I figured I'd share because I learned a lot.
The reason: Trying to save time and maintain strength during what I knew would be a relatively busy season of life: buying a house and 1st year as an in-person teacher (no mute button)
The methods:
Note: I am a 28 yr old male. 5”8’. 143lbs. I don’t know my body fat percentage, but I look like someone who works out because I do. My weight stayed the same through all of this.
Once a week routine (Referred to as “1x” from here on out):
In terms of saving time, both routines came out to about 60-90 minutes of strength per week. They each had their own pros and cons related to time efficiency. 1x requires more set up, but you do it less often. 7x is best done with minimal gear because the frequency is so high. 5 minutes of set up/tear down per session means 35 minutes a week. That’s non trivial.
Rest time between sets worked in a similar way: I needed more rest between sets with 1x, but I could afford to take it because of the low frequency. I didn’t need any rest between exercises for the 7x routine unless I was feeling really crummy. For both routines, I did exercises in pairs to reduce time spent resting.
1x requires more of a warm up or at least gradually increasing intensity before the working sets. The lower intensity of 7x meant I could tack it onto the end of my daily light exercise and not have to warm up.
I ended up maintaining strength and muscle with 1x, but 7x surpassed my expectations and made me a little stronger. The largest factor in this is motivation. Both routines take a different kind of personal discipline: 1x requires me to push through intense discomfort while 7x requires me to hold back when I want to do more. I personally have a natural inclination for the latter. I could see people with different personalities enjoying 1x more.
This is not to say that 7x is all about holding back: I had days where I got home and really didn’t feel like working out. Habits helped me stay consistent on those days: 7x quickly became a part of daily life. The lower frequency of 1x kept it from ever feeling like business as usual.
In fact, I didn’t really plan to switch to 7x after a few months of 1x. I just realized that optimizing for time reduction doesn’t capture the whole picture; I wondered what it might look like to optimize for effort reduction.
7x allowed for autoregulation. Sometimes, weeks passed and I never felt like doing a burnout so I didn’t. I suspect my body actually needed it. There were also weeks where I did several burnouts. To be fair, you can autoregulate by pushing a 1x session back a day or two if you’re not feeling it. However, that requires weekend warriors to do their session on a weekday.
7x afforded me more flexibility. Some days, I did skip my 7x workout because of time restraints or my personal discipline failed. It did not hinder progress in the same way as slacking off just a little bit during a 1x workout seemed to. I could also be flexible with the exercises themselves: For example, I don’t like high bear crawls as much as overhead press, but sometimes I really wanted to workout outdoors so I made the substitution and got right back to overhead press the next day.
It’s kind of satisfying being sore for several days after a 1x session, but I prefer being ready for unplanned physical endeavors in the way that 7x lets me. Even after a burnout session, I only feel a little soreness just because my body is more used to it. I also feel like the high frequency improved my general coordination-I’m simply more used to moving my body around in various ways so the physical tasks of everyday life seem easier.
There are also disadvantages to 7x: generally, I found it easier to injure myself, but YMMV. If I push myself too hard, it's just a matter of time, and I found it easy to push myself too hard. On the other hand, if I can’t muster up the grit to push hard enough through that accommodating resistance exercise with 1x, I just don’t make gains. (Edit: I gave more detail in a replies to comments about this but don't want to make this post even longer by including them.)
Also, while 7x worked better for me, it’s important to note the following: I had significantly more stress from work in the fall than in the spring, I am a sample size of one, I wasn’t rigorous in tracking results, and there may have been some user error with 1x. I’d like to know if any user error sticks out.
Commonalities:
Both methods improved my form in their own ways. I learned about accommodating resistance through the mindful mover, and it really is a beautiful thing. I absolutely love the arc row and continued using it as a burnout in my 7x sessions (it’s too tough on the elbows for every day, though). 7x simply gave me more non-fatigued practice. Also, I felt I was limiting my reps most days. That means consistently trying to squeeze all the juice out of each one, building really good form habits.
Both methods helped eliminate decision fatigue during a stressful season of life. For me, the 3 workouts per week that are typically recommended are harder to schedule in than either of the methods I tried.
Both methods taught me how little I can do and get away with it. There’s a certain faith I had to have to take 6 days off of strength work in between sessions. That’s a good mental exercise for life in general-wisdom gains. The same goes for that first month of 7x where I slowly ramped up from 2 pull ups a day to 7 without any burnout sessions. It often felt too easy.
TLDR:
The reason: Trying to save time and maintain strength during what I knew would be a relatively busy season of life: buying a house and 1st year as an in-person teacher (no mute button)
The methods:
Note: I am a 28 yr old male. 5”8’. 143lbs. I don’t know my body fat percentage, but I look like someone who works out because I do. My weight stayed the same through all of this.
Once a week routine (Referred to as “1x” from here on out):
- Mindful Mover’s big 5 movements with two modifications: Overhead press (in lieu of HSPU) and no weights on the 1 leg squats
- Accommodating Resistance on Pull Ups, Push Ups, and Rows
- 2 sets per movement. The last is a drop set.
- High intensity interval training on an elliptical once per week.
- Influenced by K Boges but to a lesser extent than 1x was influenced by Mindful Mover
- Over the course of one month, I slowly worked up to 7 one leg squats, 7 pull ups (4 wide, then 3 hammer), 14 push ups (2 sets of 7, occasionally combined), 14 resistance band rows, 14 OH presses (15 lbs).
- Burnouts: If I felt like going hard, I’d choose a movement and go to town. I didn’t do another burnout session on the same movement until all the others had a turn. Sometimes, my run was the burnout. Sometimes, I skipped an exercise if I did a burnout on it the day prior.
- Daily light exercise: 20 min jog (very slow), skydivers, hollow body leg lifts, general arm movement (arm circles, etc.). (sometimes I nixed all of this and just walked the day after a 1x workout.)
- I did the routines for about 4 or 5 months each. 1x-August through December. 7x-January through May.
- Lightly Stretch for 10 minutes before bed.
In terms of saving time, both routines came out to about 60-90 minutes of strength per week. They each had their own pros and cons related to time efficiency. 1x requires more set up, but you do it less often. 7x is best done with minimal gear because the frequency is so high. 5 minutes of set up/tear down per session means 35 minutes a week. That’s non trivial.
Rest time between sets worked in a similar way: I needed more rest between sets with 1x, but I could afford to take it because of the low frequency. I didn’t need any rest between exercises for the 7x routine unless I was feeling really crummy. For both routines, I did exercises in pairs to reduce time spent resting.
1x requires more of a warm up or at least gradually increasing intensity before the working sets. The lower intensity of 7x meant I could tack it onto the end of my daily light exercise and not have to warm up.
I ended up maintaining strength and muscle with 1x, but 7x surpassed my expectations and made me a little stronger. The largest factor in this is motivation. Both routines take a different kind of personal discipline: 1x requires me to push through intense discomfort while 7x requires me to hold back when I want to do more. I personally have a natural inclination for the latter. I could see people with different personalities enjoying 1x more.
This is not to say that 7x is all about holding back: I had days where I got home and really didn’t feel like working out. Habits helped me stay consistent on those days: 7x quickly became a part of daily life. The lower frequency of 1x kept it from ever feeling like business as usual.
In fact, I didn’t really plan to switch to 7x after a few months of 1x. I just realized that optimizing for time reduction doesn’t capture the whole picture; I wondered what it might look like to optimize for effort reduction.
7x allowed for autoregulation. Sometimes, weeks passed and I never felt like doing a burnout so I didn’t. I suspect my body actually needed it. There were also weeks where I did several burnouts. To be fair, you can autoregulate by pushing a 1x session back a day or two if you’re not feeling it. However, that requires weekend warriors to do their session on a weekday.
7x afforded me more flexibility. Some days, I did skip my 7x workout because of time restraints or my personal discipline failed. It did not hinder progress in the same way as slacking off just a little bit during a 1x workout seemed to. I could also be flexible with the exercises themselves: For example, I don’t like high bear crawls as much as overhead press, but sometimes I really wanted to workout outdoors so I made the substitution and got right back to overhead press the next day.
It’s kind of satisfying being sore for several days after a 1x session, but I prefer being ready for unplanned physical endeavors in the way that 7x lets me. Even after a burnout session, I only feel a little soreness just because my body is more used to it. I also feel like the high frequency improved my general coordination-I’m simply more used to moving my body around in various ways so the physical tasks of everyday life seem easier.
There are also disadvantages to 7x: generally, I found it easier to injure myself, but YMMV. If I push myself too hard, it's just a matter of time, and I found it easy to push myself too hard. On the other hand, if I can’t muster up the grit to push hard enough through that accommodating resistance exercise with 1x, I just don’t make gains. (Edit: I gave more detail in a replies to comments about this but don't want to make this post even longer by including them.)
Also, while 7x worked better for me, it’s important to note the following: I had significantly more stress from work in the fall than in the spring, I am a sample size of one, I wasn’t rigorous in tracking results, and there may have been some user error with 1x. I’d like to know if any user error sticks out.
Commonalities:
Both methods improved my form in their own ways. I learned about accommodating resistance through the mindful mover, and it really is a beautiful thing. I absolutely love the arc row and continued using it as a burnout in my 7x sessions (it’s too tough on the elbows for every day, though). 7x simply gave me more non-fatigued practice. Also, I felt I was limiting my reps most days. That means consistently trying to squeeze all the juice out of each one, building really good form habits.
Both methods helped eliminate decision fatigue during a stressful season of life. For me, the 3 workouts per week that are typically recommended are harder to schedule in than either of the methods I tried.
Both methods taught me how little I can do and get away with it. There’s a certain faith I had to have to take 6 days off of strength work in between sessions. That’s a good mental exercise for life in general-wisdom gains. The same goes for that first month of 7x where I slowly ramped up from 2 pull ups a day to 7 without any burnout sessions. It often felt too easy.
TLDR:
- They both worked well-each with its own pros and cons
- 7x worked a little better for me in my particular situation
- I learned I don’t need to work a muscle intensely nearly as often as I thought.
- Go check out the Mindful Mover and K Boges. They ask good questions and raise good points.
! And thanks for recording it for us!