MYTH: “Your muscles start to atrophy after a few days if you don’t work out. So, you should train each muscle group at least twice a week if you want to increase muscular strength and size. Training once weekly or less frequently is only good for maintenance.”
TRUTH: It would make little evolutionary sense for your body to produce a costly adaptation like muscle hypertrophy only to allow it to be quickly lost.
Unless you are:
- immobilized
- bedridden
- starving yourself
- or suffering from a disease that causes muscle wasting
…your muscles will not start atrophying only a few days after working out. It takes much longer – about three to four weeks. Even then, the loss is very slow.
Once Upon a Time
When I started training people long ago, sometimes my clients would leave on business or vacation. They would go a few weeks without working out. I would then reduce their weights slightly when they returned.
I quickly learned this was unnecessary and stopped doing it. Nobody was losing strength. In fact, many clients even came back slightly stronger.
I don’t recommend people stop working out entirely when they’re away for a few weeks. Even though you may not lose any progress, you won’t be making any, either. Even if you don’t have access to a gym, you can do bodyweight and isometric workouts anywhere with little or no equipment.
However, you shouldn’t stress over it if you can only fit in a few workouts while you’re gone. You are not going to lose muscle. You can still gain muscle even if you are only able to fit in one brief, hard workout per week.
Which brings me to the next part:
Once weekly training may not be optimal for people who recover and adapt more quickly. But it is not just for maintenance, either. Your exercise tolerance and recovery ability may allow you to progress on two or three intense workouts per week. You can still increase muscular strength and size training only once weekly, just not as much.
Training Once a Week: An Anecdote
I don’t recommend it as a starting point for most people. But there are many high intensity training studios that have been successful promoting just one intense workout each week. They produce good results for busy people. In fact, one of the most dramatic, drug-free physical transformations I’ve seen was in a person who worked out only once a week.
When I was in college, I worked at the Gold’s Gym in Green Bay, WI (now Titletown Fitness). Every Saturday my brothers would drive up to the gym with a few of their friends. They would train their friends while waiting for me to train them during my breaks between clients.
One of their friends was very tall and skinny when he started out. He was about 6’3″ and weighed 145 lbs (about 1.9 meters and 66 kg). That earned him the nickname “Ethiopia”.
Once a week, he would work out with my brothers. They did very basic HIT workouts usually consisting of:
- stiff-legged deadlift
- leg press
- close underhand-grip pulldown
- chest press
- compound row
- shoulder press
Because they rushed between exercises, these workouts often took less than 20 minutes to complete (not counting the occasional delays when someone had to stumble to the locker room to vomit from exertion). In less than one year “Ethiopia” gained about fifty pounds. He stayed lean, meaning most of the weight he gained was muscle.
Your muscles are not going to atrophy if you don’t train them every couple of days. In fact, you can even build them with very brief, infrequent workouts as long as you are willing to work hard enough.
References:
Ogasawara, Riki et al. “Comparison Of Muscle Hypertrophy Following 6-Month Of Continuous And Periodic Strength Training.” European Journal of Applied Physiology 113.4 (2012): 975-985.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Hey Drew, what a great and timely article for Myth Busting! I just can’t agree more with what you’re sharing above! This myth needed to be busted, especially “… it’s only good for maintenance…” BS. Thank you for purposefully including it in the article.
All the Best: Kamen
Drew (or any others)… 5’11”, 150 lbs ectomorph here. Lifted back in the day, but mainly do yoga now. I’m 39 now. Looking to get back into lifting and watched everything I could on HIT. I’m planning on x1 full body per week with these exercises.
Bench press (horizontal press)
Underhand pull down (vertical pull)
Seated row (horizontal pull)
Military press (vertical press)
Barbell curl
Leg press
Seated calf extension
Mind you, I have a mild, lower disc issue so I’d like to stay away from squats and deadlifts. Of course, I want to work as hard as I can with each, 3-4 seconds each way, to failure.
Is there anything major that I’m missing?
With the pulldown and row you wouldn’t also need the barbell curl. I also recommend back extension if you have access to a good lower back machine. If done correctly this can help your lower back. I’m available for consultations and online training if you’d like to go over your workouts or the specific exercises in more detail.
Thanks so much, Drew.
Hi Drew! My workouts are similar to the “Ethiopian’s”, both in content and duration. I do not rest between exercises and I definitely get sweaty and out of breath sometimes. But how do I get to the point that I have to “vomit from exertion”? I need advice on how to take it the next level!
This typically happens when someone attempts to move more quickly between exercises than their conditioning allows. You should work as hard as possible during each exercise, and you should move quickly enough between exercises to maintain an elevated heart rate and heavy breathing, but not so quickly that you become nauseated, light headed or dizzy, or feel like passing out.
This has certainly been my experience. Sometimes life happens to busy 63 year old physicians and I skip up to three weeks, often come back stronger. 4 years in, not going back to the old way.
I think that many people, and I’ve made this mistake myself, think that they are losing muscle after a few days rest because the post workout swelling fades away. I think if you are reasonably lean you will notice fullness and vascularity in muscles following an intense workout. A prolonged rest period allows the muscle to return to its normal state and gives the sensation of a slight muscle shrinkage.
That’s a great point about swelling subsiding vs losing muscle. Hadn’t considered it.
Hi Drew,
Most peoples workouts consist of 30-40 minutes of so-called “cardio” exercises followed by 30 to 40 minutes low intensity, high repetition so-called muscular endurance workouts at least 5 times per week. With these types of workouts most people won’t make any sizeable strength or muscle gains in the first place.
As you have explained above if your exercise program is based upon HIT training principles and even if you only train once per week your muscles won’t atrophy. And what I have found is that I can do my once a week HIT workout and than still do my two to three times per week swimming and my 4 to 5 times per week walking for an hour and not lose any muscle tone and that is at 62 years of age. Actually I always feel stronger.
Hi, Drew. In your opinion, what could have been the optimal frequency for “Ethiopia” and at what time he could have gain the 50 pounds, in case he trained with that frequency?
I now know his recovery ability would have allowed him to make progress training more frequently because we are still in contact, but the only way to have known then would have been to experiment with his frequency and compare the results. There is no way to know how much faster he might have gained muscle because this varies a lot between individuals.
I’m three weeks into HIT training and I’m already amazed at the results. I’ve gone up significantly in the weight doing eight exercises once a week, one set each of pure pain. Can’t wait to be 3-6 months into this.
Thanks so much, Drew! This is how it’s done.
You’re welcome!
Mr. Baye…I’m a longtime reader and customer of yours and I thank you for all the knowledge you’ve provided. I would appreciate your thoughts on something I ‘ve recently learned about…Kaatsu training, a.k.a. blood occlusion training. Such as: does TSC protocol basically do the same thing? Can you shine your light of wisdom on this intriguing training concept?
The effect isn’t quite the same, but occlusion is not necessary and I don’t recommend anyone actually attempt this during their workouts.
Just a question based on what I have observed.
Even if we can do three times a week, what’s the harm in doing only once – are the two extra workouts going to result in so much gain anyway? Or will they eventually peter out, leaving once a week as good as three times a week?
Just wondering.
Like most things, it depends on the individual. Most people will get the best results training two or three times per week and will progress more slowly training less, but some people need more rest days between workouts to recover and adapt.
Great article Drew. I could not agree more. I am 6’1 and around 77kg. I once decided to experiment with my breaks to see how many days it will take for me to start to lose strength. I started with 2 weeks break first and if I would still maintain my personal; best with best possible technique I would add another week to keep it simple. After 3 weeks break I still maintained/ improved on all my exercises and add another weel. I ended up with 6 weeks of total break before I lost strength by around 10% to 20% on time per most exercises. I used MedX machines at that time and kept precise records of all exercises done. I also had the entire gym to myself since I trained before my clients so all machines were pre set and i did not have any breaks between. My diet remind the same so I kept around 77kg all the way through my experiment. What is your personal experience with it Drew?
Thanks again. All the best. God bless you
Adam Budnik
I some times take a break from training for the last two weeks of December but have never lost strength during these breaks.
I’ve gone three months and didn’t lose any strength or size.
“Most people will get the best results training two or three times per week and will progress more slowly training less.”
Drew, why do you think that other highly respected HIT trainers, such as Mike Mentzer, have taught the exact opposite to you regarding training frequency. For example, in his early years of personal training Mentzer had all of his clients training three times per week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday – averaging seven to nine sets a workout, on a split routine. Yet, through trial and error, he came to realize that all of his clients made much better progress training only once every four to seven days on a spilt routine. In his final published book he wrote:
“Once I understood the above, the principle of frequency, I immediately switched my personal training clients from training every 48 to 72 hours to training every 96 to 120 hours – and the improvement in their progress has been absolutely phenomenal!” (High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way, p. 56)
This was his recommended frequency for a four-way split routine – Chest and Back (rest 4-7 days), Legs (rest 4-7 days), Shoulders and Arms (rest 4-7 days), Legs (rest 4-7 days), and then repeat the cycle. So, rather than saying “most people will get the best results training two or three times per week and will progress more slowly training less,” Mentzer would likely have said “most people will get the best results training once per week on a split routine and will progress more slowly training more.” If “all” of Mentzer’s clients were making phenomenal progress following this type of protocol, then wouldn’t this be solid evidence that his recommendation for such a low frequency of training is ideal for “most” people? If not, why not?
There are some people who need to limit their workout volume and frequency to a split routine performed only once or twice a week, but it is not a good starting point for most people.
Most people will get better results training the whole body two or three times a week starting out, when they are still learning how to and getting accustomed to training more intensely. Eventually, as they learn to train harder most will need to cut back to slightly briefer workouts performed only twice a week, and some will need to split their routines and/or reduce their frequency even further, but very few will need to cut back more than that.
„Which brings me to the next part; while once weekly training may not be optimal for people who recover and adapt more quickly it is not just for maintenance, either. Even if your exercise tolerance and recovery ability allow you to progress on two or three intense workouts per week you can still increase muscular strength and size training only once weekly, just not as much.“
Drew,
does that also mean that a trainee can reach his maximum potential for muscular size training once weekly only, it will only take him a longer time, compared to training an optimum for him of two or three times a week?
Yes. You can make progress working out only once weekly, but most people don’t need that much time to recover between workouts.
Hi Drew, I agree that we won’t lose muscle if we stop working out a few weeks. But isn’t it true that fat will be accumulated in those few weeks? Because of no exercise in those weeks, the body may store the food we eat as fat rather than use it for muscle building (since we are not working out in those weeks).
Is this why high frequency is recommended so that fat gain can be avoided? JUst expanding on the point you made.
You’re not going to gain a noticeable amount of fat if you stop training for a few weeks unless you also start overeating. Even if you’re not tracking your food intake, as long as you are making good food choices you shouldn’t overeat because your appetite should be lower without the workouts.