For context, I've been back at the gym now for about a year and I've taken nutrition and activity more seriously than ever before to challenge myself. Since after highschool I've always sat around 25-30% bodyfat (peaking a little higher) and I'm down to something around 15% now.
For the last about 7 lbs of this journey, I've had a lot more misses in the gym as far as did seta. Like last week I did for example 50 lbs for 8,8,7 then this week I had to drop down, since I could only do 5-6 at 50 lbs. It doesn't happen for every lift, but it's pretty consistently at least 1 lift per week. I know at some point, the game becomes just trying to preserve strength/muscle, but I figured that would be more of an issue if I get closer to 10% bf. Any tips or experience is greatly appreciated.
I don't lift but I train combat sports. Every weekend I attend an open mat session where I've emptied my gas tank about halfway through. What I mean is the glucose stored in my muscles and liver have been used up and I experience a noticeable loss in the ability to engage fast twitch muscles fibers.
I don't really know how that would translate to working out but I would expect your 'starting' muscle glucose to be lower if you're cutting.
But i am no expert. Just speculating here.
To add to this, your muscle cells that are most active during intense exercise move Glut-4 transporters to the surface of cell membrane to prioritize glucose uptake even in the absence of insulin. Today for example, I trained shoulders and ate 30g of sugary carb snacks immediately after my workout.
Otherwise, muscle cells only take in glucose from your blood when insulin is also present since your muscle cells defer to more important organs (such as brain) and don't take in glucose until your pancreas gives the okay-signal.