Hi Kim,
Why not use the -dxyz (or -dx -dy -dz) in the @auto_tlrc script or -dxyz option in adwarp to create volumes at a lower resolution. Typically you should choose a resolution comparable to the resolution of your original data.
The issue of reducing the volume is more complicated. You can try to thin all the functional datasets that are to go into your group analysis by the same amount using 3dZeropad.
cheers,
-ziad