Written by Jay Cutler
25 November 2016

15NN060-Jay

Q&A with Jay Cutler

The Four-Time Mr. Olympia Answers Your Questions

 

Squat Deep

 There was a video I saw where you were training legs for a photo shoot, and I noticed you don’t go deep down in the hole on squats. I know this was a photo shoot and not an actual workout. I just wanted to know, do you use that range of motion on all of those movements? You have awesome legs. The thing is, I haven’t used a hack squat machine in a while due to my right knee. I see you weren’t going all the way down like I always did on those. I didn’t know if I would benefit from just going to parallel and not all the way down.

    The thing about photo shoots is that many times things that you do in your actual training don’t make for the best pictures. For example, when you squat to parallel, you are able to see a lot more of the details and separations in the sides of the leg, specifically the deep cuts between the quads and hams. Once you go down past that, it’s not as visually dramatic. But if you watch any of my DVDs or even the free JayCutlerTV clips on YouTube, you will see that I always go down past parallel, as deep as possible. If I can’t go ass to floor with a weight, I won’t do it.

    As for the hack squat, it does seem to aggravate the knees of many bodybuilders. It’s a great machine, but if you can do squats, front squats and leg presses, I wouldn’t worry too much about the fact that you can’t do hacks. Just don’t shortchange yourself on compound leg movements by using a limited range of motion just to handle more weight. It’s one case where you will always see better results with a full range even if it means less resistance.

 Strength on Basic Movements

 Jay, your back was underrated, in my opinion. The combination of width and thickness was amazing. I’m just curious how strong you were on some basic movements like deadlifts, barbell rows and dumbbell rows.

    On deadlifts, I’ve done six plates a side, or 585, off the floor for three reps. I did it back in 2005 at the Gold’s Gym on Sahara and Decatur in Las Vegas. I can do 495 for good sets of eight, and on that day I just felt really good and wanted to see what I could do with another plate. I still do deads. Nothing pumps my back up the way they do. I’ve also done my share of rack deadlifts, and the most I ever used was seven plates a side, 675 pounds, for a few reps— somewhere between three and six. Forgive me if I don’t always remember the exact number of reps I did.   

    As for barbell rows, if I pulled the reps in a more ballistic style and didn’t control the negative, I could probably do five plates. But I can’t bring myself to be sloppy on this exercise with a super heavy weight— just not worth the risk! I’ve done 405 for eight to 10, and I could do 365 for 10 at any back workout.

    Dumbbell rows? I’ve rowed a 200-pounder for 10 reps at Gold’s Gym in Venice, and I was able to use a 180 all the time at my gym. The problem with going that heavy on this movement is that the dumbbell is so long and awkward that it almost becomes like trying to row a barbell with one hand. At that one gym, I had a special 180-pound dumbbell that my sponsor Intek Strength made for me with 12.5-pound plates instead of 10s, so it’s not as long and cumbersome to handle.

 Contest Diet Tricks

 What strategies did you employ to keep yourself on track while in the final stages of contest dieting?

    I do have a few:

    • Never cheat on my diet

    • Use the mirror more than the scale to gauge my progress

    • Gradually lower my sodium as I get closer to the show

    • Drink up to three gallons of water a day

    • Continue to train with intensity, but gradually back off on the total number of sets as the show is close, focus more on good contractions to bring out detail

    • Practice posing at least 15 minutes every day

    • Keep everything simple, so that adjustments can be made if necessary without too many possible variables to change.

 Battle Scars

 Jay, I have large stretch marks just like yours. Is there any treatment for this? Or do you really not care about them?

I look at them like battle scars, and something you should be proud of. The goal in bodybuilding is to build skin-stretching muscle, right? In my case, I only have them prominently on my armpits and inner thighs, and once I have a tan they are hardly noticeable. With my stage color on for a contest, you can’t see them at all. I’ve heard about creams and lotions and vitamin E and all that, but I’ve never been bothered enough by my stretch marks to try all that stuff.

 

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