Some guy in the gym finishes a hard set of barbell squats and re-racks the weight. He feels realy tired and he takes a big swig from his water bottle. He looks down at his watch and presses the start button to begin counting down backwards from 2 minutes.
He saw on TV that 2 minutes is the perfect rest time between sets, and what he wants is to do it exactly in that way. So, the watch beeps and he's be back in the squat rack ready for his next set of exercises with the weights.
Time is up. His still feel weak and his heart is still beating a lot, he doesn't feel completely ok, but the watch beeped and that means his has to go back and perform another set, it does'nt matter how he feels.
He unracks the weight and squats down. His legs still burn and he wishes that he could have had more time to prepare for this set. He puts forth a mediocre effort, re-racks the bar, and sets his watch for another 2 minutes. Bobby, just like a ton of other aspiring lifters in the gym, is making a deadly, critical mistake.
Working out in this way is really far from efficiency. His effort level is far less than his maximum potential. If he doesn't change the way he trains, he will sacrifice a great ammount of muscle growth.
Muscles grow because of an adaptive response to stress. You lift X amount of weight for Y number of reps, and your body adapts to this level of stress. In order to see continual gains in muscle size, you must continually force X and Y to higher and higher levels.
What you have to do then is to lift as much weight as you can again, and again, and again.
Because of this, you must always go into every single set of every single workout at your maximum strength potential. By sacrificing the amount of weight you can lift, you sacrifice the amount of muscle you can build. And there is no worse way to make this sacrifice than by not providing your body with enough rest between sets.
You should only begin your next set when you feel that you can perform it with 100% of your strength potential. A stopwatch cannot tell you when that time has arrived; only you can by listening to your body and relying on your own instincts.
A deadlift and a tricep pressdown aren't exactly in the same boat here. After a heavy set of deadlifts to failure I'll usually be resting for at least 5 minutes, often even more. A set of tricep pressdowns is obviously not as taxing and may only require a rest period of 2.5 minutes for me to feel fully recovered. - 15683
He saw on TV that 2 minutes is the perfect rest time between sets, and what he wants is to do it exactly in that way. So, the watch beeps and he's be back in the squat rack ready for his next set of exercises with the weights.
Time is up. His still feel weak and his heart is still beating a lot, he doesn't feel completely ok, but the watch beeped and that means his has to go back and perform another set, it does'nt matter how he feels.
He unracks the weight and squats down. His legs still burn and he wishes that he could have had more time to prepare for this set. He puts forth a mediocre effort, re-racks the bar, and sets his watch for another 2 minutes. Bobby, just like a ton of other aspiring lifters in the gym, is making a deadly, critical mistake.
Working out in this way is really far from efficiency. His effort level is far less than his maximum potential. If he doesn't change the way he trains, he will sacrifice a great ammount of muscle growth.
Muscles grow because of an adaptive response to stress. You lift X amount of weight for Y number of reps, and your body adapts to this level of stress. In order to see continual gains in muscle size, you must continually force X and Y to higher and higher levels.
What you have to do then is to lift as much weight as you can again, and again, and again.
Because of this, you must always go into every single set of every single workout at your maximum strength potential. By sacrificing the amount of weight you can lift, you sacrifice the amount of muscle you can build. And there is no worse way to make this sacrifice than by not providing your body with enough rest between sets.
You should only begin your next set when you feel that you can perform it with 100% of your strength potential. A stopwatch cannot tell you when that time has arrived; only you can by listening to your body and relying on your own instincts.
A deadlift and a tricep pressdown aren't exactly in the same boat here. After a heavy set of deadlifts to failure I'll usually be resting for at least 5 minutes, often even more. A set of tricep pressdowns is obviously not as taxing and may only require a rest period of 2.5 minutes for me to feel fully recovered. - 15683
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