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Review
. 2024 May;54(5):1139-1162.
doi: 10.1007/s40279-024-02009-0. Epub 2024 Mar 20.

Resistance Exercise Minimal Dose Strategies for Increasing Muscle Strength in the General Population: an Overview

Affiliations
Review

Resistance Exercise Minimal Dose Strategies for Increasing Muscle Strength in the General Population: an Overview

James L Nuzzo et al. Sports Med. 2024 May.

Abstract

Many individuals do not participate in resistance exercise, with perceived lack of time being a key barrier. Minimal dose strategies, which generally reduce weekly exercise volumes to less than recommended guidelines, might improve muscle strength with minimal time investment. However, minimal dose strategies and their effects on muscle strength are still unclear. Here our aims are to define and characterize minimal dose resistance exercise strategies and summarize their effects on muscle strength in individuals who are not currently engaged in resistance exercise. The minimal dose strategies overviewed were: "Weekend Warrior," single-set resistance exercise, resistance exercise "snacking," practicing the strength test, and eccentric minimal doses. "Weekend Warrior," which minimizes training frequency, is resistance exercise performed in one weekly session. Single-set resistance exercise, which minimizes set number and session duration, is one set of multiple exercises performed multiple times per week. "Snacks," which minimize exercise number and session duration, are brief bouts (few minutes) of resistance exercise performed once or more daily. Practicing the strength test, which minimizes repetition number and session duration, is one maximal repetition performed in one or more sets, multiple days per week. Eccentric minimal doses, which eliminate or minimize concentric phase muscle actions, are low weekly volumes of submaximal or maximal eccentric-only repetitions. All approaches increase muscle strength, and some approaches improve other outcomes of health and fitness. "Weekend Warrior" and single-set resistance exercise are the approaches most strongly supported by current research, while snacking and eccentric minimal doses are emerging concepts with promising results. Public health programs can promote small volumes of resistance exercise as being better for muscle strength than no resistance exercise at all.

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Conflict of interest statement

JLN and MP were previously employed at Vitruvian, a company that designs and sells resistance exercise equipment. BK and KN have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Visual representation of program variable characteristics of five minimal dose resistance exercise strategies: “Weekend Warrior,” single-set resistance exercise, resistance exercise “snacks,” practicing the strength test, and minimal dose eccentric resistance exercise. See Tables 3 and 4 for details on each minimal dose strategy. The graphic for resistance exercise "snacks" represents four different "snacks" completed on a given day. *Because practicing the strength test and minimal dose eccentrics have been studied mostly at the proof-of-concept stage, and related study interventions have usually only included only one exercise, the total weekly exercise time for those two approaches presented in the figure is only for one exercise rather than multiple exercises. MVC maximal voluntary contraction, RM repetition maximum

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