Maitaining current form

Question

I'm interested in maintaining current physical form with minimal training time, including situations with forced breaks from training.

Usually I train 3 times a week for about 80-100 minutes, most 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps (last reps being around failure in base exercises)

Brief description:

day 1: chest + triceps, bench and inclined bench, dumbbell chest fly, weighted bars, isolated triceps

day 2: back + biceps, weighted pull ups, lat pull down, cable row, weighted hyperextension, isolated biceps

day 3: legs + shoulders, squats, leg press, seated and lying leg curls, shoulders

Suppose I stopped increasing weights at certain point, and routine and diet is fixed, will I keep my form? People often write that routine needs to be changed often.

How can this routine be changed in order to reduce overall time of training?

Also, now I'm taking a forced break from training due to wrist injury(it's going to be a month or two), I'm on a small caloric deficit and visually losing some fat and muscles.

What are best strategies to recover to the same form I had before break after I start exercising again?

Answer 1

Will I maintain my sets x reps?

If you achieve AxB sets x reps on an exercise and keep at the same reps and weight but do it every week you will get good at doing that exercise. It will become easier and your body will adapt. You won't gain any significant muscle but you will most likely maintain your current physique (based on your regime).

How can I reduce my training time?

Put more compound exercises in and reduce isolation exercises. Madcow 5x5 could work, for example:

day 1: 5x5 Squat (heavy) + 5x5 Bench (heavy) + 5x5 Barbell Row (heavy)

day 2: 6x5 Squat (light) + 5x5 Military Press (heavy) + 5x5 Deadlift (heavy)

day 3: 5x5 Squat (heavy) + 5x5 Bench (heavy) + 5x5 Barbell Row (heavy)

What are best strategies to recover to the same ability I had before break after I start exercising again?

Deload weight by 60%, a month break is a lot. Use a linear progression program to get back to your original ability.