Slash Your Rest Periods for Massive Muscle Growth

Spotlight on Rest

Most people don’t give too much thought to the amount of rest between sets when working out. Too often that time is dictated by the length of their conversations with their training partner. Two to three minutes can easily go by before they step back under the iron. And, while they may change up their routine every few weeks, perhaps incorporating something like Gundry MD Energy Renew in order to help revitalize them after a hard workout, most people stick with the same between rest period year in and year out. Yet, shining a spotlight on your rest between sets can make the difference between getting stronger and stagnating.

What’s Your Goal?

If you want to primarily get strong, then your rest periods are going to be very different from the guy who is focused on gaining muscle mass. Strength trainers want to fully recover so that they can push to all out force on the next set. That can see them waiting up to five minutes between sets. Their goal is for the intensity level to come back down to its pre-set state before doing the next set.  For the bodybuilder, however the goal is the opposite. He is trying to create the maximum amount of stress on the working muscle with each succeeding set.

The Fatigue Factor

The amount of time that you rest between sets is determined to a large extent by how much the target muscle group you’re training will recover before you subject it to the loads and stress of the next set. Your goal during the workout is to progressively tire out the muscle more and more with each successive set. The optimal cadence for doing this is an exercise pace that ensures that the muscle tires out but not so fast that you run out of breath.

The proviso of not running out of breath is especially relevant when you are doing full body compound movements. Take, the squat, for instance. If you do a set of heavy squats and don’t rest long enough to fully get your breath back, you will exceed your cardiovascular capacity before you’ve fully tired out your legs. You’ll run out of breath before your legs run out of steam.

Of course, longer rest periods allow your muscles to recover more and, therefore, push out more reps on the next set. At the same time, their level of fatigue is lessened. And it just so happens that muscular fatigue is a more important factor in muscle growth than simply being able to lift more on successive sets. That’s because biochemical changes in muscle are triggered by fatigue. Fatigue is actually your friend in the gym. That’s because it causes your body to react by releasing more growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels. These are fundamental to your muscle building efforts.

In a 2007 study to quantify the ideal rest time between sets, Brazilian researchers conducted an 8 week trial involving two groups. The first group consisted of experienced lifters. They trained in the 8-12 rep range and rested for two minutes between each set. The second study group also involved experienced lifters who also trained in the 8-12 rep range. They began with a two minute rest , but cut the rest interval down by 15 seconds every week. By the final week of the study they were down to rest periods between sets of 30 seconds. The results of the study showed a marked improvement in the group who reduced their rest periods. Their average arm girth increased by an average of 21%, with their average leg measurement around the mid thigh improving by 28%. The group who maintained a rest period of 2 minutes had increases of 14% for biceps and 19% for legs. (1)

Short rest periods keep your lactic acid levels high and your blood pH low. They also promote more efficient release of hormones that are vital to muscle growth, namely testosterone and human growth hormone.

Why Short is Best

The reason for these striking differences? As rest decreases, chemical stress increases. That chemical stress activates biochemical pathways that signal muscle growth, such as higher IGF-1 production, especially within muscle cells. Shorter rest periods also train the muscle cells to recuperate between sets more quickly. This results in greater strength, endurance and muscle. Shorter rest periods also enhance fat burning.

Short rest periods keep your lactic acid levels high and your blood pH low. They also accentuate the release of growth hormone, which is critical to muscle growth.

Bottom Line

The take-away from all of this? To increase the stress on the working muscle, keep your rest periods between sets short (30 – 45 seconds is ideal). This will dramatically increase the intensity of your training. You may not be able to lift as heavy on subsequent sets, but that it not the critical factor. Of course, you will naturally rest a little longer on compound movements in order to get your breath back. When you are doing supersets, in which you work one exercise directly after another and then rest, you should rest for longer before your next superset (up to two minutes is advised).  Still, your emphasis should be on maximally stressing the working muscle.Keep in mind that the muscle cell is not aware how heavy the weight is. The only thing it it is aware of is how much stress is being applied to it. Slashing the rest between sets will keep it working real hard.

Supplement Strategy

Shorter rest periods will increase your training fatigue. That means that you’ll need to make use of a supplement program designed to counter this fatigue and keep you working as strongly as possible. That means getting hold of a good creatine supplement. Make sure that it uses the 99.99% pure Creapure brand of creatine monohydrate as the basis of its blend. Taking 5 grams of creatine both before and after training will do wonders to counter the loss of strength that is a natural part of reduced rest periods.

(1) HUMBERTO MIRANDA, et al: EFFECT OF TWO DIFFERENT REST PERIOD LENGTHS ON THE NUMBER OF REPETITIONS PERFORMED

DURING RESISTANCE TRAINING.Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2007, 21(4), 1032–1036

—–

Author Bio:

Hi, I’m James, an avid fitness enthusiast and health hacker. I love figuring out different ways to optimize my workout routines, and can be found blogging about my findings and writing fitness product guides at GarageGymBuilder.com – If you’d like to see more articles like this, please check out the blog section of my site and leave a comment, would love to hear from you!