Yes, you can build significant strength by training just once per week. And this isn't just motivation – it's backed by solid science. A recent multi-year study with nearly 15,000 participants found that a minimalist approach to strength training can yield promising results.
Subjects were randomly assigned to exercise one, two, or three times a week for 24 weeks, performing three sets of their 80% 1‐RM. This study concluded that once‐weekly resistance training was equally as effective in increasing the strength in older adults as two or three times weekly.
You're not going to lose muscle if you still train the bodypart once a week. You need significantly less volume to maintain, you may well continue to gain.
Going to the gym once a week provides some physical activity but may not yield significant fitness gains. Regular exercise benefits include improved cardiovascular health, muscle strength, and mental well-being. However, infrequent workouts may not effectively build consistency, endurance, or muscle mass.
To maximize recovery, Mentzer advocated for significantly spacing out one's workouts. In the most extreme version of Heavy Duty, he prescribed doing 1 to 2 sets for a muscle group just once a week. The other six days would be used for recovery.
The researchers concluded that training once every 7 days can significantly preserve muscle gains and aerobic fitness, while training every 14 days can still retain a significant portion, though with larger declines.
Once you stop lifting, the muscle fibers will get smaller, but some studies show they retain those nuclei, which may set you up for faster gains when you finally hit the gym again.
Although there is limited research on the topic, one summary of research showed that training muscle groups twice per week led to more growth than training them that once per week.
When you don't work out regularly, your body composition starts to change. With little physical activity, muscle cells shrink. With less calorie burn, fat cells start to expand, making the body look softer.
Sure, you could do a full-focused chest day every week, but there are a few reasons why we wouldn't recommend this. Firstly, we know that the sweet spot for gains is training each muscle group twice a week. If you're only doing one chest workout a week, that's some serious gains you're missing out on.
Conclusion: As you can see, the pecs are easily the muscle group that should be trained with the least frequency. This theory is supported by the finding that the pecs are the slowest muscle group to recover following training (11).
The push/pull/legs split is probably the most efficient workout split there is because all related muscle groups are trained together in the same workout. This means that you get the maximum overlap of movements within the same workout, and the muscle groups being trained get an overall benefit from this overlap.
When to expect results. You don't need to spend hours a day lifting weights to benefit from strength training. You can see significant improvement in your strength with just two or three 20- or 30-minute strength training sessions a week.
Though there are thousands of different exercises we could do in the gym, barbell training comprises just four exercises, the so-called “Big Lifts.” These compound movements — the squat, press, deadlift, and bench press — should make up 90% of any athlete's strength program, regardless of their level of advancement.
The Bro Split is the OG of gym routines! Each session zeroes in on one muscle group—chest, back, shoulders, arms, or legs—spread over 3 to 5 days. It's perfect for gym-goers who love to focus hard on one area while enjoying golden recovery time for maximum gains.
Yes, you can build significant strength by training just once per week. And this isn't just motivation – it's backed by solid science. A recent multi-year study with nearly 15,000 participants found that a minimalist approach to strength training can yield promising results.
The Arnold split is a six-day workout split in which you train the chest and back, shoulders and arms, and legs twice per week. It's a muscle-building program that's designed to help you increase muscle mass and improve your physique. Because of its high amount of volume, it's only for advanced lifters.
A training frequency of once a week will get you bigger muscles, but research as highlighted below shows that a training frequency of 2-3 times per week is more effective in reaching this goal.
Studies have shown that muscle memory after resistance exercise may last 12 to 22 weeks. An older study suggests that muscle memory causes muscle cell changes that last for at least 15 years. But how long muscle memory lasts likely depends on several factors, including exercise intensity and frequency.
Once attained, muscle mass is relatively hard to get rid of. That's likely for the same reason why it's hard to gain in the first place: There's just not a lot of change — up or down — in muscle mass on a week-to-week basis. “It takes several weeks to notice [changes],” Lowery says.
Building muscle mass results in an increased metabolic rate, meaning the body will burn more calories, since it takes more energy to maintain muscle tissue than adipose tissue (a.k.a. body fat).
Is training legs once a week enough? Yes. Training legs once a week is good for a 3 day or even a 5 day split. However, if you are targeting your legs specifically, adding a second day will help you with that goal.
Early Changes: Research suggests that within the first two weeks of complete inactivity or immobilization, noticeable changes in muscle size and strength can occur. Some studies have shown that muscle protein synthesis starts to decline after a few days of disuse.