Does shorter rest periods=increased growth

**Yung Wun** · 04-19-2003, 10:32 PM

i was looking through some programs that were designed to assist you on putting on lean mass. one thing i noticed about most of these programs that the rest periods during exercise are greatly reduced.
i was curious whether does less rest time equal better results?

**Warrior** · 04-19-2003, 10:52 PM

Yes. This is a major difference between strength training and training for hypertrophy. It's less on how much you lift but more, how you lift it.

You have probably heard the catch-all low reps for strength and increased reps for growth (... and high reps for deffinition). But I have found a better program for size is using a low rep movement with a higher rep, Super Set (no rest). Or Holistic type training for size where you do Giant Sets of a low rep, mid rep, and high rep movements.

Training for strength you allow the muscle to recover... usually takes about 2-5 minutes depending on the bodypart, your training experience and your muscular fiber make-up (your personalized slow-twitch/fast twitch ratio). This allows maximum loads to be used.

But when training for size you want to limit rest and keep nailing it to completeing deplete ATP/CP levels in the muscle. Rest Intervals (RI's) should be under 2 minutes. Super Sets, Giant Sets, Drop Sets, and so on are good for this. These advanced principles can overtrain a beginner but are mandatory for the advanced to keep growing.