For Your Maintenance

Drafts that may or may not end up as full articles.

Moderator: Chebass88

Post Reply
User avatar
broseph
High Fiber
Posts: 4895
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:11 am
Location: West Michigan
Age: 41

For Your Maintenance

#1

Post by broseph » Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:38 am

My experience with maintenance programming for 1 year
*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.

User avatar
TimK
Much Mustache
Posts: 2978
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 7:03 am
Location: Grand Rapids, MI
Age: 39

Re: For Your Maintenance

#2

Post by TimK » Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:03 am

Great write-up, thanks for doing the science on this. I need to keep this in my back pocket for the next time I'm tempted to just say "fuck it" and not lift at all for a couple of months. Definitely a much better option.

User avatar
OrderInChaos
Registered User
Posts: 584
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:36 pm

Re: For Your Maintenance

#3

Post by OrderInChaos » Mon Jul 06, 2020 2:07 pm

This post is fucking awesome, thanks for sharing @broseph!

I'm quoting the below because I bet this post will be found much more easily than as a hidden nugget buried in the thread. I've had BP and Deads success with these rep schemes with minimal need to think about splits and programming principles - I think they apply well to your maintenance setup here, and someone who's only working say 50-60hrs/wk instead of true double full time could probably eek out a few more gains compared to 5x5 with minimal actual thought or need to stress over programming.

Eating a lot and sleeping well? Do the standard-for-here +5# or 2% to e1RM weekly - Compromised recovery, sleep, shit diet, 70hr work weeks? Intentionally plateau all your %'s and just get the lifts in - if extended over time, drop 5 or 10 as you did with plate math.
Hanley wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:09 am
PC wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:31 am If, while attempting to follow the Montana Method, one is limited to 2x/wk (Front) Squatting, it's obviously not possible to do each HP&S. My current line of thinking is to do a couple cycles with H&P days, then a couple cycles with P&S days. Is there any reason to pair the sessions differently? H&S for a couple cycles, then P&S for a couple cycles?
Just make power-hypertrophy or power-strength hybrid sessions.

2-5 singles between 85-90% (power), then

6 x 5 @ ~70-72% (for power-hyp hybrid...) OR

A buncha doubles and triples with ~80% for hybrid power-strength
ETA: There's a sheet for that

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

brkriete
Registered User
Posts: 838
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 1:06 pm
Location: Ashland, MA
Age: 44

Re: For Your Maintenance

#4

Post by brkriete » Tue Jul 07, 2020 5:34 pm

Excellent 3k post!

User avatar
iamsmu
Registered User
Posts: 4970
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 5:52 pm
Location: Handicap: +.3
Age: 49
Contact:

Re: For Your Maintenance

#5

Post by iamsmu » Tue Jul 07, 2020 5:43 pm

I wonder if your strength loss, which was pretty minor, would have plateaued if you had done this for another year. I guess one risk is getting sick and having to take more than a couple weeks off. If that happened a couple time would it chip away at your strength?

User avatar
broseph
High Fiber
Posts: 4895
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:11 am
Location: West Michigan
Age: 41

Re: For Your Maintenance

#6

Post by broseph » Wed Jul 08, 2020 4:59 am

TimK wrote: Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:03 am Great write-up, thanks for doing the science on this. I need to keep this in my back pocket for the next time I'm tempted to just say "fuck it" and not lift at all for a couple of months. Definitely a much better option.
Yeah, I think a lot of us have wondered what maintenance could really look like. It seems like there's a ton of forgiveness with regards to how much you have to do to maintain, which is shocking because of how much you have to do to make progress.

@OrderInChaos To be fair, I wasn't really working double full time either. It was like 50 hours a week first shift plus another 15-20 hours randomly smattered across the evenings and nights. The random smattering is what made it tough.

I should have mentioned it in the write up, but I strongly considered reverse pyramids for the lifts. But you need a certain amount of focus to tackle those- which I knew I would be lacking. Also, I knew my e1RM was slowly going south, but I could keep slogging through the reps at 70% even though I knew they were probably more like 80%. Couldn't do that with higher intensities.
brkriete wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 5:34 pm Excellent 3k post!
Ha! I seriously hadn't noticed.
iamsmu wrote: Tue Jul 07, 2020 5:43 pm I wonder if your strength loss, which was pretty minor, would have plateaued if you had done this for another year. I guess one risk is getting sick and having to take more than a couple weeks off. If that happened a couple time would it chip away at your strength?
I wondered the same thing. And I was scared to death of getting an illness or injury because I knew I wouldn't be able to regain anything lost. I got pretty lucky in that regard.

User avatar
mgil
Shitpostmaster General
Posts: 8464
Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:46 pm
Location: FlabLab©®
Age: 49

Re: For Your Maintenance

#7

Post by mgil » Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:17 am

Great write up and thank you for sharing, @broseph!

It’s good to see data like this.

User avatar
broseph
High Fiber
Posts: 4895
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:11 am
Location: West Michigan
Age: 41

Re: For Your Maintenance

#8

Post by broseph » Wed Jul 08, 2020 10:53 am

mgil wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:17 am Great write up and thank you for sharing, broseph!

It’s good to see data like this.
Thanks, man. I wasn't sure where to post it, is this the appropriate sub?

User avatar
mgil
Shitpostmaster General
Posts: 8464
Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:46 pm
Location: FlabLab©®
Age: 49

Re: For Your Maintenance

#9

Post by mgil » Wed Jul 08, 2020 12:57 pm

broseph wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2020 10:53 am
mgil wrote: Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:17 am Great write up and thank you for sharing, broseph!

It’s good to see data like this.
Thanks, man. I wasn't sure where to post it, is this the appropriate sub?
I think it’s a good place for it!

Post Reply