How To Rest For Max Gains In Muscle Size & Strength!

 

“If you don’t rest enough, you don’t grow enough”

Those are the words of the late Mike Mentzer.
And while I don’t agree with Mentzer’s sometimes protracted rest periods (1 week or longer between workouts), the FACT is that the growth you desire occurs in the rest periods between workouts. If you interrupt this process, you delay or impede the growth, not accelerate it.
So much for the “more is better” doctrine.
The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports reported on a study [1] by Finnish scientists looking into this idea.
8 trained men did 4 sets to failure of leg extensions. The researchers then measured their levels of adrenalin, noradrenalin, testosterone, cortisol, and growth hormone.
2 days later when the subjects had NOT recovered and were still experiencing soreness (DOMS), they repeated the procedure.
RESULT: Firstly, the subjects were LESS strong during this second workout. Furthermore, hormonal levels dropped across the board (except testosterone); growth hormone decreasing the most (-45%).
Since this issue is ignored all too often by the bodybuilding orthodoxy, I coined a term for this a while ago: PEAK OVECOMPENSATION POINT (POP).
Stated simply, POP is the length of time it takes for your body to fully recover and grow from a workout, but not so long that you begin to atrophy again. The sweet spot, if you will.

The following is from my free THT4.0 book…

“Sufficient rest or recovery between stresses, or training sessions, must be allowed for adaptation to occur. Adaptation will only occur during the inter-training recovery periods.”

And…

Any adaptation can return to a genetically determined, pre-training state if the stress is not maintained or developed properly.

So it should be obvious here that training again before you are fully recovered is a bad idea in terms of strength and size gains.
So, what is a budding trainee to do to hit his sweet spot and ensure continuous and CERTAIN gains?
Well you’ve got 2 options. Both work, and both should employed in CYCLES.
You can do 1 or 2 sets to failure, and hit each body part 3 days a week e.g. Monday, Wednesday, Friday-  full body workouts.
Or you can do multiple sets per body part (6 or more) in a 5-day split, hitting each body part once a week.
Both of these approaches work very well. And all of you in the know, know that this is exactly what we do in Targeted Hypertrophy Training (THT).
For those of you not in the know, simply add your name and email into the form at the top-right of this page to get your FREE copy of THT training, and start training intelligently right away!
Size and strength gains are not a dream with THT, they are a CERTAINTY! Expect to succeed!
Train With Passion!
Mark
[1] Resistance exercise-induced hormonal response under the influence of delayed onset muscle soreness in men and boys. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21039902
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