Muscle Maintenance Plan

DawnOfTheDead_Lift

Hi all,

I'm starting training for a half marathon and I'm looking to greatly reduce my lifting time committment to balance it out.

Goals:
1. Spend majority of time training for half (I have a performance goal in mind but this is mostly for enjoyment)
2. Maintain Muscle Mass
3. Lose these last 10 stubborn pounds.

I'll be running 4 days a week so I'm wondering if the below outline would be sufficient to maintain muscle mass. In each rep range I would be working at my max intensity but not really trying to progress my lifts. I would perform each day once per week for a total of two training days.

Day 1:
Leg Press: 3x8
BenchPress: 3x8
T Bar Row: 3x8
Trciep PushDown 3x12
Abs

Day 2:
Romanian DeadLift: 3x8
Close Grip Lat Pull Down 3x8
Incline Bench Press (instead of shoulder press due to shoulder issues) 3x8
Bicep Curls: 3x12
Calf Raises: 3x12

Pretty bare bones but curious on feedback.

Rusty740

I think your lifting regime will be fine. Very little volume is needed to 'keep' muscle, but I'd say your close to the minimum, which is what you want anyway so that's good IMO. The biggest thing affecting your muscle will be the extra running you'll be doing. Running isn't great for keeping muscle (all that Cortisol), but hey, it's a trade off. It could be more efficient if you did compound movements instead of isolations. Probably can skip abs if you put squats in there instead of Leg Press.

It has been shown in some study or other that lifting and cardio on the same day is not as effective at keeping muscle, or growing it, than doing cardio and lifting spaced out, like on different days.

I think where you can compensate is in your calorie intake, make sure you are getting plenty of carbs and do your lifting/running spaced out if you can.

PPumpItUp

I wonder if this is the correct forum for this topic? How catabolic is running? I am no expert but I would think if running is your goal you should increase the sets and reps. I remember hearing about an aging hockey player. He went to a trainer in the off season and the trainer had him do a massive amount of reps on his lifts and he came back faster than he was in his prime.

rybo

Lifting & half training isn't that big a deal. Your plan is decent, I'd drop the isolation arm/calf work & do squats instead of leg press. Keep your long runs easy. There's also no reason to restrict any increases in strength. If you feel good and they go up, go with it. Don't arbitrarily stagnate. You can improve both strength and running capacity simultaneously.

TavistockToad

What's your current mileage?

I struggle to lose any weight training for a half once my long runs got past 10 miles.

Rusty740

PPumpItUp wrote: »

I wonder if this is the correct forum for this topic? How catabolic is running? I am no expert but I would think if running is your goal you should increase the sets and reps. I remember hearing about an aging hockey player. He went to a trainer in the off season and the trainer had him do a massive amount of reps on his lifts and he came back faster than he was in his prime.

Running is catabolic if you do lots of it. Running a few times a week won't do anything, but marathon training will.

I've no doubt increasing sets and reps could make an athlete perform better (quickness, strength), but the athlete might lose muscle bulk at the same time. Bodybuilders aren't performance athletes, they're more like sculptors.

It's a balance, I think OP is set up to do alright. Whenever he does switch back to weigh lifting more, it won't take long to get back to where he was even if he does lose some muscle.

DawnOfTheDead_Lift

TavistockToad wrote: »

What's your current mileage?

I struggle to lose any weight training for a half once my long runs got past 10 miles.

I don't start until next week so my mileage is maybe 15