After a long day of work, running errands, cleaning the house and so forth just think about how tired you are. Now multiple that times 10 after a tough workout and you can get an idea of how your muscles are feeling.
After a great workout I am normally pumped with adrenaline and even though I may have just had the toughest workout ever I feel super pumped and ready to take on the day. But I have to remind myself that I just put my muscles and body under a lot of stress and they need rest.
Of course when the adrenaline decreases I am pooped beyond belief. There are two types of rest we talk about the most when it comes to weight lifting: the rest period between exercise sets and the rest period between workouts.
When it comes to figuring out what your rest period between sets should be it comes down to a few factors. What is your weight lifting goal? How intense are your workouts? And what is your experience level?
If your goal is to lose fat or your are a beginner, rest periods are generally short and workouts may not be so intense. Meaning that you are not lifting at a heavy level for many sets. Lower weights with more reps means less rest period that someone who is lifting at 90% of their max 1 rep weight for just a few reps.
The longer the rest period between sets, your muscles are getting the chance to get charged back up so you can handle another heavy load. When lifting very heavy and intense, you will probably see lifters resting for 3-5 minutes before hitting the same exercise again. This doesn’t mean that they are doing another move in the mean time but that specific muscle needs time to rest up.
For light lifters, rest can be short. 30 seconds to 2 minutes is not unusual. The shorter the rest the harder your heart is beating and this means more calories, and more fat loss.
Now for resting between workouts; the whole reason that lifting weights work is because you are creating tiny tears and causing tremendous stress to the fibers. They need time to recuperate, repair and rebuild so that you can see great results.
You may think that the more you workout, the greater the return. In reality, this is a bad idea. You risk the chance of overtraining and actually halting or even reversing the positive results. So just how much rest is needed?
You should never work the same muscle groups on back-to-back days. If you are doing total body workouts then it is best to have a rest day in between. If you are dead set on working out on back to back days, then you may want to divide the body up into upper and lower body systems. That way you are not risking working the same muscles back to back.
Other ways to split the body is to do a day of push exercises and a day of pull exercises. They can be upper and lower body workouts but one day you are working one muscle and the next you are working its opposing muscle. For example, doing arm curls one day works the biceps, doing pushdowns the next will work the triceps.
The most important is to once again examine your ultimate goal. For most people, total body workouts work just fine and 3 days of lifting is plenty. That leaves no back to back days and there is plenty of rest. Rest means time to build muscle, break down fat and transform your body.
When it comes to the best rest that has to be sleep. We all know that doctors recommend 8 hours of sleep per night…well, so do trainers. Sleep is a time of total body repair, not just the muscles. And if you are lacking on the sleep then you are holding back on what your body can really accomplish. Trust me, I know how hard it is to get 8 hours a night. But I try my best to be in bed by 11:00 pm since I have no control of what time I have to get up for work in the morning (5:00 am).
I know this isn’t 8 hours, but it try my hardest to get the most sleep possible. If you are staying up at night just watching tv, don’t use that as an excuse. Turn it off and hit the sheets.
Without the rest between sets and between workouts you could really risk injury and stagnant results.
After a long day of work, running errands, cleaning the house and so forth just think about how tired you are. Now multiple that times 10 after a tough workout and you can get an idea of how your muscles are feeling.
After a great workout I am normally pumped with adrenaline and even though I may have just had the toughest workout ever I feel super pumped and ready to take on the day. But I have to remind myself that I just put my muscles and body under a lot of stress and they need rest.
Of course when the adrenaline decreases I am pooped beyond belief. There are two types of rest we talk about the most when it comes to weight lifting: the rest period between exercise sets and the rest period between workouts.
When it comes to figuring out what your rest period between sets should be it comes down to a few factors. What is your weight lifting goal? How intense are your workouts? And what is your experience level?
If your goal is to lose fat or your are a beginner, rest periods are generally short and workouts may not be so intense. Meaning that you are not lifting at a heavy level for many sets. Lower weights with more reps means less rest period that someone who is lifting at 90% of their max 1 rep weight for just a few reps.
The longer the rest period between sets, your muscles are getting the chance to get charged back up so you can handle another heavy load. When lifting very heavy and intense, you will probably see lifters resting for 3-5 minutes before hitting the same exercise again. This doesn’t mean that they are doing another move in the mean time but that specific muscle needs time to rest up.
For light lifters, rest can be short. 30 seconds to 2 minutes is not unusual. The shorter the rest the harder your heart is beating and this means more calories, and more fat loss.
Now for resting between workouts; the whole reason that lifting weights work is because you are creating tiny tears and causing tremendous stress to the fibers. They need time to recuperate, repair and rebuild so that you can see great results.
You may think that the more you workout, the greater the return. In reality, this is a bad idea. You risk the chance of overtraining and actually halting or even reversing the positive results. So just how much rest is needed?
You should never work the same muscle groups on back-to-back days. If you are doing total body workouts then it is best to have a rest day in between. If you are dead set on working out on back to back days, then you may want to divide the body up into upper and lower body systems. That way you are not risking working the same muscles back to back.
Other ways to split the body is to do a day of push exercises and a day of pull exercises. They can be upper and lower body workouts but one day you are working one muscle and the next you are working its opposing muscle. For example, doing arm curls one day works the biceps, doing pushdowns the next will work the triceps.
The most important is to once again examine your ultimate goal. For most people, total body workouts work just fine and 3 days of lifting is plenty. That leaves no back to back days and there is plenty of rest. Rest means time to build muscle, break down fat and transform your body.
When it comes to the best rest that has to be sleep. We all know that doctors recommend 8 hours of sleep per night…well, so do trainers. Sleep is a time of total body repair, not just the muscles. And if you are lacking on the sleep then you are holding back on what your body can really accomplish. Trust me, I know how hard it is to get 8 hours a night. But I try my best to be in bed by 11:00 pm since I have no control of what time I have to get up for work in the morning (5:00 am).
I know this isn’t 8 hours, but it try my hardest to get the most sleep possible. If you are staying up at night just watching tv, don’t use that as an excuse. Turn it off and hit the sheets.
Without the rest between sets and between workouts you could really risk injury and stagnant results.