Rest Times For Hypertrophy Training
Training philosophy is all over the map on this topic. There are some pretty jacked guys talking about taking 30 seconds or less between sets and others talking about taking extended periods of rest between sets. When it comes to pure strength training no one will argue that longer rest periods are the most optimal for improvement in strength. Some Powerlifters will really push the limits on this take a nap between sets..lol Coach Christian Kruszeweski breaks down a few tips on which method is better.
Short or long rest times?
For hypertrophy training longer rest times seem to be the most optimal for the best gains in muscle size. Lets just look at it from a common sense point of view. When you are training to make muscles bigger you really want to keep tension on the muscle and train close to failure. You don’t want to go to failure every set, but getting close to that point is important to work the muscle hard enough to see increases in size. You don’t just want to push the muscle hard for one exercise, but usually 2-3 exercises of 2-3 sets per muscle group. If you are going to be doiong 6-9 hard sets of training you want to be able to get as much quality and volume out of that training day.Â
If you take short rest times you may only be able to do 6 hard sets of 6-8 reps before your completely get wiped out and can’t move your arms any more. Taking slightly longer breaks will allow the muscle to recover enough to be able to squeeze out a few extra reps and sets which would increase your overall training volume for the day.
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Lets look at it Mathematically
If you are taking 30 seconds or less break between sets and can only do 6 sets of 8 with 100 pounds on a lift your total training volume is 4800lbs.
If you take 90 seconds to 120seconds and can do 9 sets of 8 of 100lbs you have now lifted 7200lbs of weight. You are able to move more mass put more work on that muscle to see the growth