Rest times

[Abel Kean]

So why would I be finding this more effective?

As I say, I'm pushing as much weight with a short rest time. The only explanations I can think of are:

- Maybe stimulating more fast-twitch fibers now?

- Doing the same amount of work in shorter time maybe means more intensity?

Your getting a better pump throughout your workout by resting less and keeping the blood flow going to your muscles which is fueling them. 

By lowering your weight you're most probably doing the exercise correctly and actually activating the muscles a whole lot better which in turn will help it grow alot faster then doing alot of reps incorrectly which does nothing much but increse your strength in a incorrect form. You wont feel the burn no way near as much.

[Pseudonym]

Your getting a better pump throughout your workout by resting less and keeping the blood flow going to your muscles which is fueling them. 

Yep, the pump might be helping as well. I've always thought the whole "get the blood flowing to get more nutrients into the muscle" theory sounded suspiciously like old-timer bro-science - after all, surely there's blood flowing through all muscles, all the time? And if the aim is to increase blood moving, well, cardio does that, but it won't make you big.

However, there is a theory that a good pump stretches the fascia which surrounds the muscle, thus creating "room" for the muscle to grow. At least, I think that's the general argument - I forget the details of how it works. Anyone know more about this?

 

By lowering your weight you're most probably doing the exercise correctly

I hope this doesn't sound too arrogant, but after 10 years of training, my form is generally pretty good. There's always room for improvement of course, but I don't think exercise form is what's making the difference for me. In fact if anything, it's probably worse after 10 sets with short rest intervals than it was over 3 heavy sets!

[ohjoshua]

I think there are two main reasons why you are growing during training with shorter rests.

•  Latic acid being produced during short rests, which stimutes growth hormone.
•  Increased sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased muscle glycogen storage. The primary size for this will come from the water molecules which attach to glycogen ( i beleive it is 3 water molecules for every 1 glycogen molecule).

So you may not have quite as a hard look doing these verses heavyer training with longer rests which is more  myofibrillar hypertrophy.

 

 

 

[Rebel101]

Interesting the various differences people are using.

I do not time my intervals between sets but really on feel ie start another set when recovered from previous set. Invariably I find that when I am working with heavier weights I use longer rests between sets which enables me to use heavier weights.

Personally there are very few times when I get a pump from workouts the only exception is legs, do not know why always assumed this was a female thing.

[Terrymundo]

short rest times have really helped my with hypertrophy/size bases training.

The theory I work with is the fasia (spelling??) needs to be stretched to allow the muscle to grow in volume. To do this you need to chase the pump, rest times need to be balanced to allow sufficient recovery as well maintaining the pump in targeted muscles. 3 minutes of rest for me is just too long and I can feel tightness leaving my muscle. I would my rest times range from 30secs to 2minutes (legs) this allows to keep the muscle tight and full.

 

one thing that I see too many people over look is rest times between exercises. it can take people 10 minutes from last set of one exercise to the first of the next.........bye bye pump/gains