Jay Cutler coaches world-renowned strongman Eddie Hall through a brutal back workout

Jay Cutler is one of the biggest names in the sport of bodybuilding. He is widely considered one of the best in the game, having won a total of four Olympia titles. Although the four titles do not compare to Coleman's eight, he has finished second in the Olympia a record six times. He is famously known for preventing Coleman from becoming the undisputed greatest of all time by beating him on his way to winning the title for the ninth time. With his career being studded with diamonds, it is safe to say that Jay Cutler knows a thing or two about the gym.

In a recent video on YouTube, world-renowned former strongman Eddie Hall was coached by Cutler to a seemingly grueling back workout. Coaching the former strongest man in the world is no small ordeal. He is inclined to lift heavy weights owing to his abilities. Jay appreciated Hall's effort in trying different forms of weightlifting. He wanted to focus the strongman's session on volume. The former Mr. Olympia said:

"When I used to train, I felt like I could go through a wall coz the back would get so pumped up. It’s all about repetitions, kind of movements with angles that kind of get your muscles to get contraction in different regions."

Strongmen and bodybuilders train differently as the goals of their respective sports are very different. While bodybuilders focus on increasing size and shape, strongmen focus on increasing strength by lifting heavy weights across a low rep range.

The first exercise Cutler made Hall do was the lat pulldown. Explaining the finer details of the exercise, he said:

"I know this weight isn’t too heavy but we’re going to work on the contraction. So, when you come down, I want you to kind of… This is kind of imitating the back double biceps, right? So, you’re going to squeeze, you know? Get that fire in the lats. So, make sure you get the contraction and don’t just pull the weight."

Cutler believes using straps to perform back exercises is very important to avoid an unnecessary forearm pump. Speaking of how he needed to have bigger lats back in the day to make his waist look smaller, Cutler said:

"I had a wider waist, had this offset and I had to build as big a lats as possible. So, because you always want to create that taper in bodybuilding, right? So, because I was a little wider waisted the lats had to really flare out. Therefore, I really focused on the pulldown movements, the one-arm dumbbell rows which stretch the lats which created that crazy V-taper, right?"

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"You want to have that thick back" - Cutler guides Hall through cable rows and a series of other exercises

The next exercise Hall performed was one arm bent over dumbbell rows, which is used to achieve the famed v-taper look. This was followed by reverse grip lat pulldowns and seated cable rows. Speaking about the importance of cable rows, Cutler said:

"We talk about the back double biceps, okay? That knottiness in the back. This is going to focus on the thickness part, okay? Front to back thickness too… When you do hold your side poses too, you want to have that thick back. That will help, okay?"

The two finally finished the session off with three sets of machine reverse grip rows.

The interaction between the two, where the world of bodybuilding and weightlifting collided, was certainly an interesting one.