When it comes to training for maximum muscle definition most people make the mistake of performing way too much strength training.
Strength training is very important when cutting to ensure you maintain your hard earned muscle. However its important to realize that it only takes about 1/3 to 1/2 of your normal workout volume to hold onto muscle.
If you perform the same amount of strength training as usual your going to be breaking down your muscle but you won’t have enough calories to fully rebuild. So you will gradually be digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole.
On the other hand some people drop all strength training when they want to ‘cut’ and replace it with lots of cardio. This is just as bad because what ends up happening is they lose both fat and muscle too.
The ideal 3 day workout split for maximum muscle definition would be to start your workout with only 2 strength training exercises. Example: Incline Bench Press and Incline Dumbbell Curls (Chest and Biceps). You don’t need to perform 2-4 exercises per muscle group when cutting. This will only cause over-training leading to more problems.
The best set/rep scheme to use when training for muscle definition is 3 work sets of 3-6 reps. Lower reps with ample rest time increase muscle density. Whereas higher reps with short rest periods (ex: 8-12 reps with 60 seconds rest) increase the fluid in the muscles causing the ‘pump’.
Therefore when cutting we are concerned with muscle density and tone and that is why we utilize 3-6 reps.
Because we are only performing 2 strength training exercises we can perform lots of core training and fat burning cardio.
For core training it is best to focus on plank variations and hanging leg raise variations. These build tight and ripped midsections without causing back pain.
It is best to perform cardio at the end of your workout. You want to start with 8-16 minutes of high intensity interval training to boost your bodies fat burning hormones and finish off with steady state cardio for 15-30 minutes to burn off the remaining free fatty acids. Instead of performing HIIT you can perform burpees exercises and workouts. This will have the same effect.
The 3 Day Workout Split we will use will look like this:
Day 1 – Chest, Biceps, Abs – Cardio
Day 2 – Back, Triceps, Abs – Cardio
Day 3 – Shoulders, Traps, Abs – Cardio
Day 4 – Rest
Day 5 – Repeat
Every third workout I recommend just performing low intensity cardio. This will ensure you don’t overtrain.
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