By: Sean Nalewanyj
Submitted: 2009-11-04 00:38:37 | Word Count: 1026
Bobby finishes a hard, focused set of barbell squats and re-racks the weight. His legs are wobbly, his heart is racing, and he feels light headed as 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. Bobby read that 2 minutes is the ideal rest time between sets in the gym, and he wants to get it exact.
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The moment the watch beeps at 2 minutes, he'll be performing another set at the squat rack. He stands up tall and paces around trying to catch his breath in preparation for his next battle with the weights.
"Beep Beep"
It's been 2 minutes.
His legs still feel weak, his heart still beats frantically, and he doesn't quite feel 100%, but that watch beeped and that means his time is up. He will not wait to perform his next set, no matter what his body is saying.
Bobby hefts the bar off the rack and squats. He completes the set with mediocre energy, re-racks the bar, and re-sets the timer on his watch for the obligatory 2 minutes.
Bobby, just like a ton of other aspiring lifters in the gym, is making a deadly, critical mistake. By having a set rest interval between sets, he is forcing his body to train at an effort level that is far less than his maximum potential and is severely sacrificing his ability to maximize muscle growth because of this.
Your muscles grow in response to the stress you place on them. When you push yourself to lift X amount of weight for Y number of reps, your body will adapt to the stress this causes.
In order to maximize muscle growth, you must continually force X and Y to higher and higher levels. For those who really want to maximize muscle growth, it's critical to progress in both reps and weight.
Due to this, every single set of every workout must be performed with the maximum strength that you can muster. If you plant to maximize muscle growth, you need to forget about your stopwatch and stop looking at the clock.
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.
Another thing to keep in mind is that certain exercises tax the body much more than others and require more rest between them, so it should be obvious that a set rest period is a bunch of bunk. A dead lift and a tricep press down clearly are not in the same ballpark.
I'll usually rest for at least 5 minutes after a heavy set of dead lifts to failure, sometimes even more. A set of tricep press downs is obviously not as taxing and may only require a rest period of 2.5 minutes for me to feel fully recovered.
From now on, listen to your body to figure out when you can perform you next set with 100% of your strength.
