Title: Once-a-Week Training for Mass | Muscle & Fitness
Headings: Once-a-Week Training for Mass
Once-a-Week Training for Mass
Can you really add muscle with once-a-week training?
KEY POINTS

Content: The first group stopped training altogether. The second group reduced training exercise days from three to one but kept the same workout. The third group decreased exercise days from three to one and also reduced training sets from three to one. Results indicate that improvements in strength can be retained for an extended period after training ceases. While once-a-week exercise is sufficient to maintain strength, there are age-specifc differences in the required dose to maintain muscle size. Within the younger group, there was a dose-response that indicated that the group that exercised once a week but maintained the exercise volume continued to increase muscle size; however, the group that exercised once a week and reduced volume maintained size. In the older group, no group maintained muscle size. KEY POINTS
Once-a-week training with sufficient volume is able to increase muscle mass in younger but not older adults. Bodybuilders may be able to train once a week and make considerable gains in size and strength.