Special Report: The Rules Of Rest (And Program Design)
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Arnold Schwarzenegger <[email protected]>
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Arnold's Pump Club addresses questions and confusion about rest periods and exercise program design, clarifying the application of a study that found 90 seconds of rest to be superior for building muscle. They provide context and explanation to support members' fitness goals and understanding of the Pump Club app's resources. The club aims to better connect members with their health and wellness.
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Special Report: The Rules Of Rest (And Exercise Program Design)
Working out isn't rocket science, but it is exercise science. Here's how to make sure your rest periods support your goals.
Editor’s Note: An item from yesterday’s newsletter created a lot of questions and confusion among Pump Club app subscribers. In the newsletter, we wrote that a study found that 90 seconds of rest is superior for building muscle, and not every rest interval in Pump Club programs is 90 seconds. We wrote an exclusive article for all of the members and thought it was worth sharing with all of you.
The best part of the Pump Club app is that you all feel connected to your health and want to get better, so you use every resource we have here to support your fitness, nutrition, habits, mindset, accountability, and overall health.
The hardest part of the Pump Club app is that you consume what we put out, including what’s in the newsletter, and sometimes we don’t do a good enough job clarifying that it does not necessarily apply to everything you see in the app.
This happened today with the “Number you won’t forget” in the newsletter. We discussed how scientists found that 90 seconds of rest is best for muscle building.
And my mistake was not clarifying that while the research is great, getting married to 90 seconds of rest overlooks the reality of workout design.
Because you read the item, and a fair question came back: why doesn't every set have at least ninety seconds of rest? (We received MANY emails today; so many that I started writing this post 5 hours ago and felt it was necessary to get it done today.)
When we cover a study in the newsletter, we tell you what it found and keep the summary short. A summary teaches you a lot. It can't teach you everything, and it won't show you all the ways a single finding does and doesn't apply once you're building a real workout.
We can do a better job filling in that context, and that's what this article is about.
Our promise is that we do the thinking for you, and we do. And when you have questions, our approach isn’t “Just trust me.” We pull back the curtain so you can see how we build your workouts, and we give you evidence, reasons, and examples so you don’t have to second-guess it.
By the end of this post, I hope you'll better understand the role of rest, the art of workout design, and the science of rest, muscle, and other goals you might be trying to achieve with your workouts.
A Number Is Not A Rule
First things first: The ninety-second guideline is a good one. It's a clean way to think about the trade-off between fatigue and intensity that drives muscle growth.
And a good guideline isn't a universal law.
Ninety seconds is not the only rest interval that builds muscle, and when you're designing a workout, far more goes into the choice than a single number.
The urge to turn 90 seconds into a rule you can't break is worth understanding because it trips up many smart, motivated people. A specific number feels like control. Fitness is a place where many of us have felt out of control for years, trying things that didn't work and then blaming ourselves.
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