*TLDR at bottom
Last spring I had the “opportunity” to work double full time-ish for a bit. It’s slightly more complicated than that, but I had a specific financial goal in mind and I committed to this schedule for 1 year because I’m an idiot. With a dramatically increased work load and decreased time and motivation to lift, I set out to maintain my strength and size with as little effort as possible for 12 months. For reference, my starting numbers, in pounds;
Bodyweight | 210 |
Squat | 485 |
Bench | 385 |
Deadlift | 545 |
Press | 205 |
Exercise selection
I chose movements trying maximize motivation, minimize pain, and cover my bases with regards to muscle groups. I chose the bench, squat, and weighted chin up. I’m naturally decent at benching, and I think it preserves the press numbers better than the other way around. Low bar squats would hit legs and hopefully some lower back, I think it preserves the deadlift better than the other way around, and deadlift soreness is highly unmotivating to me. Weighted chin ups would cover arms and back. A “horizontal” rowing movement probably would have been better, but I hate horizontal rowing and I’m good at weighted chins.
To clarify, my exercise selections were more about what I knew I would do versus what I thought I should do.
Programming
I hoped to have the time, energy, and motivation to lift once or twice a week, and for the first few months this was right on the money. I wanted to get enough volume to preserve muscle mass, maintain conditioning, and burn calories. I chose 70% of 1RM for sets of 5; quickly devolving from 7-8 sets to 5 sets due to time and motivation. I also took 5-10 pounds off my work sets due to plate math and decreasing motivation. I hoped to continue lifting these exact numbers for the duration of the maintenance period. I assumed I would lose some strength and the sets might become more difficult over time, and that proved to be true.
This (5x5@70% of 1RM with bench, squat, and weighted chin ups) was about the only workout I did for 5 months straight, averaging 1.5 workouts per week. I think I was acclimated to the increased stresses of work and life within 2-3 months, but I had almost no motivation to lift. I assumed I had lost a good amount of strength and had simply conditioned to doing these 5x5’s. I decided to test some lifts.
6 Month Check Up
After not deadlifting a single rep or variant for 6 months, I pulled over 90% of my pre-maintenance max for a single @8.5-ish.
After not pressing a single rep for 6 months, I put up 5 pounds short of my pre-maintenance max for a double.
I set a bench rep PR with 225x23.
The maintenance plan was working as well as I could have hoped. This gave me the motivation to keep going. I added a couple extra sets on good days, increased frequency, and even scheduled in some easy cardio. I started using a press/curl session as a “filler” workout. I would sometimes have the time and motivation for a workout, but maybe I just did a normal session yesterday and I was anticipating having time for a high quality session tomorrow. Why not get some upper body work and save gas for the main lifts.
Around this time I noticed I had gained an inch or so on my waistline so I set to trim that down. Luckily, I was already increasing total workout volume and cardio, so I just had to decrease calories a little. Once I got back to my premaintenance waist circumference, I figured why not keep going, and dropped another 2 inches by the 12 month mark. Those last 2 inches required much lower calories than the first inch.
Nutrition/Supplementation
If I was prescribing this for someone else, I would probably recommend keeping protein intake higher than I did. Before the year of maintenance, I would eat 30-50 grams of high quality protein per meal with 4 meals per day, totaling around 180 grams of protein per day. With my increased work load and decreased motivation, I ended up eating only 3 meals per day. After realizing I was getting fatter, I had to lean those 3 meals down even further.
Because of my lowered motivation, I didn't bother increasing protein to counteract my decreased lifting and calories, and so I'd only get 120-150 grams of protein per day. Again, because I was so unmotivated, I quit taking creatine shortly after starting maintenance. I started back again shortly before the year was over. Who knows if this affected anything.
Final Results
Lift | Start | End |
Squat | 485 | 445 |
Bench | 385 | 345 |
Deadlift | 535 | 475 |
Press | 205 | 185 |
After 12 months of maintenance and work life imbalance, I tested my 1RM’s before beginning the restrengthening. Combined across all lifts, I lost 10% of my strength. Based on the reassuring performance on my 6 month check up, I’m inclined to blame these losses on the fact that I was cutting weight and eating minimal protein for the final 6 months. I can confidently say I lost much more hypertrophy than strength. Clothes were too large, and friends/family/coworkers commented on how I apparently “stopped working out.”
Restrengthening
I completely recovered all lost gainz over the course of 12 weeks, 8 pounds of bodyweight, and 1 inch on my waist. I cobbled together a linear progression using the High Volume Low Fatigue model, and regained most of the lost strength and size within 6 weeks. After that I did 2 rounds of Hanley’s 3-week general strength template to make up the rest. I am now as strong as I was at the start of the Year of Maintenance, around the same level of hypertrophy, and a half inch smaller on my waist.
TLDR
I attempted to maintain my strength and size while dramatically increasing life stress and work load for 12 months by lifting 5x5@70% of 1RM on bench, squat, and weighted chins only 1.5 times per week.
Over the first 6 months I gained a little fat and lost a little hypertrophy, though strength levels remained solid.
Over the last 6 months I decreased calories and protein and lost fat, hypertrophy, and strength.
It took 12 weeks to regain everything I lost in terms of size and strength.