Rest Times for Maximum Muscle Growth is very important in Bodybuilding. When done incorrectly, it might be the number one reason why beginners never see results. There are different times you need to rest when building muscle. Knowledge of how long and when is very important to the growth of your muscles
- Days Between Workouts
- Length of your Workout
- Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training
- Between Sets
- The Time Periods you need to rest are…
- The time between sets is very important and changes depending on whether you want to Build Muscles or Tone Your Muscles, also referred to as Getting Ripped.
Building Muscle Mass
When building muscle mass, your rest time between sets should be between 60 to 90 seconds. You don’t want to go past 90 seconds because the muscle will recover too much and will already be starting to heal. On the other hand, below 60 seconds will not allow the muscle to recover enough to push out the energy required to break down the cells.
Getting Ripped
When you want to get ripped which is lifting weights to burn calories to reduce the fat layer between the muscle and skin, a good rest time is 30 seconds. This is ideal because you do allow the muscle to recover enough so it isn’t completely fatigue and you don’t allow your body to fully recover giving you a more of an aerobic exercise.
Days Between Workouts
The rest interval between days is also important. Some people are so gun ho that they workout every day and work the same muscle groups day after day. This is the worst thing you can do because you will shrink your muscles instead of growing them.
When you work your muscles to the maximum, your muscles need time to recover. After a good workout, you have teared down the muscle cells and actually split the cells in two. When you rest, the two new cells grow from the protein in your body and become bigger.
If you do not give the muscle enough time to fully recover, you cease the growth progress. That is how your muscle will shrink.
It’s always good to give about 48 hours of rest between muscle groups. You can even go 72 hours when you’re first starting out. It’s better to rest more rather rushing into your next workout.
Length of your Workout
Since we are talking about Time Periods as well as Rest Periods, the total time of your workout plays a roll. You should not workout more then an hour straight when lifting weights. This is because you will start to lose the necessary energy that you need to push those weights to your max. When you are not pushing as hard as you can, you are not getting the full benefit of your workout.
Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training
When you are doing circuit training, you will need a little bit more time of rest between the sets. Since you are doing between 5 to 9 exercises back to back without any rest within a set, you need to extend your rest period. I usually like to keep my rest period around two minutes between each of the circuit sets. This will give you the benefit of an aerobic exercise with the benefit of muscle growth.
Improve your rest effectively
Even if you are resting, your body might be in a state of fatigue or anaerobic respiration, which might not be useful for recovery after a tough gym session. Additionally, a good night’s sleep and regulation of energy are essential. Supplements like Testogen are popular for recovery and rest.
