How Little Can You Train and Maintain Your Mass? Q&A Part 1
Jul 28, 2025
Can you really maintain muscle mass with just one full-body workout a week? The hosts dive into this intriguing question along with the benefits of painful wall sits. They debate the necessity of deload weeks and how power lifters can balance squats and deadlifts in their routines. You'll hear insights on maximizing strength with minimal training and the evolution of their workout app, all peppered with a delightful dose of humor.
30:15
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Maintaining Muscle With Minimal Training
Younger or intermediate lifters can maintain muscle with just one full-body workout weekly for months.
Older adults need about one-third of their normal training volume to maintain strength and muscle.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Wall Sits Are Not Effective Squat Training
Wall sits offer minimal benefit for increasing squat max strength due to low load and different muscle demands.
Instead, train isometrically in a deep squat position pushing hard to build strength when lacking equipment.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Deload Only When Needed
Beginners don't need planned deload weeks; train normally and listen to your body's fatigue signals.
Take extra rest or lower intensity only when feeling abnormally tired or unmotivated.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Can you maintain your muscle mass with just one full-body workout per week? Are planned deload weeks necessary or overrated? How do you balance squats and deadlifts in the same training program?
We're in the midst of summer and it's time to answer your best questions! We have five questions this week, and we'll finish this Q&A round next week with five more.
Timestamps:
01:50 - Question 1: How long can you maintain your muscle mass with just one full-body workout weekly?
07:15 - Question 2: Is there any benefit to regularly adding wall-sits to your training to increase your maximum strength in the squat? I hope the answer is no because it's a f*cking pain.
12:20—Question 3: Can you please talk about deloading? I've been lifting since January. Should I do deloads periodically?
17:55 - Question 4: Why do you have so many exercises in the StrengthLog app? Don't you think it might trick people into doing anything other than deadlifts?
21:15 - Question 5: I would love it if you could talk about the difficulties of balancing squats and deadlifts within a training program.
***
Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that follow button!
This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden.
To support us, download the world's best gym workout tracker app StrengthLog here. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.
The Strength Log 