Legendary bodybuilding coach Hany Rambod believes Jay Cutler’s training has aged well. In a July 24 YouTube video, he revisited Cutler’s 2009 FST-7 back workout and shared which techniques still hold up.
After finishing runner-up behind Ronnie Coleman on four occasions, Cutler finally seized the Mr. Olympia throne. His high-volume training approach was highly effective in the Men’s Open class, helping him notch wins over top-tier talent, including Coleman, Victor Martinez, and Dexter Jackson.
In 2008, Jackson caught Cutler slipping and won his lone Mr. Olympia title. This set the stage for Cutler’s comeback, and he put a stamp on it with his iconic quad stomp pose. Earning the ‘Comeback Kid’ nickname, Cutler went on to win four Mr. Olympia titles before retirement. Having looked back on their FST-7 training sessions, Cutler’s coach, Rambod, doesn’t believe he’d change much today.
Hany Rambod Details Why Jay Cutler’s 2009 FST-7 Back Workout Still Holds Up
In the video, Rambod shared that Cutler used rope over the straight bar on cable pullovers for a greater range of motion.
“We’re talking about range of motion. So, again, I do agree with this still. The reason why the rope was so popular for me was so that, originally, you see a lot of bodybuilders in the ’70s, ’80s that would use a straight bar. If you’re using a straight bar, you would stop right at your belly button because the bar is going to create a limitation to how far your arms can go back.”
The FST-7 training system uses seven sets with just 30 seconds of rest each. Rambod explained that this strategy was key to sculpting bubbly muscle.
“As Jay was training, he was already very big into volume, but what we did was we focused on particular exercises and also doing FST-7 sets, which would be the seven sets with 30 seconds of rest to increase blood flow to try to work on that round, bubbly muscle that I was always big on.”
He added that Cutler’s use of body momentum on lat pulldowns might raise eyebrows today, but said he wouldn’t change it because it was effective:
“Lat pulldowns, again, Ronnie was at the peak of his career right before this. As you are looking at him doing very heavy weights, Jay also a bigger a guy, 300 pounds here, using heavier weights; you’re not too worried about your worried about nowadays, which is, hey, do I need to be perfect with my form?
Some people are going to ask me whether or not the body English I would go back and change or not, and to be honest with you, I wouldn’t because it worked,” Hany Rambod said.
Lastly, Rambod warned that most people can’t recover from intense FST-7 sets, and should stick with just one or two exercises weekly.
“One thing about the FST-7 sets, I don’t recommend them as much as I used to. The reason for that is most people can’t recover from crazy FST-7 sets all the time. Doing one to two exercises a week is the maximum I would recommend for someone to do FST-7 sets nowadays.”
With the 2026 Mr. Olympia approaching, Rambod has been open about how athletes should approach supplementation. In addition to creatine for enhancing workout performance, Rambod deemed ashwagandha the most underrated for fitness and bodybuilding goals.
Cutler remains one of the biggest ambassadors for the sport. After revisiting their old-school FST-7 workout, Rambod believes much of Cutler’s training would hold up today.
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