Jay Cutler made a living out of breaking training plateaus, reaching the top of the sport with four Mr. Olympia titles. In a recent YouTube video shared on November 25, 2024, Cutler explained how to overcome lulls in training progress, offering proven solutions he used throughout his career.
Jay Cutler was no stranger to conquering challenges during his bodybuilding tenure. He was tasked with dethroning former eight-time Olympia winner Ronnie Coleman in his prime. In 2006, Cutler made history and toppled ‘The King.’ However, to do so, he had to modify his training endeavors—at one point, he even mimicked Coleman’s exercise habits to finally catch up to him on stage.
Resourcefulness was a key driver for Cutler’s success, which meant he was constantly coming up with new innovative ways to maximize his workout efforts. This has led Cutler to break down some of the best approaches and solutions to reach a new level within your training.
Jay Cutler Talks Training Plateau Solutions: “You Have to Have an Open Mind, Especially If You Want to Continue to Grow”
There are a variety of reasons why training progress stalls and Cutler argues that there are just as many solutions.
Level Up Your Fitness: Join our 💪 strong community in Fitness Volt Newsletter. Get daily inspiration, expert-backed workouts, nutrition tips, the latest in strength sports, and the support you need to reach your goals. Subscribe for free!
“Let’s talk plateaus. Now, everyone has experienced them even me at the highest level competing at Olympias.
I feel like I hit plateaus, those plateaus meaning I felt like I wasn’t growing. I was tired. I wasn’t motivated to train. I think there’s a lot of reasons we all hit plateaus but the solutions that can be many also.”
According to ‘The Comeback Kid,’ sometimes it’s best to approach workout plateaus by simply ‘backing off’ or changing your training style.
“It can be days off. It can be changing up the times you train. Changing your training style, focusing on more or less repetitions. Sometimes we just need to back off.
For me, I was such a volume trainer through my career, doing a minimum of 20 sets per body part, sometimes I needed to back that down to like 12. I mean just go in the gym, get that basic pump, sometimes I was training multiple days in a row.”
During his career, he found that he could only train at ‘full capacity’ two days in a row, so he always rested on the third day. He trained with a volume-based approach which required additional rest time.
“I found for myself I can only train two days in a row at full capacity before I need to take a day off. I couldn’t train a body part twice a week where some of my competitors trained body parts twice a week. I needed more rest time. Plateaus can be looked at as many different things but sometimes it’s just change-up, you have to have an open mind, especially if you want to continue to grow.”
Other solutions to training plateaus could be nutrition, sleep, or sufficient training.
“Sometimes it’s your nutrition. If you’re eating proper, you’re sleeping proper, and you’re training sufficiently, it’s very hard not to continue to have progress, although, we all don’t get the necessarily those things in motion. I travel for a living. I’m doing tons of guest appearances, meet and greets, there’s a lot of sleepless nights. I’m on a plane half the time.
That’s why when I tried to train for competitions I gave myself that extreme time, that last four months to be able to dial in and not have distractions so my sleep pattern would be right, the training pattern would be right, and of course, my growth process and my recovery would be 100 percent. So really analyze what you do. Sometimes journaling might be a good thing to keep track of your progress.”
His final tip for breaking through training lulls is to consistently monitor your progress or have a training partner who can offer an honest assessment of your performance.
“Okay, I’m going forward or going backward. Have some good eyes around you that can give you the most beneficial advice as you’re leading into the gym and going through those workouts and trying to show progress every single week.”
Bodybuilding expert Lee Priest also offered his take on breaking through training plateaus. He believes exercise variation can help individuals achieve gym progress as well.
“It’s like your strength, you’ll go through stages where your strength goes up and then you might just sit at a point where you won’t get any stronger. Your body will get to a point where it can’t lift more. That’s when you might change the variation of the exercises,” he shared.
Cutler’s methods are backed up by one of the most impressive bodybuilding careers of all time. From exercise variation, and rest, to the time of day you train, he utilized every strategy under the sun to cement his one-of-a-kind bodybuilding résumé.
RELATED: Hunter Labrada Shares Tips for Breaking Plateaus & Changes in Off-Season & Prep Training
Watch the full video from the JayCutlerTV YouTube channel below:
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
YouTube for even more content.
