Resting For Results - Resting Between Sets and Avoiding Over-Training
Another important element in training that is often overlooked and marginalized is taking appropriate rest. The most effective way to get strong and huge - do nothing.
To become stronger and larger, muscles need plenty of rest. In fact, stimulating them to grow in the gym with massive poundages and ferocious intensity - although essential for progression - comes secondary to rest and recovery as far as building them larger is concerned.
Those who train long and hard with little rest will remain small and lean, and few - if any - really pack on mass. Then there are those who over train to the point where they actually regress and become ill. Their systems simply cannot handle this ongoing trauma. The only way their bodies can achieve adequate rest is through compromised immune function. Recovery is then enforced as we battle an illness.
To minimize this occurrence, it should be standard practice to limit outside activities when aiming for the greatest possible gains in muscle mass. Eight hours or more of quality, uninterrupted sleep a night is also essential and probably the single most important aspect of bodybuilding progression.
Sleep is when most of our protein synthesis occurs (where new proteins are made and muscles become larger and stronger), and when Growth Hormone secretion is at its highest (where all tissues of the body, including muscle, are encouraged to grow).
The rest periods between sets are another area where time plays an important role in muscle growth. Lifters are often guilty of being all over the board with rest periods. Some are so short that they're about ready to keel over halfway through the workout, and the other half camp out on the bench until their workouts are equivalent to a full time job shift.
If you don't rest enough, then fatigue will hinder your performance on the next set, but resting too long isn't ideal either. The goal is sufficient, but not complete recovery. If you look at the research, it shows that sufficient recovery occurs when rest intervals are at least three minutes in length, and generally not more than five.
On the other end of the spectrum, many take lengthy rest periods, thinking that recuperation is necessary from the extreme effort. However, from a neuromuscular perspective, it may actually be more beneficial to take advantage of the neural excitation from the previous set than to wait for fatigue to diminish altogether. Up around the 5 minute mark, neural activation often declines to a point where carryover is more or less lost for the next set.
A number of studies have posited 3 minutes as a good compromise, where you can avoid a significant decline in performance, yet maximize anabolic hormone production for muscle growth. Research by Häkkinen and Pakarinen concluded that 10 sets of 10 reps using a load of 70 percent of 1RM, with 3 minutes rest between sets led to a significant increase in testosterone and GH levels. In fact, this study reported a twenty-fold increase in growth hormone levels, about the same level that is released early in sleep. Most conventional training programs produce only a 10-fold increase in GH, so this protocol has great potential to build muscle and reduce body fat at a high rate.
Later studies further supported 180 seconds as the magic number, concluding that this amount of rest allows the use of greater intensities and improves the ability to sustain repetitions.
To become stronger and larger, muscles need plenty of rest. In fact, stimulating them to grow in the gym with massive poundages and ferocious intensity - although essential for progression - comes secondary to rest and recovery as far as building them larger is concerned.
Those who train long and hard with little rest will remain small and lean, and few - if any - really pack on mass. Then there are those who over train to the point where they actually regress and become ill. Their systems simply cannot handle this ongoing trauma. The only way their bodies can achieve adequate rest is through compromised immune function. Recovery is then enforced as we battle an illness.
To minimize this occurrence, it should be standard practice to limit outside activities when aiming for the greatest possible gains in muscle mass. Eight hours or more of quality, uninterrupted sleep a night is also essential and probably the single most important aspect of bodybuilding progression.
Sleep is when most of our protein synthesis occurs (where new proteins are made and muscles become larger and stronger), and when Growth Hormone secretion is at its highest (where all tissues of the body, including muscle, are encouraged to grow).
The rest periods between sets are another area where time plays an important role in muscle growth. Lifters are often guilty of being all over the board with rest periods. Some are so short that they're about ready to keel over halfway through the workout, and the other half camp out on the bench until their workouts are equivalent to a full time job shift.
If you don't rest enough, then fatigue will hinder your performance on the next set, but resting too long isn't ideal either. The goal is sufficient, but not complete recovery. If you look at the research, it shows that sufficient recovery occurs when rest intervals are at least three minutes in length, and generally not more than five.
On the other end of the spectrum, many take lengthy rest periods, thinking that recuperation is necessary from the extreme effort. However, from a neuromuscular perspective, it may actually be more beneficial to take advantage of the neural excitation from the previous set than to wait for fatigue to diminish altogether. Up around the 5 minute mark, neural activation often declines to a point where carryover is more or less lost for the next set.
A number of studies have posited 3 minutes as a good compromise, where you can avoid a significant decline in performance, yet maximize anabolic hormone production for muscle growth. Research by Häkkinen and Pakarinen concluded that 10 sets of 10 reps using a load of 70 percent of 1RM, with 3 minutes rest between sets led to a significant increase in testosterone and GH levels. In fact, this study reported a twenty-fold increase in growth hormone levels, about the same level that is released early in sleep. Most conventional training programs produce only a 10-fold increase in GH, so this protocol has great potential to build muscle and reduce body fat at a high rate.
Later studies further supported 180 seconds as the magic number, concluding that this amount of rest allows the use of greater intensities and improves the ability to sustain repetitions.