How to Stay Fit with One Workout per Week

I find myself in a place where I’m working out once a week. If you find yourself in such a place here’s what I would do.

This workout can be deployed when you are hyper busy and need to train to do something. It works best for those who already have a good foundation of muscle to begin with. But it will benefit almost anyone if performed well.

Total body workout

If you train once a week you better get it all in. Every muscle group. Every muscle fiber needs to be worked.

Prioritize your legs and back.

Then abs, arms, shoulders and chest in that order.

One full body workout per week can keep you trim if you do it right.

Legs

Squats and lunges are the ideal training mechanism.

3-6 sets of 15-20+ reps per exercise. Don’t need to kill yourself with heavy weight. Just enough to feel it and break a sweat.

The combination of high bar back squats and lunges works wonders. Front squats are good too.

Do high reps and go deep, low, and slow. Hold the bottom position of squats and feel the stretch. Keep pushing and fight out of the hole.

20-rep breathing squats are another great workout to consider.

Back

Do 4-5 sets of Deadlifts, pull ups, and rows and you’re done.

A few sets of 2x bodyweight deadlifts. A few sets of rows and polish off your back work with 50 pull ups. That’s a wrap.for the lats.

Up next…

Abdominals

Leg lifts, sit up, decline setups (weighted for better/faster progress), and hanging leg raises. Any combination of those exercises are excellent. You can rotate through them each workout to keep things fresh.

Round out your workout with bench press and butterflies, a few sets of curls for your biceps and triceps and call it a day.

Stretch and go on with your life.

How to stay lean with one workout a week

Keep the diet clean

Much easier said than done. Especially if you’re on the go all the time.

Maybe you’re stressed with work and life and other things. Either way, try to keep you diet clean.

Eat light until dinner

Or at least eat light during when you have to get stuff done. After you call it a day at work, have a big heavy meal when you can relax and not worry about being dull during productive hours.

A good rule of thumb is to eat light while the Sun is up. All bets are off after dark.

Better yet do intermittent fasting.

Intermittent Fasting

It’s impossible to be chubby if you fast all day.

It’s the best way to combat the weight gain that comes with inactivity.

Lifting once a week to maintain your gains is just something you have to do sometimes.

Other tips

Cover up. Break a sweat. that’s how you do it. wrap it up and stay warm. Keep your heart rate up.

Can you build muscle mass with one workout per week?

Of course you can.

Just don’t expect to win any bodybuilding competitions.

Training Tips for One Workout a Week

Compound lifts with free weights

Stick to compound exercises with a barbell. No machines or any of that nonsense. There’s a time and place for machines but it’s not now. Unless that’s all you have available.

Olympic lifts

Olympic lifts like Floor Clean and Press are outstanding exercises for training once per week.

What if you don’t have a gym?

Do what you can if you can’t make it to the gym. Do push ups and sit ups. Do your road work. Take a plunge in the pool. All of this will help with your conditioning and keep you health, lean and resilient.