It’s the breakdown we’ve all been waiting for. Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel examined and critiqued the training and intensity of the legendary four-time Mr. Olympia king Jay Cutler.
Dr. Mike Israetel has become a trusted resource in the fitness and bodybuilding niche, thanks to his years of experience as an esteemed physiologist. From analyzing ‘The Shadow’ Dorian Yates’ high-intensity workouts to measuring the effectiveness of Hulk Hogan’s fitness routine, there isn’t a talent on the planet Dr. Israetel won’t look into.
Exercise Scientist Takes A Closer Look At Bodybuilding Legend Jay Cutler’s Training And Intensity
He runs the mega-successful Renaissance Periodization YouTube channel, which has rapidly grown as of late. With over two million subscribers, fans, athletes, and anyone interested in fitness flock to his growing channel. This time around, he did a deep dive into ‘The Comeback Kid’s’ approach to training, intensity, and hydration.
“Multi-time Mr. Olympia champion, and one of the people in real life when he was at his biggest, looked not real. I saw him once at a booth in the mid-2000s, very close to his prime, at the Arnold, I remember looking at his whole body and thinking two things: one, his delts were roughly the size of a regular person’s head which makes no sense and I also remember that when he hit my visual field, my internal GPT the first thing it went to, the first node, was a refrigerator.”
Properly hydrating
First, Dr. Israetel examined why Cutler struggled to stay hydrated while training rigorously for his Mr. Olympia competitions.
“He’s enormous and that makes sense, and he’s working tons of volume, short rest breaks, so the sweating makes sense. He says he has trouble being hydrated at parts of, especially towards the end and after his workouts because he’s pouring out so much sweat. He says he drinks water and it’s still a struggle.”
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Since the body loses electrolytes and salt via exercise, Israetel believes water might not do the trick for someone like Cutler.
“Drinking water is a great way to rehydrate unless you lost a lot of sweat. Sweat isn’t just water, there is significant amount of salt in sweat, all sorts of different electrolytes, if you just rehydrate with regular water you don’t get them back.”
Smith Machine Squats
Israetel had no problems with Cutler’s technique and form during Smith machine squats.
“That’s awesome, this is great technique by the way. Fully controlled, you guys notice Jay Cutler’s chest is up really high that makes his back super vertical, and makes his legs do most of the work instead of his back.
I don’t believe he’s here to train back on this day. Really impressively, he can sort of grab the bar because his arms are so goddamn gigantic.”
He believes Cutler’s 30-45-second rest periods between squats wouldn’t work for most people given the cardiovascular demands on the body.
“I don’t know if Jay even approved this but 30-45 seconds of rest between sets of squats for 8-10 reps? That’s tough. That’s crazy cardio capacity. I would say for most people, maybe it works super well for Jay, for most people, I’d say rest longer until you get your breath back.”
Focus
Next, Dr. Israetel evaluated Cutler’s focus throughout his workout, describing the differences between external and internal.
“Let me break this down. There are kind of two types of focus you can have during lifting. There’s external focus, looking at yourself in the mirror, looking at yourself in real life, like what you can see, and focusing on the technique of the movement by seeing what is going on.
“Then there’s internal focus,” said Dr. Israetel. “One of the senses you have is the proprioceptive sense.”
Jay’s Training Style
Unlike Dorian Yates who routinely went to failure during his workouts, Cutler favored sets that were made even more difficult by high volume.
“Jay likes to go not as heavy as Dorian, not really to failure, I don’t think Jay has ever trained to failure, something he said on a podcast.”
“But more sets, some people like to do way higher reps, some people like to do a combination. As long as you’re training with sets that are pretty tough, close to failure, three reps or close to failure.”
Rating
Dr. Israetel believes there’s value to extract from every high-profile athlete, including Jay Cutler.
“What I like to do with the Pros and the really really good athletes is try to extract some value from what they are doing and there’s tons of value to extract from everybody, even people I disagree with largely.”
“Jay Cutler is the fucking man and is a reincarnation of John F Kennedy out of 10. I’ll see you guys next time.”
In addition to examining Jay Cutler’s way of training, Dr. Israetel has broken down the workout methods used by five-time Classic Physique Olympia Chris Bumstead. Overall, Dr. Israetel credited ‘Cbum’ for his calculated training efforts but recommended he focus more on the eccentric to enhance his range of motion with lifts concerning the upper body.
Dr. Israetel continues to give back to the bodybuilding community and it’s always fascinating to hear what he has to say about legends of the sport. Having taken a close look at Cutler’s training, he was impressed with his technique but cautioned lifters who watch him to take longer rest periods, especially when squatting.
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