Before I dive in and give you this one secret, let me first explain that I’m not about to give you some hidden secret that you’ve never heard of, which all these super human athletes are using. What I’m going to to discuss is is one of the most important factors of training that determines results.
Whether you program them but don’t use them, or you don’t program them at all, REST PERIODS are a must.
Ask yourself ‘Have you applied these into your programs?’, ‘Do they match up with the adaptation your programming is trying to achieve?’ and ‘Are you sticking to these during each and every session?’. I will even admit that there are times when I lack the programming and execution of rest periods, and my lack of adaptation (…results) is obvious! Now Im not just going to put it down to only this, but it plays a major role in achieving specific strength qualities.
Building WORK CAPACITY? Keeping rest periods 45 seconds are below are crucial here!
Chasing HYPERTROPHY? Depending on what type of muscle growth you are after, you may implement rest periods of 60 seconds and less or you may need to implement 1-2min rest periods.
Want to increase MAXIMAL STRENGTH? Lifting heavy requires some decent recovery time, 3-5mins depending on what load your lifting
What to achieve more POWER? Well FULL recovery is important!!! 3-5min is a must!
(We can see that MAXIMAL STRENGTH and POWER qualities have the same rest periods, BUT these will be performed at different load %’s, which manipulates the ‘Time under tension’ and produces a different stress on your body.)
Rest periods are a major principle that we must use within our programming to ensure the right stress on your body, leading to the desired adaptation. If you want results then I would highly recommend making necessary changes to your rest periods and following these to the T.
Fortunately for MOST of us, this will achieve results INSTANTLY!
Thanks for reading – Coach Cal