Minimum Dose to Maintain Strength & Endurance
Most of the time, we workout so that we can improve our performance. Whether we’re lifting weights, swimming, or running, our goal is normally to be better by the next training session.
However, there may be instances where it isn’t quite feasible to improve. There’s plenty of scenarios where you may need to go on maintenance mode.
Recently, I had the opportunity to go backpacking across Europe. I visited 10 countries, 19 cities, and travelled an average of every 3 days. As you might expect, nothing about my training was optimal in order to make improvements. Instead, I altered my training patterns in an effort to maintain my physical condition while still seeing all the sights that I wanted to see.
Related: 4 Tips for Working Out While Travelling
In this article, I plan to talk about what the research says regarding this topic. We’ll talk about what the minimum effective dose of exercise is to maintain your strength and endurance. We’ll also talk about why this is useful information to have and how you might utilize it for yourself.
Minimum effective dose for maintaining strength
Barry et al. [1] reviewed 12 studies examining this topic. They studied the effects of reducing frequency, reducing volume, and reducing intensity of resistance training to see what the lowest effective dose is to maintain strength and size.
The most indicative finding was that well-trained subjects were able to maintain their 1RM (1 rep max) squat strength by training intensely 1x per week for up to 32 weeks. If the frequency of training was dropped to 1x every two weeks, the subjects experienced a significant decline in squat strength. In addition, the subjects that trained at lower intensities, also experienced declines in squat strength.
These results seem to suggest that training intensely 1x/week is sufficient to hold on to the strength you’ve built.
In younger populations (20-35 years), subjects were also able to maintain muscle size training in this fashion. Older subjects (60-75 years) had a more difficult time maintaining muscle size, though. This was to be expected due to greater rates of sarcopenia (age related muscle loss).
Another review studied how different numbers of sets per week affect muscle growth [2]. The researchers found that training a muscle with just 4 sets per week is sufficient to maintain strength and size.
It should also be noted that the subjects’ diets were not mentioned in the reviews. I suspect they were still eating around their maintenance calories and eating sufficient protein. I would guess that if they were to go into a calorie deficit or eat insufficient protein then training 1x per week would not be enough to maintain strength or muscle size.
Minimum effective dose for maintaining endurance
In this same review [1], Barry et al. sought to uncover the lowest you can train and still maintain your endurance. Similarly, the looked at reducing volume, reducing frequency, and reducing intensity. To find this answer, they reviewed 8 different studies.
The results for endurance training are a bit more nuanced than the results for strength training and muscle size. They can be summarized as follows:
Short-term and long-term endurance can be maintained training 2 days/week.
Short-term endurance can be maintained by training at 1/3 of normal training volume.
Long term endurance can be maintained by training at 2/3 of normal training volume.
Short-term and long-term endurance both decline when training intensity is lowered.
Related: VO2max Explained
Let’s break this down further. First, you might notice that short-term endurance is easier to maintain than long-term endurance. Both seem to require at least 2 days per week, with lower frequencies resulting in a decline in endurance. More volume is required to maintain long-term endurance; however, both can be maintained with a decrease in training volume. Similar to maintaining strength and muscle size, intensity seems to be key for maintaining your performance.
Practical applications
Hopefully, I’ve just done a decent job illustrating how little you can train and still maintain your strength, muscle, and endurance. You might have stumbled across this article because you aren’t able to train as much and are worried about losing all your gains. Believe me, I’ve been there. I’m hoping reading this provided you some peace of mind in that department.
Before you go, I’d like to provide a few more ways that this information can serve you in the future.
Some weeks, life just kicks your ass. You might be a college student with three exams this week, or you might be a business professional closing the biggest deal of your life this week. Whatever the case may be, some weeks you just don’t have the time to train how you normally do. If you’re having one of those weeks, you can pivot your training down to 1-2x that week and rest assured you won’t lose what you’ve built. This also applies if you’re on vacation.
Another scenario is if you want to improve both your strength and endurance. Often, it’s best not to try to build both at the same time. Rather, it’s more productive to improve one and maintain the other. For instance, you might want to improve your endurance but maintain your strength. If this is the goal, you can drop your weight training down to 1x/week and spend the rest of your training building your endurance.
Related: 3 Tips for Balancing Strength and Endurance Training
Let’s talk about one more scenario. Let’s say you’ve been weight training for the past 10 years. You’ve built a body that you’re proud of, but you’re not too concerned with building any more muscle. Maybe you’re at a point where you want to spend that free time with your family instead or you want to work on a new project. If this is the case, you can drop your training to 1x/week and still effectively keep the body that you’ve built.
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