Bare-Minimum Strength Plan

For times when you're busy, feeling mid, or just plain lazy.

I recently traveled to Portland, Maine. I arrived late and got four hours of sleep my first night.

There are times—and that next day was one of them for me—when we have zero desire to work out. None at all.

Maybe we slept awfully the night before. Or we have a hellish work schedule. Or we have family in town or kids that need to be doted around. It happens to all of us.

So I wondered: What’s the best way to half-ass strength training—even quarter-ass it, if we can? What’s the minimum amount of strength training it takes not to lose strength?

I sat in my hotel and did a quick literature review—and the answers revealed themselves. Afterward, I forced myself down to the hotel gym and did exactly what the science suggested. No more, no less.

This post is about what I learned, and what I did: A scientifically validated bare-minimum strength plan. It recognizes that perfection is the enemy of progress, and that life is always going to life.

Today you’ll learn:

• U.S. military researcher on a bare-minimum plan that maintained peak physical strength for 32 weeks.

• The threshold where exercise stops building baseline fitness and enters maintenance mode.

• The rule for making a bare-minimum plan work.

• The key difference in how younger vs. older adults should approach doing the bare minimum to maintain strength.

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The bare minimum strength plan