Minimum Effective Dose for Maintenance / Detraining-Prevention

[Adam S]

Dear Rip,

If a lifter decides to take a month off of progressing for whatever reason (to focus on college exams, busy work periods, etc.), but are still able to lift 3 days a week, what would be the minimum effective dose for the maintenance of strength / prevention of detraining?

For example it would make sense if a lifter's last squat workout was 350 for 3 sets of 5, that the lifter simply repeat 350, 3x5, for every workout of the month. But if the goal is to maintain strength are these exact parameters required? Would 2 sets or 1 set with 350 workout be enough? Similarly with frequency, is 3 days a week required?

Thanks!

[Mark Rippetoe]

Just so I understand, you have the time to train 3 days/week, but you'd rather just fuck around instead of making any progress during these three workouts. Is this correct?

[Adam S]

No, I promise this is not a scenario I am considering LOL. I was trying to find an real-life example that would help with the question, but I realize the one I provided was lousy.

More specifically: we know the optimal amount of stress that results in a strength-increasing adaptation - for novices this is 3x5, three days a week, adding 5lbs a workout. I am curious as to what amount of stress is required to maintain a strength adaptation? You have mentioned before that, unlike cardiorespiratory adaptations, strength adaptations are more persistent. For the maintenance of these respective adaptations, it would make sense to me that a strength-stressing event would need to be less frequent then a cardiorespiratory event.

Knowing how often/much stress would help me get an idea of how persistent strength adaptations are. I apologize that this is an unmeaningful question, but I am just really curious about this.

[jbackos]

If you lift the same weight each time eventually you WILL regress - the body has nothing to adapt to, so it won't. To quote JM Blakely "if you want a plateau you'll get one. There are many in the powerlifting game who work in construction all day, then train at night. Stop making excuses for yourself.