Getting Weaker in Prep Doesn't Mean You're Losing Muscle

Most people go into a prep expecting to get weaker. They've read that it happens, they've watched it happen to other people, and when a lift drops they take it as proof that the diet is eating their muscle. I believed that too for a long time. This lecture is about why I stopped, what actually makes a lift go down on a diet, and how I want you to train through it.

1. I used to think it was all physical

For years I took strength loss in prep as a given. You cut carbs, you get weak. Then I watched someone go through a prep who didn't know that.

Steve really opened my eyes to that, because I just kind of accepted it. I just knew: I'm not eating carbs, I'm going to get weak. So I just knew that in prep you got weaker. Then Steve comes along and does that first prep, and he's not getting weaker, because he hadn't yet read that he's supposed to get weaker. He didn't know he was supposed to, so he just didn't. I remember getting halfway through prep, and I was like, dude, how are you still getting stronger? He's like, what do you mean? We're working out. And I was like, but you're dieting. You're supposed to get weaker. He's like, oh, I didn't know that. And so I was like, man, how much have I shortchanged myself by just accepting that?