The Key To Building Muscle Mass
Weight training is not an endurance event. Once again, if you stay in the gym twice as long, you will not see twice the results.
After about 30 minutes, the body’s natural release of growth hormones that assist in muscle-building (primarily testosterone) sharply decreases as time goes on. There is an “anabolic window” of opportunity for the spike of natural hormones to hit a high and this is between 30 and 45 minutes into the weight training session.
After this time, the risk of over training and the release of catabolic (muscle-destroying) hormones increase. Get in the gym, do what you have to do, and get out.
You can train more intensely for 30-45 minutes than you can for over an hour. Intensity of the exercise is just as important as how much weight you are doing.This 30-45 minute time period does not include your 5-minute warm-up, shower afterwards, or any other non-weight training activity. So if you are in the gym for an hour total, but only worked out for 30 minutes, that is fine.
Wait enough time between sets so that you are rested enough to perform as well as you did your previous set. Your second set needs to be as intense as the first so that the overload to the muscle is at least the same that it was the previous set.
If you do a set of six reps and then right after, without enough rest, can only do a set for three reps, you have not gained anything. The overload to the muscle has been diminished. If, after doing a set for six reps, you rest two minutes, add 5 more pounds, and proceed to do another set of six reps, the overload has been increased, and so has the likelihood new muscle will be recruited.
So it is vital that you give yourself enough rest in between sets so that way you feel as though you can handle the next set as well as you just did the previous. This could mean a different rest period for different people.
Whether it is a minute or two, you need to be recovered before starting your next set. If this were the case, why would you ever want to superset (doing exercises back to back with no rest) two exercises?
Even though you may be working two opposing muscle groups such as biceps and triceps, the lack of rest between the two exercises will have a negative effect on the second exercise.
The second muscle group will be worked less intensely than the first because your muscle energy stores have been utilized during the first. This reduces the effectiveness of the exercise.Remember that more is not necessarily better. More money, maybe, but not weight-training.
If you work a muscle group more than once in a five to seven-day span, you are running the risk of over training, or overdoing, that muscle. A muscle must recover fully from its previous stress before it can handle additional stress.
Training with sore, tired, overworked muscles is taking one step forwards, two steps back. It’s going to take you a while to get where you want to be, if you even get there at all.
For more information on how to build more muscle mass in less time…
