If your goal is the maintain as much strength as possible while losing weight, would you recommend sticking with heavy lifts (3-5 reps) or higher reps such as what is seen in the hypertrophy template (8-12). I ask because as I’ve shed weight, what was an easy weight 1 month ago now feels like it’s going to break me in half (after dropping about 6 pounds and eating at around a 500 cal/day deficit). I want to drop enough weight to get my waist under 35 inches (currently 38"), but hope to maintain as much of the hard-earned strength as possible. At age 43, the gains no longer come easy. Thanks in advance.
We would not necessarily recommend sticking with low rep programming only during this phase, though it’s certainly an option if you prefer training this way and strength in the low rep range is important to you. That said, we’d expect you to maintain a fair amount of strength in the 3-5 rep range while focusing on higher reps just as we’d expect you to maintain a fair amount of strength in the higher rep range while focusing on the lower rep ranges. Overall, both rep ranges have challenges that are unique to them, with one not necessarily being better than the other unless more context is given.