It’s been readily established that a high intensity exercise program is the best route to go if you want to build rapid muscle mass and develop well-defined muscle form. However, there is more to high intensity exercises than just blasting out a few quick sets. Changing gears in order to increase muscle growth can often be difficult for bodybuilders. Humans happen to be creatures of habit so once you find a workout program and exercise routine you like, you will most likely stick with it come hell or high water. The problem with “routine” is that the human body adapts very quickly to an outside stimulus and needs new challenges in order to progress. Volume and load training are two aspects of high intensity workouts. However, you also have to consider how far to push and how much of a break to give your stressed muscles in between sets and various exercises in order to achieve maximum muscle growth. Working to muscle failure and proper rest periods are the other two important aspects of a successful formula in a high intensity training program.

Working to Muscle Failure

If you’ve done any research at all on acquiring more muscle mass then you have probably come across the fact that exercising to muscle failure is the key. Working to failure can be achieved by using either moderate loads for more sets or heavy loads for fewer sets, but the idea is to perform the exercise until you can no longer lift. However, a very important and often overlooked aspect of working to muscle failure needs to be pointed out. It doesn’t necessarily mean to perform the exercise until you can’t lift anymore at all. Although lifting to failure can include that aspect, what has to be observed is the deterioration of technique as your muscles begin to fail. If your weightlifting technique begins to falter and your form worsens then it’s time to stop the exercise. Poor weightlifting technique and form can do more harm than good, not only by preventing proper muscle growth, but also by causing injury.

As far as the science goes, it has been shown that taking muscles to failure is the most productive way to stimulate maximum muscle hypertrophy. However, it has also been shown that by stopping workouts just shy of muscle failure also stimulates large muscle gains. This is due to the fact that it is successful muscle overload, and not necessarily complete muscle failure, that stimulates hypertrophy. Another danger to performing intense workouts is the damage caused to the central nervous system. Muscle tissue recovers more rapidly than the nervous system. Therefore, overtaxing your nervous system through performing high intensity exercises routinely can lead to overtraining. Basically, parts of your body will shut down due to the stress on your CNS that operates your motor functions. For this reason, it is smart to perform a mixed workout where some exercises are taken to full failure while others are taken to within 1 or 2 reps short of failure. This still stimulates muscle fiber growth, but it also saves a lot of wear and tear on your CNS. The bottom line is that you need to constantly provide your muscles with greater resistance in a variety of rep ranges in order to overload muscles and stimulate new muscle growth. If you can work to muscle failure without compromising lifting technique than you will successfully reach this point. However, if your exercise form is compromised, you should stop the exercise before injury occurs. You should also mix up your weight training program to incorporate exercises that take you to muscle failure and those which reach just shy of muscle failure to avoid overtraining while still stimulating muscle growth.

Optimizing Rest Periods

The amount of rest between sets is another rut which bodybuilders can fall into and find it very difficult to change. Again, because humans are creatures of habit, weightlifters will normally find what’s most comfortable and resist breaking away from it. However, the amount of rest you take between sets can be optimized in order to increase the intensity of your workout and provide greater muscle mass gains. The process of rest allows your muscles, central nervous system, mind and other bodily functions to recover somewhat. Studies show that in order to recuperate almost 100% of energy reserves provided via creatine phosphate (CP) and adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP), you need three minutes of rest in between exercises. This will allow you to maximize your lifts on the next set and achieve progressive overload for new muscle growth stimulation. This is the best approach when lifting heavy weight loads. However, shorter rest periods have been shown to stimulate growth hormone levels better than longer breaks, although the CP and ATP recover is only around 85%. When using light to moderate weight loads requiring higher repetitions and increased volume, keep your rest periods between sets of 60-90 seconds. Studies reveal that growth hormone production is maximized when the workout contains 10 reps or more with breaks between sets of 45-60 seconds.

When performing your strength training program, it is critical to keep your rest periods consistent throughout the workout. A big mistake many gym rats make is to vary breaks, usually by too much chatting or cell phone use between exercises. Testosterone and growth hormones level out between 60 and 90 minutes into a workout. If you drag out your routine longer than this then you risk significantly dropping beneficial testosterone and other growth hormones and elevating cortisol, which will deteriorate muscle fiber. Save the chats until after the gym and focus on your exercise program.

Conclusion

When you’re performing high intensity exercises, bring your muscles to failure or nearly to failure without compromising your weightlifting techniques and form. If you prefer to work with heavy loads, keep your rest period between sets to between 2-3 minutes. If you choose light to moderate loads, don’t break more than 60-90 seconds. By observing these aspects, you can increase your muscle gains when performing your high intensity workout program.