4x IFBB Mr. Olympia winner, Jay Cutler, is known for his hardcore strength workouts. Although this has separated him from the pack, the bodybuilder once admitted that one’s goal shouldn’t be how much one can lift.

The retired bodybuilder has plenty of feathers in his cap. This includes winning Mr.Olympia in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010, apart from being a six-time runner-up. The most notable of his achievements was being the rival and eventually dethroning Ronnie ‘The King’ Coleman.

In an interview with bodybuilding.com in 2014, Jay Cutler once spoke about the biggest training lessons he learned along the way.

Jay Cutler’s two cents on weight training

The bodybuilder turned entrepreneur, who now has his own bodybuilding supplements and nutrition products line, discussed the importance of knowing one’s boundaries while attempting to lift weights. According to him, attempting max lifts could be deadly and increase the chances of an injury. Furthermore, he admitted to being a person who couldn’t attempt heavier weights.

“Everyone’s got particular lifts they’re fairly strong on. Some guys can bench press tons of weight; other guys can’t. I was one of those guys who could never curl a lot of weight, but I had almost 23-inch arms,” said Jay.

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In addition, Cutler also elucidated how pointless max lift comparisons really were in context to building strength. “People want to judge progress by how much they can lift,” stated the athlete, adding, “that’s absolutely backward from what bodybuilding really is. I just wanted to train harder and harder each workout.”

The Jay Cutler code of conduct

Jay sought to enlighten his fans with the help of his own experiences. Being an IFBB-pro, the 49-year-old athlete is considered to be the epitome of balanced strength training.

Jay, who is known for his quad-stomp pose, explained that “how much weight you can lift” is not an insignia of your achievements. In conclusion, he reiterated the importance of choosing the right weights according to one’s capacity. 

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Instead of attempting max lifts, he chose to lift weights that he can go 8-12 reps with. Cutler stated that the goal of his training was different from the conventional approach to bulking up.