have a good old time. You just get to add weight to the bar every week or two, and you just get bigger and stronger like clockwork. Eventually though, the honeymoon comes to an end and you have to start working harder for less muscle and strength gain. And primarily that means you have to do more volume. You have to go from that nine to 12 hard sets per major muscle group per week to something around 15,

probably to continue getting bigger and stronger. And then it is worth looking at more involved periodization schemes like the one that I have in my Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger program, which you can find in my book, Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger program, which you can find in my book, Beyond Bigger, Leaner, Stronger. If you like what I'm doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, definitely check out my sports nutrition company, Legion, which thanks to the support of many people like you is the leading brand of all natural sports supplements in the world. Okay, let's move on to the final question here, which comes from Deb Ellen BZ, or D-E-B-L-N BZ. I don't know how I'm supposed to read this over on Instagram. And this is what

one piece of advice would you give for continuing exercise through 40s, through your 40s and older? And here it is. Don't get hurt. Statistically and anecdotally, one of the most common reasons people let themselves go is they stop working out because of an injury. I've heard from so many middle-aged people over the years who got into CrossFit, got hurt, and then got fat and sedentary. And I understand because you get hurt and it throws off your routine. It sinks your morale. It makes it a lot harder to gain momentum again and just get back to where you were at. It's not very fun. And that event often is the thin edge of the wedge that leads to people giving up on fitness entirely and really just throwing in the towel.

And while you certainly can come back from even the most debilitating injuries, there are very few injuries that you can't come back from. It's not easy. It's hard physically. It is hard mentally. It is hard emotionally. And that's why many people don't make it, or at least they don't ever get back to where they were previously. Now, if you are a regular listener of Muscle for Life, you're not most people. And you probably do have what it takes to fight back from even an extreme injury that sidelines you for months. But unless you just really want to prove to yourself that you can do it, that you have the grit to come back from the depths of dysfunction and disability, it makes a lot of sense to take reasonable precautions to reduce the risk of injury as much as possible. And if you do a good

job at that, there is no reason why you have to suffer any major acute injuries. If you lift weights long enough, you are going to deal with some nagging aches and pains here and there. You might develop some RSI, some repetitive stress injuries where you have to just kind of lay off a muscle group or an exercise for a bit here and there. And those are perfectly normal occurrences that probably can't be avoided because if you are going to make progress, you are going to have to be training hard and continually pushing your body a bit further than what it can currently do and deal with. And that process, repeated often enough, will have side effects. But if you manage your training and your diet and your recovery, particularly your sleep correctly, you don't have to ever get seriously hurt. Now, something that you should be

aware of is as we get older, we can still be in great shape. We can still gain muscle and strength, but our muscles, our tendons, our ligaments stiffen with age, and that can increase the risk of injury. And so what that means is as we get older, we just can't get away with as many shenanigans as when we were younger. And we have to really be a stickler for good form. And we have to be smart. We can't allow our lower backs to round when we pull. We can't allow our knees to be always bowing in on our squats. We can't be flaring our elbows on the bench press to get 10 more pounds on the bar. All of those things increase the risk of injury at any age, but they get more and more dangerous as the years go by. So much so that I would say that people who are doing these things

will eventually get hurt if they're also lifting heavy weights, which of course they should be. Another tip is to stop when you hit pain or strange. Don't try to push through that. If it hurts, stop. If there's something off, it feels weird in the middle of a set, stop and rest and then try again. And if it still hurts or feels off, then do something else because pain and strange is often a warning that something is wrong. And if you don't heed it, then injury can follow. Real injury. Again, not just, oh, my back is a little bit sore from the deadlifting or my elbow is a little bit pissed off from the bench pressing. Like unfortunately,

something that would send you to the physical therapist and keep you out of the gym and so forth. And don't hesitate to take a few days off training if the aches and pains that you have accumulated are making your workouts painful and very uncomfortable, or if you have developed little niggles that are not going away and are only getting worse. Another good strategy for enhancing recovery and staving off injury is deloading sooner than you normally would if you feel like you need it. Again, if you are noticing a bit more discomfort than usual in your training, and if your joints are feeling a bit beat up, and let's say normally you would go another week or two weeks of hard training before deloading, take

your deload early. Nothing wrong with that. Also, make sure to exercise patience with your progress, and hopefully you are following a well-designed workout program. And if you are, actually follow it. Don't try to accelerate the progress based on how you feel because you can feel great coming into, let's say, the first week after a deload. And you're thinking that you can get away with a bit more weight on the bar or a bit more volume or maybe some extra reps in your sets. But what can happen is after a couple of weeks of doing that, you are now not feeling so great and things are kind of hurting and the weights are starting to feel real heavy and now you have to take an early deload. And as far as injuries go, if you get too zealous in your volume in particular, that can become a problem because volume is harder on the

body as a whole than intensity. Intensity is something you feel more, particularly in your joints, because there's a lot more stress, acute stress that's produced in the muscles and in the joints with the heavier weights. But as far as systemic stress goes, volume drives a lot more than intensity. So again, don't try to do 20 plus hard sets per major muscle group per week because some definitely natural guy on Instagram says that that's what everyone should be doing. And another tip worth sharing here is to take at least one day off of the weights every week. And I think two is better.

So you can prioritize recovery. It's okay if you want to do some cardio on those days. I wouldn't recommend much high intensity stuff. Again, the idea is to give your body a bit of a break. And that's advice that I would give to 20 year olds. Because while I have met some people over the years who can get away with lifting six or even seven days a week for at least

a couple of months before having to deload, they are the exception, not the rule. Not only do you not need to be lifting more than five days a week to get in enough volume for all major muscle groups to continue getting bigger and stronger, if you do train six or seven days per week and you are not careful with your volume and ensuring you're getting plenty of sleep and ensuring you're not in a calorie deficit, you are going to fall behind in recovery. And even if you are watching your volume, you may still run into issues. It may still be better overall for you to take those one or two days off the weights per week. And I know I have already said this several times, but I'm going to close with it. I'm going to say it again because it is that important for not just getting jacked, but also just maintaining optimal health and mental performance and longevity. And that is make sure you're getting enough sleep. And this is particularly important as you get older because your ability to recover from your training is impacted directly by how well you sleep.

And research shows that even slight sleep deprivation can impair muscle protein synthesis, which could reduce muscle growth and muscle recovery if you were to regularly not sleep enough. All right, super friends. Well, that's it for this episode of Muscle for Life. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you found it helpful and insightful. And here's a little preview of what I have coming next. I have a monologue on the best workout splits for women that's coming next week, an interview about entrepreneurship

and marketing and creativity that I did with my buddy, Michael Chernow, who is a multiple time winner in the game of business, as well as a successful media personality. And then I have a says you coming where I'm going to be talking about low bar versus high bar squats, recreational weed use and fasting for health, as well as another Q and a on prehab ideal cutting protocol, lifting and cardio and doing a single cycle of steroids. or wherever you're listening to me from in whichever app you're listening to me in, because that not only convinces people that they should check out the show, it also increases search visibility.

And thus, it helps more people find their way to me and learn how to get fitter, leaner, stronger, healthier, and happier as well. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then simply subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any new stuff. And if you didn't like something about the show, please do shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com, just muscle F-O-R life.com and share your thoughts on how I can do this better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, even if it is criticism. I'm open to it. And of course, you can email me if you have positive feedback as well, or if you have questions really relating to

anything that you think I could help you with, definitely send me an email. That is the best way to get ahold of me, mikeatmuscleforlife.com. And that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode. And I hope to hear from you soon.