How Rest Periods Affect Muscle Development

One of the most important yet most hotly debated and misunderstood aspects of a good workout routine are rest periods. Rest periods are crucial for muscle growth. How can rest periods affect muscle growth and what's the best rest period? Let's explore these queries.

Why Rest Periods Are Essential

There are a few explanation why rest periods are crucial.

For starters, when you use your muscles you're building up lactic acid and hydrogen ions. In small doses, these substances do not damage your body at all. However, after a workout these substances can really build up to significant quantities.

These substances prevents your muscles from exerting them selves totally and cause more fatigue. Put simply, it may cause you to exhaust yourself out without actually making any progress towards your objectives.

Worse, however, is the fact that lactic acid and hydrogen ions can prevent the appropriate delivery of proteins for your muscles. Basically, parts of your muscles won't be getting the necessary building blocks they need to build more powerful muscles.

The other reason rest periods are important is because of the way muscle building works. You're generally causing tiny micro injuries in your tissues when you work out. Then when you rest, the body repairs the muscles and makes them better than before.

Without proper rest cycles, you'll just frequently injure your body without actually gaining muscle. Which can be very harmful.

What's the Suitable Rest Period?

The best rest period is about 48 hours for every muscle group. That said, it is uncommon that somebody can actually workout 1 muscle group three times per week. More realistically, your rest period is probably going to be more like 2-4 days per muscle group.

Resting your muscle groups does not mean not working out. It basically means you switch working out various areas of your body. For example, you might work out your upper body today, then exercise your lower body 2 days from now, then work out your upper body again a couple days from then on.

Likewise try not to workout 3 days consecutively. Training a couple of days consecutively is fine, but remember if you are changing up the muscle groups still it takes your body a great deal of energy to repair tissue every single day.

When you are regularly exercising without rest, even if they are different muscle groups, the micro tissue injury and the lactic acid will build up.

Rest durations are a critical element of strong muscle growth. Make sure you are getting enough rest by spacing out your workouts and switching the muscle groups you are exercising. Sometimes a good thing for your muscles and your workout routine is a good break.

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