drtbear1967
Musclechemistry Board Certified Member
The Right Rest Period for Strength Gains
by Christian Thibaudeau
The amount of time you rest between sets will affect several factors. The length of the rest period... • Affects the partial or complete restoration of the short-term energy substrates necessary for maximal performance. • Allows for the clearance of the metabolites accumulated in the muscle following intense muscular work (which can be either a good or bad thing depending on your goal). • Permits the CNS to recover. • Slows down the elevated metabolic rate/heart rate (again, a good or bad thing depending on your goal). Rest Periods for Strength
If your main goal is strength, the length of the rest intervals should be long enough to allow the nervous system to recover almost completely, but not so long that you lose what's called the post-tetanic potentiation (PTP) effect. This refers to the phenomenon by which your contraction strength potential will be increased for up to 5 minutes after a heavy set because of a greater neural activation. The peak effect (greater potentiation) occurs around 2-3 minutes after a near-maximal contraction. Then it gradually loses its effect so that it's gone by around the fifth minute. So when training for strength, you should rest around 3 minutes between sets of the same exercise. You'll still have the full potentiation effect with less rest, but you'll also have some neural and/or muscular fatigue which will counter the PTP effect. When you're doing a proper strength session, you should actually become stronger with every set of an exercise (until cumulative fatigue sets in after 4 or 5 sets). Note that I said 3 minutes between sets of the same exercise. If you alternate 2 exercises for opposing muscle groups, you can have less time between sets, provided that you still have the 3 minutes between sets of the same movement.
by Christian Thibaudeau
The amount of time you rest between sets will affect several factors. The length of the rest period... • Affects the partial or complete restoration of the short-term energy substrates necessary for maximal performance. • Allows for the clearance of the metabolites accumulated in the muscle following intense muscular work (which can be either a good or bad thing depending on your goal). • Permits the CNS to recover. • Slows down the elevated metabolic rate/heart rate (again, a good or bad thing depending on your goal). Rest Periods for Strength
If your main goal is strength, the length of the rest intervals should be long enough to allow the nervous system to recover almost completely, but not so long that you lose what's called the post-tetanic potentiation (PTP) effect. This refers to the phenomenon by which your contraction strength potential will be increased for up to 5 minutes after a heavy set because of a greater neural activation. The peak effect (greater potentiation) occurs around 2-3 minutes after a near-maximal contraction. Then it gradually loses its effect so that it's gone by around the fifth minute. So when training for strength, you should rest around 3 minutes between sets of the same exercise. You'll still have the full potentiation effect with less rest, but you'll also have some neural and/or muscular fatigue which will counter the PTP effect. When you're doing a proper strength session, you should actually become stronger with every set of an exercise (until cumulative fatigue sets in after 4 or 5 sets). Note that I said 3 minutes between sets of the same exercise. If you alternate 2 exercises for opposing muscle groups, you can have less time between sets, provided that you still have the 3 minutes between sets of the same movement.
