Tuesday, January 3, 2012

How Much Rest?

Ahh... All of your muscles should deserve some rest. Some more than others, but how much?

The muscles in the legs need the most time in order to recover, because of their size. This also goes for the muscles in the back, and in the chest. The muscles in the shoulders, forearms and stomach are a lot smaller and can be worked on a daily basis (after your body gets used to working out, of course). Your abs, or the muscles where your stomach is, are the fastest recovering muscles in your body.

Whenever I go to the gym, no matter which muscle group I'm trying to focus on, I always make sure that I have at least 2 abdominal exercises squeezed in there. The remainder of the smaller muscles in the arms always get a workout from whatever I'm doing at the time in the gym. When you perform your bench press, you're actually working all of the muscles in your upper body, but with more emphasis on your chest. Biceps, triceps, deltoids, pecs, etc... All from one exercise. You will, however start to feel the burn from the major muscle group you're focusing on.

Always have a plan when you go to the gym. If you want a full body build, then you should have a cycle to properly rotate which muscles you work on to give the muscles you're not working on adequate rest so they can recover. If there's anything you should take from this post, it's this: The point of working out is to break down your muscles, so they can rebuild stronger. While you rest, you rebuild. If you don't rest... You don't rebuild.

22 comments:

  1. I don't know it ! very useful information, thx, I will follow your blog :) !

    ReplyDelete
  2. nice... and so few people know about it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cheers on the muscle size/rest relationship info.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good advice and nice looking photo you have up there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice blog! But don't forget that the abdominal muscles are just like any other muscle, and they shouldn't be worked every day... they need rest too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. working out on a daily basis still is a bad idea, even for abs or arms.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Agreed, however, I still do a daily set of push-ups and daily set of crunches regardless of whether I go to the gym or not. It's not necessarily a kill-set where I burn them out, it's more of a maintenance set, letting them know I haven't forgotten about them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. i agree with you. nice post too! i am now following

    ReplyDelete
  9. i just get lazier by the day though...

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is a great post. afterall the muscle grows when its resting!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice blog man, I've been going to the gym for a couple of years now. Will be nice to follow a fellow gym goer!

    Weird Interesting News
    Following!

    ReplyDelete
  12. after i hit my quads, i usually need like 5 days of rest to be able to function again xD

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yeah, muscle needs to rest after a while

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow i did not know this nice information.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Always thought that pumping iron was quite easy, not this complex.
    Maybe this helps, goku trained 1 year straight with his son, and took a 5 day rest after that to relax the muscles and mind.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I also read somewhere that newbies should train more often because it takes less time to rest, for a newbie 2 days should be enough. Also while resting don't forget to keep your protein intake steady. The body doesn't retain protein, so in order to recover and rebuild you need a certain ammount of protein every 2-3 hours. Usually that ammount is 10-16 grams but it depends on your weight, wether you are trying to lose weight while you lift, or just trying to build muscle or both. So google that one :D

    ReplyDelete
  17. dude, i want to be uber strong really fast and without being healthy. eating shit and stuff, what tips do you have for me ?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Neat blog mate. +Following!
    I have done a lot of jogging and swimming. Usually give my muscles 48 hours to rest.

    ReplyDelete