The fourth phase of my new Maximize Your Muscle Program is called "Ripped in a Rush." It will constitute the first cutting phase of the program and it will employ two methods: cyclical bulking and pre-exhaustion training.
If you've read my blog or watched my videos at all, you know that I'm a huge advocate of cyclical bulking. The only way to maximize fat loss without losing muscle and build muscle without adding too much fat is to constantly change the game as it's perceived by your metabolism. The transition period between cutting and bulking and back again is the important period in your entire program. Cyclical bulking allows you to take advantage of that transition period and then move on before your body adapts to it and muscle growth or fat loss plateaus.
Every fourth phase of the Maximize Your Muscle program is a cutting phase. You will be bulking or building muscle for 12 weeks, then cutting for 2 to 4 weeks. This is the best way to maximize your insulin sensitivity and it allows you to periodically cut any added body fat as you go, rather than waiting until you've gained way too much fat and then having to go through a long and grueling cutting phase.
However, when you're cutting, it's extremely important to continue hypertrophy training. Many programs recommend bodyweight or circuit training during cutting or they focus on strength training during a cutting phase. Both of these methods are counterproductive. With bodyweight or circuit training, the loads are too light to sustain the muscle mass you've worked so hard to gain during bulking. With strength-training, there isn't enough time under tension, muscle fatigue or metabolic burn to achieve any real fat loss.
Pre-exhaustion training is the answer to not only sustaining, but building muscle during a cutting phase while still losing fat.
Pre·Exhaustion Training Explained
You can't have growth without fatigue. There is no muscle fiber repair if there is no muscle fiber damage.
Pre-exhaustion training is most commonly used by guys who are focused on a few lagging body parts. It's an extremely effective way to really target a muscle that's just not developing in line with the rest of your body or that's been resistant to growth in general.
The way pre-exhaustion training works is that you do a specified number of sets of an isola- tion move targeting a specific muscle and then after a very short rest period, you do a com- pound move for that muscle.
When you're doing a compound move, the target muscle gets a huge assist from the sup- porting muscles nearby. For instance, when you are doing a bench press for your chest, your pecs are getting help from your delts and triceps. Because the delts and triceps fatigue be- fore your pecs, you never really fatigue your pecs with the bench press; you have to do an- other exercise to get there.
With pre-exhaustion training, you do an isolation move first to pre-exhaust that target mus- cle, so when you do the compound move, that muscle fatigues about the same time as (or sooner than) the supporting muscles. For instance, you might do cable crossovers for your pecs, followed by the bench press, biceps curls followed by chin-ups or leg extensions fol- lowed by barbell squats.
Why Pre·Exhaustion Training Is So Effective
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