How little can you exercise and still maintain your fitness?

Ever wondered how much you can scale back your workouts and still keep your hard-earned gains? A new study may have some answers

Researchers looked at 34 young women who trained for 12 weeks, twice a week. Each session was about an hour long, combining strength training and high-intensity cycling. They saw huge improvements: 29% in leg strength, 13% in muscle size, and 19% in aerobic fitness!

After that, they split into three groups. Group one kept training once a week, group two dropped to every other week, and group three stopped training completely. They all kept the same workout intensity — just fewer sessions.

After 12 weeks, the once-a-week group maintained all their gains! Yep, muscle, strength, and fitness were fully preserved. The every-other-week group, though, lost some strength, muscle, and cardio — a 5-10% drop across the board. The no-training group saw big losses: nearly back to square one.

Why does training once a week work so well? Keeping intensity high seems to keep those gains locked in. Your muscles and cardiovascular system still get the same strong signal to stay fit. Training every two weeks? It’s just not enough stimulus.

So, if life gets hectic, don’t worry! You can maintain your strength, muscle, and aerobic fitness by training just once a week. Great news if you're traveling, recovering, or just super busy!