: Is once-per-week training enough for building muscle I recently read Convict conditioning book and in the workout routines part the author put a routine for beginners in which trainees workout an exercise only once per week.

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You must have misunderstood the author about this.
I've read the book and the workout routines was at least twice a week in the routine "New Blood" He also includes more intense routines but he advises not to use them until you reach level 7 of each of the big six movements.

But if you're planning to workout just once a week, You will hardly see any results.
www.aworkoutroutine.com/training-each-muscle-group-once-per-week/
This website is really helpful when it comes to building your own routine

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Hi Peter,

Assuming you aren't performing any other muscle building or weightlifting exercises, one day exercise is not enough. The 6-day rest period is too large to make any significant progress, especially if you're just starting.

Any benefit you see in a day will have eroded by the 4th to 5th day.

I haven't read the book, but it's likely that the author was talking about performing a specific exercise per day. So, Day 1 could be pull-ups, Day 2 could be bicep curls, Day 3 is push ups, etc.

If my assumption is wrong and the author was actually talking about exercising once a week, you can update your question with the reasons he gave for such a recommendation.

So again, no, you won't really see much (permanent) benefits (if any at all). However, you're equally more likely to quit.

Just find a way to include your routines into your daily life and it'll be easier to do them. :)

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You will probably see an initial benefit, but I doubt it'd take you far. 3x Week will be more efficient and will allow you to see benefit much further down the road assuming you follow proper progression and eating.

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Yes, you will see improvements, but they will be slow.

The residual training effect table on exrx.net (found here, screenshot below) describes how the body retains changes in body state and motor control after ceasing to exercise for a certain time period:

The table shows a 15 day (+/- 5 day) retention period on strength endurance. This is defined as: slow twitch fiber hypertrophy, aerobic/anaerobic enzyme activity, local blood circulation, lactate tolerance. Also shown is a 30 day (+/- 5 day) retention on maximal strength.

There are a number of medical references on the webpage for further reading. See also detraining muscle mass, which states:

Squat strength of Olympic Weightlifters declined approximately 10% in after 4 weeks of cessation of weight training.

And also:

Muscle mass returned to pretraining levels after 5 months of detraining.

One can logically presume that, given the residual effect window, you should be able to progressively overload (and thus build strength and muscle). However, due to the limited training volume and stimulus you can receive in a single day of training, your progress would obviously be slower than a more rigorous routine.