Jay Cutler believes pushing sets to failure might be sabotaging your fitness goals. In a July 22 YouTube video, he broke down why he never adopted Dorian Yates’ training approach.
Dorian Yates reached the top of the sport in the 1990s, securing six consecutive Mr. Olympia titles. His training system, inspired by the late Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer, focused on achieving muscular failure. Instead of aiming for a fixed number of reps, their strategy centered around one high-intensity set with maximum effort.
According to “The Shadow,” this training style isn’t about throwing heavy weights around. He emphasizes that applying maximum stress to the target muscle is key, as it prevents momentum from taking over the exercise. While this training style led to Yates’ success onstage, Cutler contends that it could wear down your body over time.
Jay Cutler on Why He Doesn’t Train Like Dorian Yates
In the video, Cutler revealed that his training was built around high volume, short rest times, and a lot of exercises. He kept his rep range consistently around 10-15.
“People ask me about Dorian Yates’ heavy-duty training, the Mike Mentzer beyond-failure training, all that stuff, there’s so much shit, but the point is, from the beginning, I trained with high volume, short rest times between each set, doing a lot of exercises, and a lot of sets with higher volume repetitions, so 10 to 12 to 15.”
Cutler explained that he increased his reps for legs and arms, and said lifting heavy weights never worked for him.
“For legs and arms, that’s the only time I suggest over 12, like 15-20, really engorge it. Same thing with the arms. You’re not going to do crazy, crazy weights with the arms; that never worked for me.
I never went to failure. I just think that kind of training is going to beat the shit out of your body over time, so be careful with that,” Jay Cutler shared.
Cutler remains a top ambassador for the Men’s Open division. Speaking with Rich Gaspari, he recently shared how his training goals have shifted since he stepped away from competing. Cutler noted that the biggest change was using lighter weights, but said it hasn’t prevented him from maintaining size.
We’ve seen countless styles of training find success on the Olympia stage. For Cutler, he advocates for high volume, but warns that going to failure can beat the body down over time.
