You generally need far less training volume to preserve lean mass compared to the weekly training volume required to build lean mass.
One of the most informative studies was conducted by Bickel et al, 2011. Participants first trained for 16 weeks and built muscle, then reduced their training dose dramatically for a follow up period of 32 weeks.
In younger adults, even reducing training volume to one-ninth of the previous training volume was sufficient to preserve the hypertrophy they had gained.
A subsequent review of the maintenance literature concluded that, in younger adults, muscle size and strength can potentially be maintained for up to 32 weeks with only one strength-training session per week and one set per exercise, provided relative training intensity is maintained.
Older adults appear to require somewhat more — approximately 2 sessions per week and 2–3 sets per exercise in the available evidence.
Although, I wouldn’t necessarily prescribe the absolute minimum found in those studies, though. There’s a difference between “the lowest volume demonstrated to work under experimental conditions” and a sensible coaching prescription that gives you some insurance against muscle loss.
But it is safe to say however, that by simply performing one to two full body resistance training sessions per week, even for well designed short sessions of roughly 45 minutes, performed at a comparably high intensity (weight and proximity to failure) you can absolutely retain your lean mass gains.
I’d aim for somewhere between ~4–6 sets per muscle/week as a good default
For example, if maintaining rather than growing:
Chest
- Bench press: 3 sets
- Incline DB press: 2 sets
= 5 sets/week
Quads
- Squat: 3 sets
- Leg extension: 3 sets
= 6 sets/week
Back
- Pulldown: 3 sets
- Row: 3 sets
= 6 sets/week
That can be surprisingly effective at preserving muscle.
The crucial point is that you reduce volume, not necessarily stimulus quality, so you need match the level of intensity you built up to (weight & proximity to failure).
The maintenance literature suggests keeping relative load/intensity reasonably high rather than turning those few sets into very easy work. And you don’t need to train to absolute failure; hypertrophy can occur without failure, although sets taken closer to failure generally provide a stronger hypertrophic stimulus than very easy sets.
During a fat-loss phase, you’ll need to be slightly more conservative with your approach
If someone is in a substantial calorie deficit, I’d probably prescribe approximately:
6–8 hard sets per muscle/week, perhaps up to 8–10 for muscles they particularly want to protect.
We don’t know for sure that those exact numbers are required during a fat loss phase, but it is very well documented in modern research that energy restriction (calorie deficit) introduces a greater, obvious, threat to potential muscle breakdown, we should therefore act to protect any potential muscle loss by increasing the training volume to ensure the preservation of muscle tissue.
Combine that with:
- – Adequate protein intake (minimum of 2g per kg lean mass, ideally up to 2.4g per kg lean mass)
- – Preservation of training loads/performance
- – Not too aggressive of a calorie deficit (higher deficit demands higher protein intake)
- – Adequate sleep (Aiming for 7-9 hours)
- – Adequate recovery between sessions (minimum 24-48hrs between muscle group retraining)
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