A guy in the gym finishes a hard, focused set of barbell squats and re-racks the weight. His legs are wobbly, his heart is racing and he feels light headed as he takes a big swig from his water bottle. He looks down at his watch and presses the start button to begin counting down backwards from 2 minutes.
He saw on TV that 2 minutes is the perfect rest time between sets, and what he wants is to do it exactly in that way. So, the watch beeps and he’s be back in the squat rack ready for his next set of exercises with the weights.
Time is up. His still feel weak and his heart is still beating a lot, he doesn’t feel completely ok, but the watch beeped and that means his has to go back and perform another set, it does’nt matter how he feels.
He unracks the weight and squats down. His legs still burn and he wishes that he could have had more time to prepare for this set. He puts forth a mediocre effort, re-racks the bar, and sets his watch for another 2 minutes. Bobby, just like a ton of other aspiring lifters in the gym, is making a deadly, critical mistake.
The only thing he is doing is to force his body to train at an effort level really far for his maximum potential, and his muscles are rarely being stimulated to grow.
Muscles respond to stress, and the only truly stressful reps that actually trigger your body’s muscle building mechanisms are those at the end of each set when the body is on the brink of muscular failure.
What you have to do then is to lift as much weight as you can again, and again, and again.
If you don’t rest enough between sets, you will not reach your maximum strenght potential sacrificing the amount of weight you can lift, and also sacrificing the amount of muscle you can build. So, to begin the next set qhen you are still tired is the big mistake you should not make.
So, return to your exercise set when you feel you are again at 100% of your strenght capacity. When will it be? When your body tell you so, listen to it an you will know when it is time to the next set.
The set rest period theory is also highly flawed because it does not take into account the fact that certain exercises tax the body much more heavily than others and therefore require more rest between them.
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