How do you know how much resistance to use to promote muscle development?
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To overload a muscle, three sets of six to ten repetitions is probably adequate to stimulate growth. More sets will certainly provide a greater rate of hypertrophy, within reason. To begin, you need to estimate your “one-repetition maximum” (1-RM). This will be the maximum weight you can overcome to complete one repetition. Certainly it is not recommended that you try to determine your 1-RM by experimenting with heavy weights. You can experiment with light weights and determine the best weight for an exercise (e.g., shoulder press, bench press, curls) with which you are able to do about five to ten repetitions. This should be about 80 to 85 percent of your 1-RM. Your goal for muscle development is to do three to four sets of 8 to 12 repetitions before experiencing muscle fatigue. |
Should you increase resistance over time?
As you continue to train that muscle, over time you will find it necessary to increase the level of resistance to continue to make progress. This is evident as the number of repetitions you can do before fatiguing exceeds the recommended range for muscle development and is an indicator that your muscle is adapting and getting stronger. Initially, some of this adaptation is merely your muscle becoming more efficient in the exercise. However, overall most of the improvement in performance will be because the muscle is developing more contraction machinery and as a result getting bigger. Try increasing the amount of resistance by 10% and determine if that puts you back in the muscle development repetition range.
How much rest do you need in between sets within the same workouts?
When you engage in resistance training you are making great demands on your muscles. Therefore, the worked muscle should be given adequate time to rest and recover after a set of repeptitions (reps). Depending on the intensity of the set, muscle will need about 1 to 3 minutes to rest between sets to recover. During a set the limited stores of ATP and creatine phosphate are rapidly depleted. Giving muscle a break between sets allows for regeneration of ATP and creatine phosphate. As muscle contracts it temporarily pinches blood vessels and hinders blood flow within that muscle. This not only decreases nutrient and oxygen delivery to working muscle fibers but also decreases the removal of waste such as lactate and carbon dioxide. The period of rest between sets allows for the blood to bring more nutrients and oxygen and remove waste and at the same time also.
How much rest do you need between workouts?
If a muscle is trained hard it is generally recommended to rest a muscle for at least forty-eight hours before working the same muscle again. This allows muscle to recover and adapt. Often people will train the same muscles on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays or Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and rest the muscle in between. If a muscle is trained very hard in a given workout by doing extra sets, that individual may train that muscle only two times a week or every five days or even once a week.
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