During your Muscle Workouts, you should be aware of 3 key elements…

• The amount of time between sets or circuits
• Correct breathing to get the most out of every rep
• How many days a week you should work each muscle group.

Time Between Sets

Many do not know how much time to take before starting the next set. The rest time for any set is no more then 2 minutes.

If you want your muscle workouts to be more of an cardiovascular workout and get your heart pumping, have your rest interval around 30 seconds. You will feel the effects of this type of training right away and is great for burning fat.

However, if you want to build muscle, keep your rest intervals between 60 to 90 seconds. For circuits of 4 or more exercises back to back without any rest, the rest time between these should be 2 minutes.

Correct Breathing

While performing your muscle workouts, you can lose a few of your last reps because you are not breathing correctly. When you breath correctly, you will be able to force out more reps and lift heavier weights. You want to breath in when lowering the weight or on the negative, and breath out when lifting the weight or on the exertion.

When Should You Work Each Muscle Group

Some people are confused about working the same muscle more then once a week.

For beginners, I recommend working only one muscle group per week just so your muscles can get used to the exercise. Once your muscles becomes used to the exercise you can start training one muscle group twice a week. But never train the same muscle the very next day. Give your muscles a few days rest before attacking the same muscles in the same week.

Another tip is never workout a muscle when it is sore. This soreness is your bodies way of telling you that your muscle is still in a recovery stage.

Just pick a different muscle group to workout or skip the workout until your muscles are fully healed. This soreness will vary depending on how hard you exercised in your workout. Sometimes it is natural to feel a little soreness the next day or two. This is perfectly normal and it means your previous muscle workouts were good.

Henry Chervenka