How to Cut and Maintain Muscle Mass

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A few weeks back, one of our readers asked about maintaining muscle mass while doing a cut. Today we’re focusing on that (and a few more resources on cutting as a powerlifter). Our coaches also share tips on powerlifting techniques and some trending topics from around the community.

This Week’s Resources

• Powerlifting Cutting Program: Full Guide

• Is It Possible to Cut and Maintain Muscle Mass (YouTube)

• Should I Take Creatine While Cutting?

• 5 Mistakes to Avoid While Water Cutting as a Powerlifter

Is It Possible to Cut and Maintain Muscle Mass?

Coach Lucero answers a reader’s question about maintaining muscle mass in this new video on our YouTube channel.

In this comprehensive video, Coach Lucero talks about the challenges and strategies for performing a body cut while preserving muscle mass. It’s hard to do. Maintaining muscle, which is key for powerlifting, requires protein intake and carb cycling.

Powerlifting Cutting Guide

Lifters who can maximize their muscle mass and maintain a lower body fat percentage, are the most competitive powerlifters. How do we go about cutting weight to lose body fat while maintaining strength? What are the nutritional strategies and how does our training program change?

The 7 rules to follow in a powerlifting cutting program are:

• Set Realistic Goals For Your Timeline

• Ensure A Caloric Deficit

• Keep Volume Elevated With Corresponding Intensities

• Monitor Food Intake And Training Variables

• Adjust Intake and/or Activity Based On Performance Data

• Avoid Excessive Amounts Of Cardio

• Be Consistent

While cutting and training for powerlifting is not rocket science, there does seem to be a number of lifters who end up worse off than they started if they are not educated about the process. In the full powerlifting cutting guide, we discuss how to change your nutrition and training for a successful weight cut.

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Should I Take Creatine While Cutting?

Variables like nutrition, sleep, and exercise play a crucial role when cutting body fat. However, supplementing with creatine for weight loss can make a positive impact as well.

Taking creatine while cutting enhances your body’s ability to train harder and recover faster, making it helpful in cutting body fat and losing weight.

Of course, you’ll want to understand how to use creatine while cutting correctly and the concerns since it may not be for everyone.

Creatine is one of the most researched supplements in the industry. There’s good reason for that. It’s a nitrogenous compound derived from three amino acids: glycine, arginine, and methionine.

The pancreas and liver produce creatine endogenously (within the body). Still, it also can be consumed exogenously (outside of the body) from meat, fish, and oral supplementation, with creatine monohydrate being the most common type of creatine.

Multiple studies have shown benefits while cutting, so we’re including a deep dive in our full guide.

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How to Master the Bodyweight Squat

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Or read our guide to increasing squat strength. We share 20 exercises and how to use them to increase your performance for game day.

5 Mistakes to Avoid With Water Cuts as a Powerlifter

Weight-class sports including powerlifting have more athletes who water cut to temporarily lower their weight so that they can compete in a lighter weight class and be more competitive. But, maintaining optimal levels of performance through a water cut is challenging.

So, how do you water cut for powerlifting?

A water cut for powerlifting is accomplished by a brief period of water loading (5-7 days) in which we drink more water than normal, followed by a sudden halt in water intake, which causes the body to excrete enough water to bring us to a temporarily dehydrated state to weigh in lighter for the competition.

The protocol for water cutting is not a complicated one when the necessary variables are manipulated correctly; however, if we make one of the 5 mistakes I’ll discuss in this article, we risk missing weight and being unable to compete or in extreme cases, there could be health complications.

The 4 methods used for water cutting in powerlifting are:

• Water Loading

• Sodium Manipulation

• Carbohydrate Manipulation

• Additional Measures

Read the full guide to water cutting as a powerlifter for details on each. And remember, the most important part of a water cut is the rehydration and glycogen replenishment process. If we mess up the processes following the weigh-in we will definitely not perform well.