When your goal is building muscle fast, sometimes too much focus is placed on the actual exercises in your workout. It is important to remember that the muscle growth takes place after the workout, during the rest interval between workouts. Let’s look at what makes this work, and how you can structure your rest for maximum gains.
What Makes Muscles Grow?
In order for muscles to grow, they first have to be maxed out or fatigued or achieve a failure condition through exertion or exercise, maybe through progressive weights or progressive sets. By this action, you will get the muscle to fail on the last rep or exercise. This failure causes the muscle fibers to tear, which causes the fiber to break down. This stimulates the muscle to new rebuilding growth which increases both muscle strength and muscle size. The companion to the muscle breakdown is to allow the muscle sufficient time to recover. That is where the rest comes in.
Rest Between Workouts
So, what are some ways to accomplish that rest? One way is to have a minimum time interval between the exercising of those body parts. If you do a split body routine, working the upper body on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and lower body on Tuesday and Thursday, in each case you have a day of rest for each muscle group before reengaging. If you maintain a 5 day split routine then take the weekend off, you provide the whole body with an opportunity to rest and recuperate from the workout exertions. The key is in putting some intervals in between exercise activities.
Increase Rest Intervals As Workout Intensity Increases
Another factor in the rest period for the muscle growth is the capacity of the muscle part being exercised to exhaustion. As the muscle grows, you have to increase the intensity of the exercise to force greater muscle growth. If you are increasing the intensity, you will need to increase the rest period between exercises. Different people have different capacity for high intensity exercise. It is probably best to consult with a muscle physiologist or a good trainer to gauge what your recovery time would be for increasing intensity level within your exercises.
You may increase your exercise intensity by adding 5-10 lbs to the weights that you are using. You may need to add an extra day to the rest period as you begin using an increased weight. When your muscles have strengthened and grown to accommodate this increased workload, you may have to reevaluate the rest period again. The goal is to increase the peak load just enough to stimulate the muscle building response, then provide adequate rest to recover from that exertion.
These are the two key aspects of providing sufficient rest for muscles between workouts. A minimum of one day of rest should be the starting point. As you increase the intensity of the workout, either by adding weight or adding repetitions, you will want to examine increasing the rest period between these high intensity workouts. By incorporating the right amount of rest between workouts, you will be well positioned to build muscle fast.