Maintenance Volume Programming - A deeper dive

[pinfante]

I wanted to throw out a scenario and get some input on this. I have my own thoughts and plan but I dont want to interject them to sway any opinion here. I kind of just want some food for thought on the following scenario...

So... Im 43 6 foot 190lbs 25 years in the gym. Walk around 10% BF (7% on a dexa but no way im 7% year round) however most of my lifting career has been focusing on progression. But at this age, Iv accumulated some injuries that arent crippling, sure I have flare ups, but iv delt with that forever. (3 herniated disc in the lumbar, spinal stenosis, arthritis) So at this point in life, not to brag just to layout my situation and goals, im probably in the top 1% of shape out of 40 years olds who walk around in general population. Come the 1st of the year I want to switch my goals to turn to just pretty much maintaining plus the a little extra lets say and carry this physique out as many years as I can. My whole life iv been hyper gym focused and its time to start to enjoy other facets of life, but dont get me wrong i absolutely love the gym most of my lifting career was 7 days a week 365 days a year. This year i adjusted down to a 4 day split as follows:

Workout 1
Chest, front and side delts, 2 sets of shrugs

Workout 2
Legs

Workout 3
Back, rear delts, 2 sets of shrugs

Workout 4
Abs and arms

These 4 workouts i just rotate and i dont have set days of the week most weeks im in the gym 5 or 6 days. So roughly on average im doing each of these workouts roughly every 5-6 days

Over the past year my average weekly working sets per week are as follows

Chest 14.25
Legs 18.80
Shoulders 16.14
Back 13.23
Biceps 9.70
Triceps 9.50
Traps 5.48
Calves 15.41
Abs 13.28

So my questions that id like opinions are are this.

1. Does it make sense to keep this split and obviously cut the weekly working sets in about half or 3/4.

2. Should I move abs and arms condensed into the 2 other "upper" days and rotate a 3 day split since the per body part sets will be reduced. Essentially more a true push pull legs

3. What are your thoughts in respects to load and rep range.

4. Do you think its better to stay at the 4 days but with reduced volume and increase frequency... for example maybe reduce chest to 10 sets per week 7 sets on the main day and then 3 on the "back" or "pull" day... And furthermore do you feel just 3 sets per body part on a secondary day is even effective with being only 3 sets?

5. Any other thoughts?

Again I have a good idea how i want to transition but I want some other thoughts.

[air2fakie]

Dude if you're in your 40s, walk around all year @ 7-10% bf, and in the top 1% of physiques, do whatever your own "good idea" is. You'd have the best idea what works for you & your preferences, so not sure why you wouldn't share your own thoughts - lots of ways to maintain.

No one can give you advice solely based on body parts & # of sets anyway, specific exercises & what has worked for you in the past matters.

[pinfante]

Dude if you're in your 40s, walk around all year @ 7-10% bf, and in the top 1% of physiques, do whatever your own "good idea" is. You'd have the best idea what works for you & your preferences, so not sure why you wouldn't share your own thoughts - lots of ways to maintain.

No one can give you advice solely based on body parts & # of sets anyway, specific exercises & what has worked for you in the past matters.

no I know, i just like my general wisdom to be challenged, my biggest flaws over the year has been constantly pushing, too many skipped rest days, lol... so i feel like backing it down is kind of my weak point to be honest.

[air2fakie]

no I know, i just like my general wisdom to be challenged, my biggest flaws over the year has been constantly pushing, too many skipped rest days, lol... so i feel like backing it down is kind of my weak point to be honest.

There’s 1000s of ways to program for maintenance, the most relevant one for you is going to be the one that’s based on your own wisdom and preferences, and adjustments based on results.

You’ve trained 7 days/week for 25 years, and IIRC used to do something like 200 sets/week. Have you really ever changed the way you train based on anyone’s advice here in the past? I don’t think anyone else’s wisdom is going to really be applicable. Just keeping it real.

[Lymnenews5e2q]

Dude if you're in your 40s, walk around all year @ 7-10% bf, and in the top 1% of physiques, do whatever your own "good idea" is. You'd have the best idea what works for you & your preferences, so not sure why you wouldn't share your own thoughts - lots of ways to maintain.