Would this work too?
Or would it be better if I moved the metcon to wed?

Would this be enough to maintain my muscle mass, provided I maintain the intensity/strength on all my lifts on that one day, just doing metabolic type work on other days of the week, or should I do 2 full body workouts (which is only reducing frequency by 1/3), but just to be on the safe side?

Thanks.

I will continue to lift heavy weights as I am dieting down!

I just wanted to say, you’ve got a great site. I’ve been perusing for days and the only drawback is that I can’t implement everything at once.

Re keeping up intensity for maintaining muscle mass and strength: A while back I intuitively dropped reps and sets moving from a 5×5 to a fat loss phase, and went to a 5×3, then a 3×3 after realizing 5×3 was too many sets. My question is, does keeping the weight the same in a 3×3 still maintain intensity? I ask because I was thinking about it in terms of RM [ie, I was using 225 as a 5x5RM, then used 225 for 3x3, though my 3RM would be higher]. After reading this, in the future I will stick to the much simpler calculation of dropping sets, but if going from a 5×5 to 3×3, should one switch from a 5RM to a 3RM for a truer maintenance of intensity?

Thanks.

Would that advice (volume down and reps lower) also apply to athletes in general who want to maintain their weight, but get stronger? I’m asking mainly out of curiosity, though someday I might try emphasizing strength over endurance just to see how strong I could get. Maybe in the winter months when I mostly just jog on the treadmill and my mileage drops (because it’s boring).

Keep in mind that this series of articles was really only dealing with the weight training aspect of it and the internet dichotomy between heavy and metabolic work. Cardio is still a primary source of ‘metabolic work’ (in terms of burning calories). It just wasn’t really relevant.

So in that sense, yes, running ‘takes the place of metabolic work’. Runners, depending on weekly volume, certainly can burn enough calories to make worrying about what they do in the weight room pretty irrelevant. What you would burn in 20 minutes of ‘metabolic weight training’ will compare to an hour run assuming you’re decently trained.

As far as weights for endurance athletes, the key to avoiding excessive muscle gains is generally keeping the volume down and reps lower. I typically use a couple of sets of 5 to build basic strength without stimulating much growth. as well, unless you eat to grow, you’re not going to hulk out overnight. The sheer running volume usually limits that regardless.

Lyle

Anyway, would your ideas here apply to my question–what is the best way to increase strength if you’re a runner and have no bodybuilding ambitions? Actually, in my case I haven’t been running enough this summer and I still weigh about ten lbs more than I want to. Would the running substitute for the “metabolic work”? And supposing I get to my desired weight and want to stay there, but increase my strength?

You’ve presumably trained athletes who need aerobic endurance and don’t want to get bigger, but do want to get stronger, so I’m sure you’ve got workout plans for that situation, but I haven’t stumbled across any articles on that question here. ( I have looked, but I might have missed them.)

An added complication–I’m 49 years old, so judging from what I think I’ve seen you say I probably shouldn’t do as much volume as a younger guy. Though on the other hand, two heavy sets isn’t that much volume, so maybe that wouldn’t change.