Minimal-Dose Resistance Training - Abstract Impressions

The Purpose of Life Is Self-Improvement

The purpose of life is self-improvement.

I am a big fan of First Principles of Movement founder Dr. Craig Liebenson. It takes a fanatic to recognize a fanatic and Craig has the same crazed singularity of purpose about healing and rehabilitation that I have about strength, muscle, and progressive resistance training. Craig is a worldwide traveler, interacting with a wide variety of people. His broad palette of input creates a multidimensional approach to the healing arts. I am his exact opposite. I rarely and begrudgingly travel, living a solitary life in the mountains. I have been in self-imposed artistic quarantine for the past 30 years. My hermetic lifestyle creates a singular approach to life and art. I am an inch wide and a mile deep.

Craig Liebenson, Stu McGill, and the Healers

One important aspect of healing and rehabilitation is the ability to strengthen targeted muscles or body parts that happen to be injured. With so many conflicting strength strategies, finding an applicable, appropriate, and effective strength strategy is akin to finding the golden needle in the proverbial haystack. In my world, our strategies routinely obtain outstanding results for regular people using purposefully minimalistic strength training strategies. Our narrowing of the exercise menu and reduced frequency are the epitome of compactness and drew the attention of the healers.

I had a connection and friendship with Craig’s mentor, Stu McGill, the godfather of all things spine related. Craig and I hit it off right away, his sense of humor and endless knowledge won me over immediately. I always pay attention when he posts something. This past week Craig had an interesting post, an overview of a scientific study on benefits of minimalistic resistance training. The abstract inspired me to comment, working my way through the abstract, one concept at a time. The abstract’s premises are summarized and my responses follow.

The Review That Started the Conversation

Minimal-Dose Resistance Training for Improving Muscle Mass, Strength, and Function: A Narrative Review of Current Evidence and Practical Considerations

Jackson J. Fyfe, D. Lee Hamilton, Robin M. Daly

The review’s core point is that minimal-dose resistance training can preserve or improve strength and functional ability across the lifespan while reducing common barriers to participation. That is a big deal. It also happens to be something hard-training minimalists have known in the trenches for a long time.

My Abstract Impressions

Resistance Training and Age-Related Decline

Abstract point: Resistance training can improve muscle mass, strength and power, and help offset age-related declines.

• For decades, the recommended elder exercise invariably was moderate intensity cardio exercise. Moderate activity has health value, but the body does not produce dramatic strength results in response to mild, low-intensity sameness. Sitting on an exercise bike, spinning two limbs in a small circle at 50 to 75% of cardio capacity, will not create the same adaptive response as hard, progressive power training. Power training invokes the adaptive response.

The Undervalued Benefits of Resistance Training

Abstract point: Resistance training is associated with health benefits that are often underappreciated compared with aerobic exercise.

• Nice to see the additional side-benefits of resistance training spotlighted. We have long known intense strength training is, in my world, the finest non-pharmacological stress reliever on the face of the planet. To generate a genuine 100% effort, body and mind must unite to deal with the severity of the effort. There can be no multitasking or preoccupation when pushing or pulling on the final reps of a limit set. The stressed Mind is short-circuited.

The Barrier Problem

Abstract point: Participation in resistance training remains low, likely because of time constraints, perceived difficulty, and limited access to facilities or equipment.

• Many resistance training protocols suggest 3 to 6 training sessions per week. Sessions are long, multiple exercises using moderate, relatively speaking, poundage. Our strength strategies were created by world champion athletes: we train once, twice, or thrice weekly, maximum intensity, short sessions, 15 to 45 minutes using a limited menu of exercises. Craig stole my phrase, “git the most-est from the least-est.”

Minimal Dose, Maximal Effort

Abstract point: Identifying resistance-training strategies that limit barriers may increase engagement and improve population health outcomes.

• We have consistently obtained sensational results confining strength training to once weekly. Four “core lifts” are performed: work up to a single top set in the squat, bench press, overhead press and deadlift. Reps and poundage are predetermined by a 12-week periodized game plan. If the athlete has the time and energy, power cleans and / or arm work are performed at session’s end. Sessions are limited to 60 minutes.

Strength and Power Before Muscle Size

Abstract point: Across the lifespan, declines in strength and power are especially important because they are strongly associated with function and independence.

• Better to start the decline from a higher vantage point. Better to begin the inevitable decline strong and fight every week: progressive resistance training embraces struggle. To strengthen the body, seek out the sticking points and struggle through them with integrity. The motto for our over-50 lifters is, “Forget about 10 years ago, improve upon what you did last week.” Strength is built via “creeping incrementalism.”

Abstract point: Strategies for health span may need to emphasize strength and power, not only muscle size.

• “Focus on improving muscle strength and power rather than on increasing muscle mass.” Strength training protocols differ radically from bodybuilding protocols. Bodybuilding is divorced from performance. Any strength gain is, for the bodybuilder, an unintended side consequence. Strength training’s overarching goal is the verifiable increase in strength. Any muscle size gain is an unintended side consequence.

Minimal Dose and Exercise Snacking

Abstract point: Lower-volume resistance training may work when combined with higher intensities at lower frequencies, or when performed as brief exercise snacks with minimal equipment.

• Not to be rude, but tell us something we don’t know. Powerlifters discovered in the 1970s that, if life and circumstance dictate, a man can train once a week and progress for an entire 12-week cycle. Serious men have used once-weekly power training to make startling progress. The requisite offset for minimal volume is maximum intensity. Technique is critical: to improve strength, it is not how much you do, it is how hard you do it.

Abstract point: Minimal-dose resistance training may lower discomfort, improve enjoyment, and reduce barriers that keep people away from lifting.

• Continual participation is dependent on tangible results obtained in a reasonable amount of time. Measurable weekly increases in performance, physique, and body composition rekindle enthusiasm. Strength increases come quick for the out-of-shape and dramatically and immediately improve the quality of life for the overweight: they can now power their bulk around with greater ease as they whittle down.

Abstract point: Brief, frequent resistance “exercise snacks” may help interrupt sedentary behavior.

• Frequency is flexible, fluid. The athlete can perform the squat, bench, overhead press, deadlift, plus arms in a single weekly session. Alternately, squat Monday, bench Tuesday, deadlift Wednesday, press overhead Thursday, and hit arms Friday. Or squat, bench press, and triceps on Monday, then deadlifts, overhead press, and biceps on Thursday. Feel free to switch frequency based on life circumstance.

Exercise Selection Matters

Abstract point: Exercise selection matters, especially when exercises need to target major muscle groups while challenging balance and stabilizing musculature.

• Factually, your selection of exercises is critical. How you perform the selected exercise is critically important. It is not enough to simply know what exercises you are supposed to do. You must know how to do them. The Core Four — squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press — should occupy 80% of your available training time. Do fewer things better.

Abstract point: Minimal-dose resistance training may be practical for preserving strength and function across the lifespan.

• We routinely transform trainees using minimal-dose, once-weekly resistance training. Men over 40, 50, 60 and 70 are making outstanding gains in performance and physique, all a result of our super low-dose, hypertrophy-inducing power training. Much of the success in minimalism depends on the “rested effort.” No strength is built exerting 102% when 79% rested. Strength is built by exerting 102% when 100% rested.

Equipment Notes for Minimal-Dose Resistance Training

Minimal-dose resistance training is not about collecting equipment. It is about choosing a small number of high-value tools and doing fewer things better.

For Core Four and free-weight work, lifters and facilities can compare Olympic weightlifting bars, weight plates, and dumbbells. For those using machines and controlled movement patterns, compare plate-loaded leverage gym equipment and selectorized gym equipment.

For conditioning tools that can be used when life or joint status makes outdoor work impractical, compare exercise bikes and treadmills. Specific options such as the Schwinn AC Sport Bike, the Spirit Fitness CTSBS900 commercial slat belt sled treadmill, and the Body-Solid Pro ClubLine cable crossover may fit certain facilities when the product, room, user group, and training purpose align.

The equipment does not create minimal-dose strength. The correct exercise selection, pristine technique, intensity, recovery, and consistency create minimal-dose strength.

Safety Note for High-Intensity Minimal-Dose Training

This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW response to a minimal-dose resistance-training review. It is not individualized medical, rehabilitation, physical-therapy, nutrition, or programming advice.

Minimal-dose does not mean casual, easy or automatically safe. Heavy squats, bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses, power cleans, and high-intensity top sets require technical skill, appropriate warm-ups, safe loading, spotters or rack safeties when needed, and honest judgment.

Older adults, deconditioned trainees, injured lifters, post-rehabilitation trainees, and people with cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled blood pressure, major joint problems, neurological symptoms, osteoporosis concerns, medication concerns, recent surgery, or significant medical conditions should seek qualified guidance before hard, low-volume, high-intensity resistance training.

Stop or scale back for sharp pain, dizziness, chest pain, unusual shortness of breath, numbness, repeated form collapse, unusual joint pain or any symptom that feels different from normal training discomfort. The point is to do fewer things better, not fewer things recklessly.

Related Minimalist Strength Reading

For more Marty Gallagher minimalist strength context, read Minimalistic Weight Training for Strength and Once-A-Week Strength Training Part 2.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.