
Sometimes you might feel like a muscle is about to rip off of a bone when you’re lifting heavy weights. Allow me to explain these mechanisms in plain and simple language. However, to many other lifters, the list is a bit abstract and nebulous. To many lifters, these mechanisms make good sense as it jives with personal experience. In Brad’s legendary review article, The Mechanisms of Muscular Hypertrophy, he informs us that there are three primary mechanisms to growing muscles: In this article, I’d like to expound upon the previous article. The article was titled, Why Bodybuilders are More Jacked than Powerlifters, and if you haven’t read it yet, I recommend you check it out. Think about it – both types of lifters take anabolic steroids, natural bodybuilders are still bigger than natural powerlifters, and when powerlifters want to build more muscle, they borrow methodology from bodybuilders by employing higher-rep assistance lifts with shorter rest times in between sets.Ī couple of years ago, my colleague Brad Schoenfeld and I wrote a comprehensive article describing the mechanisms through which bodybuilders are more muscular than powerlifters. If tension were the be-all-end-all, powerlifters would out-muscle bodybuilders. Yet despite this greater tension, bodybuilders are still bigger. Powerlifters lift heavier weight than bodybuilders, thereby placing greater tension on their musculature compared to bodybuilders. However, heavier weights alone will not build the biggest muscles. Heavier weights equals greater tension which equals bigger muscles. Gaining strength through progressive overload ensures that we continue to place more tension on the muscles over time, forcing them to adapt by growing larger. It is formulated to provide a complete spectrum of amino acids, making it a perfect post-workout recovery drink, complete with probiotics for better digestion.We all want bigger muscles, and in order to build bigger muscles, we need to get stronger – much stronger. One serving of Form’s Performance Protein includes 30g of multi-source plant-based protein to help you build muscle, recover and meet your training goals quicker. “The best approach to a hypertrophy-based resistance training session may be to focus on training volume by performing complex, multi-joint exercises and incorporating longer inter-set rest intervals in the first part of the training session, and then shift the focus to inducing a greater metabolic stress by performing isolation exercises and incorporating shorter inter-set rest intervals towards the end of the training session.”Į uropean Journal of Sport Science, 2017 If you’re well trained, lift to failure and use longer rest periods of around 2-3 minutes.Ī final note on structuring your workouts, the researchers suggest:.Rest as you need, lift and gain experience. If you’re relatively new, don’t worry too much.
#Rest time for muscle growth how to
So how to implement this knowledge in your training?

The corollary being if you’re not working to maximum intensity or failure, shorter rest periods are sufficient. Working to failure, the research favours longer rest periods simply so you can recover and lift heavy again in the next set, keeping your total volume high. The final piece of the puzzle to understand is intensity. Perhaps not surprising when you consider the concept of ‘newbie gains’. Untrained people (gym newbies) seem to make good progress regardless of their rest period.

Trained people (those with a decent amount of strength training under their belts) are almost certain to benefit from longer rest periods. Why? It’s simple really, more rest enables a higher total volume.ĭigging deeper, results are more nuanced when you look at trained and untrained people.

more than 60 seconds between sets, seem to favour hypertrophy (muscle growth) when compared to rest periods shorter than 60 seconds. So what did they find? At a very high level, it looks like longer rest periods, i.e.

From an initial cohort of over 1,000 studies, the criteria narrowed it down to just six. In this case, they looked at all published studies longer than four weeks that measured muscle mass and compared rest intervals of less than 60 seconds to rest intervals greater than 60 seconds where subjects were healthy and injury-free. For the uninitiated, a systematic review looks at all the studies on a particular question that meet some criteria. It’s a simple question with a complex answer.īut by delving into some of the studies investigating this subject, we’ve come up with some useful guidelines.Ī team including internationally-renowned fitness expert Brad Schoenfeld carried out a systematic review on this very question. If gaining muscle is your goal, how much rest is best?
