The Path of Most Resistance

HYPERTROPHY

HYPERTROPHY

HYPERTROPHY

Which one is more critical, increasing weight or reducing rest period between sets?

I've always typically rested between 2-3 minutes between sets, but recently started playing around with 1 minute breaks. The rep count drops significantly with each set.

For HYPERTROPHY are we better off to focus on incremental weight increases, or reduced rest periods?

Why?

This is a very interdasting question and I love you asked it.

This is my opinion

Hypertrophy Comes from increasing resistance, hypertrophy allows that muscle to improve its strength as a result of the muscle becoming larger.

Reducing the time between sets increases the intensity of work which reduces the time needed to exercise while improving the metabolic system.

In short, makes you strong while improving heart and lung health.

Maximum amount of time for optimal results is no more than thirty minutes, but the high intensity is draining on the mind and difficult to maintain over weeks.

The path of most resistance is an excellent book to read! John turner wrote it and he is waiting for my critique of it.

Not trying to be a prick but I'm going to say neither.

This is all my opinion, no science was bothered during the formulation of these opinions, I've never seen a scientist in a gym anyway.

At a given weight, reducing rest periods will increase intensity. This should be positive for the hypertrophy you seek.

Alternatively, in the attempt to achieve linear increases in weight, you will most likely have to be flexible with rest times at various points throughout the process. I don't think that this practice will detract from the hypertrophy stimulated by the progressive weight increases.

I like volume which is another variable altogether.

Goosey said:

The path of most resistance is an excellent book to read! John turner wrote it and he is waiting for my critique of it.

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I thought I was kinda clever with the thread title here. I'm mildly devastated that someone else thought of it first.

bull said:

Not trying to be a prick but I'm going to say neither.

This is all my opinion, no science was bothered during the formulation of these opinions, I've never seen a scientist in a gym anyway.

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omg really?

Bull, I have a phd in theoretical astrophyisics and i am in the gym 4 times a week, training hard.

myth busted

I'd have to agree with Goosey on this one.
And purely from my own personal experience, decreasing rest time is good for endurance but if you rely on that for hypertrophy without increasing weight, you will stall very quickly.

I like super sets....

No rest...

Mega pumps!!!!

So is the ideal rest time based on how long it takes for your heart rate reduces to a nominal value, eg 128bpm? I've always gone by that using my HRM, not sure if appropriate or should I just set a stop watch to 3 minutes and leave it at that..

chocchillimango said:

omg really?

Bull, I have a phd in theoretical astrophyisics and i am in the gym 4 times a week, training hard.

myth busted

I'd have to agree with Goosey on this one.
And purely from my own personal experience, decreasing rest time is good for endurance but if you rely on that for hypertrophy without increasing weight, you will stall very quickly.

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Theoretical doesn't count

Jungman said:

So is the ideal rest time based on how long it takes for your heart rate reduces to a nominal value, eg 128bpm? I've always gone by that using my HRM, not sure if appropriate or should I just set a stop watch to 3 minutes and leave it at that..

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Pick your rest time, improve your conditioning to suit

Darkoz said:

Theoretical doesn't count

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Darkman, you are better than this

chocchillimango said:

Darkman, you are better than this

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So have they solved this whole Quasar conundrum yet?

Darkoz said:

So have they solved this whole Quasar conundrum yet?

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which quasar conundrum would that be, D?

I think the physics world is a little more focussed on the Higgsy still so maybe quasars aren't getting as much airtime just now.

Such fickle fashionistas, are physicists

although it's bizarrely on topic for choosing a path of most resistance

DKD said:

For HYPERTROPHY are we better off to focus on incremental weight increases, or reduced rest periods?

Why?

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I'm going to say neither as well. If the end goal is hypertrophy the main focus during a training session is to cause a large amount of damage in a relatively short amount of time. Balancing the variables so can use the right weight, for the right reps with an adequate rest period in between sets so you can accomplish this.

If using an weight that you can normally get for 8-12 reps, and after 60-90 seconds you can't bang out the same weight within 1-2 reps of the previous set then your recovery is lacking and conditioning should be worked on. Generally, using less than 45-60 second rest periods between single sets of the same exercise wouldn't be ideal for muscle growth, not enough time to replenish ATP to perform well in the next set.

DKD said:

For HYPERTROPHY are we better off to focus on incremental weight increases, or reduced rest periods?

Why?

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Both!

Because if we were to train smart instead of that old adage of no pain no gain, we would apply the method of gradual progressive overload (GPOL) into our program cycle.

For example, for one 12 weeks cycle, a bodybuilder may choose to focus his/her attention on using the reduction of time over the increasing of the weights,...whilst at another cycle, the focus may shift to more of an increase of poundages with a "fixed set" of rest interval between sets.

Whichever method of overload that bodybuilder chooses (more weight, less time, more sets, more reps, the elimination of momentum etc), one thing for sure would be the application of gradual progressive overload that is injected into his or her program be maintained throughout the duration of that particular cycle.

So for me the answer remains both DKD, as I view both methods as nothing more than tools in that bodybuilder's GPOL gym bag!

PS: had your question been regarding strength over muscle hypertrophy, then my reply would've been different: in favour of longer rest periods (between 3-5 minutes) in order for the firing neurons to recover.

Granted there's more to this, however my short answer above should suffice for the given purpose.


Fadi.

chocchillimango said:

omg really?

Bull, I have a phd in theoretical astrophyisics and i am in the gym 4 times a week, training hard.

myth busted

I'd have to agree with Goosey on this one.
And purely from my own personal experience, decreasing rest time is good for endurance but if you rely on that for hypertrophy without increasing weight, you will stall very quickly.

Click to expand...

Yes Sheldon, I was thinking of you when I wrote that.

Further to Fadi's comments...I was thinking a similar thing....that the shorter rests would be good for different phases of training. It seems to make sense to time the cycle of shorter breaks with a dietary cut, to further assist in getting the defined look. Focus on increasing weight moved during bulk phase, and shorter rests during cuts. Seems logical.

Fadi said:

Both!

Because if we were to train smart instead of that old adage of no pain no gain, we would apply the method of gradual progressive overload (GPOL) into our program cycle.

For example, for one 12 weeks cycle, a bodybuilder may choose to focus his/her attention on using the reduction of time over the increasing of the weights,...whilst at another cycle, the focus may shift to more of an increase of poundages with a "fixed set" of rest interval between sets.

Whichever method of overload that bodybuilder chooses (more weight, less time, more sets, more reps, the elimination of momentum etc), one thing for sure would be the application of gradual progressive overload that is injected into his or her program be maintained throughout the duration of that particular cycle.

So for me the answer remains both DKD, as I view both methods as nothing more than tools in that bodybuilder's GPOL gym bag!

PS: had your question been regarding strength over muscle hypertrophy, then my reply would've been different: in favour of longer rest periods (between 3-5 minutes) in order for the firing neurons to recover.

Granted there's more to this, however my short answer above should suffice for the given purpose.


Fadi.

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Fadi,

How long a cycle do you mean in the reply above? I have a mixture of both in my training and it gets shifted every few weeks so for me there is a short strength sub cycle interspersed with a subcycle at lower weight but shorter rest times and including supersets and slightly more reps in the 8-12 range generally

I find mixing it up has been great (as well as keeping it interesting )

bull said:

Yes Sheldon, I was thinking of you when I wrote that.

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haha of course .. grabs propeller hat ...

DKD said:

Further to Fadi's comments...I was thinking a similar thing....that the shorter rests would be good for different phases of training. It seems to make sense to time the cycle of shorter breaks with a dietary cut, to further assist in getting the defined look. Focus on increasing weight moved during bulk phase, and shorter rests during cuts. Seems logical.

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I do both during what is my eternal bulk phase...

nazzysmith said:

I like super sets....

No rest...

Mega pumps!!!!

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Me to, I consider one set of supersets of like 4 weight decreases as one set.
Do this for 4 sets n u get mega pumps doms n all kinds of growth going on

As for hypotrophy all this internet scientific crap n bro science trainers is going to far. I don't see how eating big and and lifting heavy got so complicated.

There is no science to bodybuilding only those who make it complicated with technicalitys.

We had a thread on this forum a while ago where people stated their rest periods and they were generally 2-3 mins for compound movements (sometimes moe actually, some ppl did 5-10 for really heavy stuff) and 1-2 mins for accessory/bodybuilding. - If you just want to follow people who've had progress and don't want the scientific mumbo jumbo

I tried to get scientific info on this a while ago, I found something by Mike Tuscherer who's a pretty well informed guy and extremely strong/big while competing in a drug tested powerlifting fed....

"Likewise, if you are planning a hypertrophy cycle, you know you are trying to stimulate an acute lack of ATP in the muscle fiber (a leading theory of what stimulates hypertrophy). If you have been doing your physiology homework, you also know that this means you will need a set to require high effort (8+… really 9+ RPE’s) and last ~30-40 seconds. This will likely put you in the 6-12 rep range, depending on the Range of Motion and Tempo of the lift. Sprinkle in some RTS-style fatigue management to get the perfect number of sets and viola, you’re doing some serious hypertrophy work!" - Mike T

Elitefts article: Throw Out the Rep Ranges: A Different Perspective (Thanks Inzane)

Cliffs for Elitefts on hypertrophy: 8-12 reps, 20-45 sec under tension, weight at 60-75% of your 1rm, trying to use "ATP/PC Aenerobic Glycolysis System".

"When training for hypertrophy, in order to stay in a lactic state, short rest intervals must be used. This necessitates the ability of short-term muscular endurance in order to recover from previous sets so that subsequent sets will allow enough muscular tension to be maintained for maximal protein degradation and the buildup of metabolites that lead to hypertrophy."

You are so right Martin.

I beleive that most have no idea that a workout needs to be brutal.
And that most treat a workout as a restout.

It's a simple thing that most have turned into science.
Pack away you tape measure, the cycles and all that crap, work brutally hard in the gym, eat, don't obsess about the workout, go and live your life, eat sleep and repeat.