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If 'Size' is Your Goal, 30s Rest & 20 Reps Beat 3 Min Rest & 8 Reps to Failure -- Extra 100% Biceps Gains in 8 Week Study

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Do women have to complain that training makes them "bulky", because they're doing it right (high rep, low weight, short rest) while their boyfriends don't?... What? Don't worry, I am just kiddin'. As a loyal  SuppVersity  readers, you will remember my 2016 article: "Not Resting Long Enough May Ruin Your Gains! 1 vs. 5 min Cut Post-Workout Increase in Protein Synthesis by 50%!" ( read it ). Now, back in the day I already pointed out that "the study at hand only proves what we already knew - training volume is more important than metabolic stress when it comes to hypertrophy gains" ( SV. 2016 ) and still many people (mis-)interpreted the results in their black-and-white world as "final evidence" that you'd have to turn your workout into a coffee (or intra-workout) party to make the gains you feel you deserve. That's a mistake you should not repeat by taking the publication of a recent study from the  Nippon Sport Science...

Resting as Long as You Think Fit Reduces Training Time W/Out Reducing the Workload & (Hopefully) Your Gains

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The study provides only preliminary evidence, but it is evidence...  You will certainly remember the SuppVersity  article about the beneficial effects of long(er) rest times on strength and size gains from November last year ( read more ). Now, after I posted this article, a discussion evolved about whether you actually have to wait that long (3 min) after exercises that don't leave you as winded as barbell squats; and if resting less than the "optimal" time wouldn't yield the exact same results if volume and weights you lift during set and individual rest time workouts were identical. As the authors of a recent study from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Freitas de Salles. 2016), point out, there was, until now, no study that compared the "consequences of applying selfsuggested with fixed intervals in upper and lower body exercises performance". With said study, however, there's some data on what happens if you compare the effects of...

Resting 3 vs. 1 Min. Between Sets Pays Off: Greater Size + Strength Gains - Probably Mediated by 15% Higher Volume

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Resting long enough to maximize your training volume could be the key to success, i.e. strength  and  size gains. If you have been following the various affords to ascribe differences in strength and, even more so, size-increases to a specific training variable, you will remember that the only promising parameters that appear to be supported by more than the literal "outlier study" are training load and volume. Of these, the former is pretty much uncontested. The latter, however, is still questioned by a camp of inconvincible skep- tics, who simply ignore the fact that there's ample evidence that "[h]igher-volume, multiple-set protocols have consistent- ly proven superior over single set protocols with respect to increased muscle hypertrophy" (Schoenfeld. 2010). It would be interesting to see if rest periods should also be periodized ! 30% More on the Big Three: Squat, DL, BP! Block Periodization Done Right Linear vs. Undulating Periodizationt ...

BFR Preconditioning Not Better Than Placebo? Long Rest Periods For Sustained Testosterone Increase? Train One Leg, Grow Both? - Resistance Training Update October '14

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Single-legged leg presses that make both legs stronger are only one of many topics, today. Time for an update on the latest resistance training research - just the interesting stuff, obviously ;-) What exactly? Well, let's see: We'll take a look at how long rest periods sustain the exercise induced. Then, we'll dive right into a placebo -controlled study on blood flow restriction as a means of preconditioning before resistance training, only to top things off with a study that found that training your dominant leg will also increase the leg press strength of the untrained, non-dominant limb. Ah, and since there was some space left in the bottom line, we will acknowledge that AM vs. PM training have identical effects on power, force and hormonal response in young men and pretend to be surprised that a three-set upper-body workout is much more energetically demanding than its one-set analog. All in all, a very balanced update on the latest resistance training research, ...

Training to Failure and Modifying Rest Times: Two Ways to Maximize Muscle Activity? Two Studies, Similar Implications

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This is what science looks like... Well, at least in the Hiscock study, where the subjects, 10 young men with at leas 12 months of training experience did regular and hammer dumbbell curls on the preacher bench - (photo | Hiscock. 2015). In today's SuppVersity  feature article, I am going to address not one, but two potentially highly relevant articles from the  Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research  (Looney. 2015) and the European Journal of Sport Science (Hiscock. 2015). What makes these papers interesting is the fact that both investigated the effect of commonly prescribed remedies to "bust a plateau" by providing novel growth triggers: (a) Training to failure and (b) modifying rep schemes and whether you fail or don't fail on every set. If you believe in what you can read in many articles on strength training, both, training to failure and decreasing rest times / drop sets should significantly increase the muscle activity and thus - this is the most...
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