“Short rest periods have been shown to produce more testosterone and growth hormone secretion than longer rest periods when other factors are constant,” notes Coquitlam fitness trainer. “Shorter rest periods also increase the number of capillaries inside your muscle fibers and boost the muscle’s buffering capacity, which increases its ability to tolerate the build-up of lactic acid. These adaptations enhance endurance and contribute to muscle growth.”
To achieve peak intensity of your muscle building workouts, you should keep your rest periods as short as they can be while still providing time for appropriate recovery. A good rule of thumb is to rest one to two minutes between sets or until your heartbeat is back to normal, whichever is longer. (Your heart beats faster after you stop working out in order to get enough oxygen back into your system.) For most isolation exercises, a minute provides sufficient time to reduce the acidity in your muscles and to get them primed for more muscle action. Less than a minute is usually too little time for this recovery to take place. Anything much over a minute reduces your potential for peak intensity without giving you a compensating benefit in return. Compound movements require more recovery time due to their metabolic demands. One to two minutes is usually sufficient, however.
Remember that you are in Coquitlam fitness training gym to grow. This is your prime directive, and you shouldn’t let anything get in the way. You have undoubtedly seen athletes who spend three hours working out. You may wonder how anyone could do that many sets, but look closely the next time you see these people train. Chances are that they do a set, then rest five to ten minutes before doing another one. These prolonged muscle building workouts may be great for socializing, but they are not the best way to build muscle. The largest gains are obtained when you concentrate the greatest amount of training into the shortest period of time that is consistent with proper recovery.
After forceful exercises, your muscle glycogen is inspired and muscle tissues are starting to break down because of the raise in cortisol levels. In order to prevent this to happen, let in a post-workout meal almost immediately after the training with rapidly eatable protein and quick carbs like protein shakes or smoothies to reload muscle glycogen and supply the amino acids necessary to jumpstart the revitalization of muscles.