Rest and Recovery is Crucial for Muscle Growth in Bodybuilding

Rest and Muscle Recovery is very important in Bodybuilding in order to build the most Muscle Growth possible. When done incorrectly, it might be the number one reason why beginners never see any results. There are key times you have to rest when building muscle. Knowledge of how long and when is very important to the growth of your muscles.

The Times you need to Rest are…

• Rest Time Between Sets
• Rest Time Between Workouts - Days
• The Length of your Workout
• Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training

Rest Time Between Sets

The time between sets is very important and changes depending on whether you want to build muscle or tone your muscle.

When building Muscle Mass, your rest time between sets should be between 60 to 90 seconds. You don’t want to go past 90 seconds cause the muscle will recover too much and will already be starting to heal. Below 60 seconds will not allow the muscle to recover enough to push out the energy required to break down the cells.

When you want to tone your muscles or want to lift to burn calories, a good rest time is 30 seconds. This is ideal because you will allow the muscle to recover enough so it isn’t completely fatigue and you don’t allow your body to fully recover giving you a more of an aerobic exercise.

Rest Time Between Workouts - Days

The rest interval between days is also important. A lot of people are so gun ho that they workout everyday and do the same muscle groups day after day. This is the worst thing you can do because you will shrink your muscles instead of growing them.

When you work your muscles to the maximum, your muscles need time to recover. After you workout, you have teared down the muscle cells and actually split the cells in two. When you rest, the two new cells grow from the protein in your body and become bigger. If you do not give the muscle enough time to fully recover, you cease the growth progress and the two new cells remain small. That’s how your muscle will shrink. It’s always good to give about 48 hours of rest between muscle groups. You can even go up to 72 hours when you are first starting out. It is always better to rest more then to rush into your next workout.

The Length of your Workout

Since we are talking about time periods as well as rest periods, the total time of your workout plays a roll. You should not workout more then an hour straight when lifting weights. This is because you will start to lose the necessary energy that you need to push those weights to your max. When you are not pushing as hard as you can, you are not getting the full benefit of your workout.

Rest Time Between Sets in Circuit Training

When you are doing circuit training, you will need a little bit more time of rest between the sets. Since you are doing between 5 to 9 exercises back to back without any rest for a set, you need to extend your rest period. I usually like to keep my rest period around two minutes between sets. This will give you the benefit of an aerobic exercise with the benefit of muscle growth.

Many Bodybuilders are so gun ho about the exercise that they do not give their body time for muscle recovery. Therefore, maximum muscle growth is not archived.

The purpose of bodybuilding is to get bigger muscles. In order to gain muscle growth, you need to tear down the muscles in each exercise so the cells will split. During this splitting, your muscles will shrink. Only later, will your muscles begin to grow. This is why muscle recovery is so important. When you skip this very important stage, you are skipping the Muscle Growth Process.

The reason why the muscle cells split is because the body has been damaged. In this damage stage, the body duplicates the cell to protect itself from the same type of damage again. That is why you have to push yourself harder every time you workout.

After you have recovered properly, your muscles are bigger and stronger. They are ready for the next intense bodybuilding session, so you need to be ready to push yourself harder then you did during the last workout. How do you do this… by being motivated and mentally prepared before you even start.

This means you can only begin on the same muscle when you have recovered fully. A lot of bodybuilders think the more time they spend exercising, the bigger the muscles will be. This is not true. It is not how many exercises you can squeeze into the week, but the quality of effort you put in when you exercise. After you have given it your all, you need to eat the right foods and rest the proper amount of time. How do you know when you have rested long enough? It usually take two to three days after a good workout for full muscle recovery.