#OPTIMAL REST DAYS FOR MUSCLE GROWTH SERIES#

The weight you choose to use should leave you at or near failure on your specified number of repetitions.įor example, if you’re performing a set of 10 repetitions, by the tenth repetition, you should be unable or nearly unable to perform another repetition. In all cases, the weight must be heavy enough that performing much more than 20 reps is impossible. To put it simply, depending on who you are, your muscles may grow more with lower reps using heavy weights, or with high reps using lighter weights. Understand that these ranges will have some crossover, meaning that 3-repetition sets with the respective weight will cause some muscle growth, 8-repetition sets will build some strength, and 20-repetition sets will build muscle as well.Īdditionally, recent research suggests that different individuals may respond better to lower or higher repetition ranges when it comes to building muscle ( 3). Resistance training with weights and ensuring proper nutrition are the primary means for accomplishing this goal. Summaryīuilding muscle requires your body to deposit more protein molecules into your muscles than it removes. While researchers and experts continue to study the science of optimizing muscle gains, performing resistance training using moderate to heavy loads, combined with relatively high protein intake, remains the only tried-and-true training method for increasing muscle mass ( 2). The correct amount of resistance training drives your body’s hormonal response toward building muscle, but it requires sufficient protein and energy availability to ensure the process results in muscle gains as opposed to muscle losses ( 1). To build new muscle tissue, your primary tools for increasing your body’s rate of protein synthesis are performing resistance training and getting sufficient amounts of protein and overall nutrients.

The muscle building process is driven by several factors, including hormones like testosterone and growth hormone, as well as the availability of amino acids and other nutrients. This process of increasing your muscle mass is known as muscle hypertrophy, and it’s a primary goal of resistance training. The key to building muscle is to increase the rate of protein deposition while minimizing the rate of protein breakdown. Finally, if your body deposits more protein than it removes, your muscles will grow. If the net protein synthesis is even, no measurable change in muscle size occurs. If your body removes more protein than it adds, you’ll lose muscle mass. Your body is in a constant process of renewing and recycling the amino acids, or protein building blocks, in your muscles. This muscle contraction allows all external human movement to occur.

#OPTIMAL REST DAYS FOR MUSCLE GROWTH SERIES#

Anatomically, skeletal muscles are a series of parallel cylindrical fibers that contract to produce force.

Optimal rest days for muscle growth