Working out to *maintain* muscle

[Maximilian]

Right, im back home for the summer, im not signing up another gym membership here in addition to the uni one, costs too much, i dont wanna spend 3-5 days a week working out over summer anyways. I wanna tan and laze about 😀

So, how many days do i need to workout to *maintain* what i gained the past year. Yea this will vary from person to person but give me an estimate. Im not concerned about cardio fitness at all, i can regain that pretty quickly anyways, and its never helped me do anything besides get bored quickly. When im back at uni ill do the treadmill again but not for now. So, to just keep my muscle basically should i work out twice a week? once enough? Im leaning towards twice, but you guys gimme your opinion.

 

[Trogdor91]

twice a week? try doing an upper/lower or push/pull split

 

[Amused]

Three days a week.

Mon: Chest and tris
Wed: Back and bis
Fri: legs and shoulders

Each day should be under an hour. How much muscle you keep/gain will depend entirely on how much intensity you give to your workouts, and how much you eat.

 

[0roo0roo]

maintaining can't be that hard, just work out till ur tired😛 unless ur really insaneo buff it won't go away...

 

[bignateyk]

What is your body type? Do you put on weight easily? Is it hard for you to gain weight?

If you tend to put on weight fairly easily, you will still need to to a good amount of cardio. You can drop to a twice a week workout (upper body one day, and lower body another day) if you really cant go 3 times a week.

The big thing is to change the way you lift. To MAINTAIN muscle, you dont need to work yourself to failure on each set. For example, on your bench press, do something like

10 reps @ 200lbs
10 reps @ 220lbs
10 reps @ 240lbs

The big thing is you dont need to hit failure on the last (10th) rep in a set anymore.


In each of your workouts, be sure to do cardio and ab stuff so fat doesnt pile on overtop the muscle you have.