The Infonian

You might presume Rest Pause Training is the way a few guys at the gym take long rests in between their sets of bicep curls, talking with their buddies way more than they should. The reality of rest pause training is far from using your resting time to catch up on the latest bodybuilding gossip. In fact, the Weider’s Principle of Rest Pause Training entails tricking the target muscle into going way beyond failure with a weight that you would generally be able to lift for only a few reps.

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This trickery is a result of both chemical and psychological reactions. The brief rest periods encourage the muscles rapidly recover by permitting them to refill their stock of phosphocreatine, the same molecule that’s excited when you supplement with creatine. Using this additional shot of energy, the muscle can contract with added power, making bigger force and additional reps. Using this strategy, you WILL get increases in strength and size, along with a bigger ego.

Weider’s Principle of Rest Pause Training is generally used in two ways.

You could train for size by repping to failure, resting for 10-15 seconds, then repeating this until repping to failure once again. Doing this 2-3 times per set causes the muscles to contract overtime and forces the chemical alterations within muscle cells that produce growth.

You can also train for strength by using a weight which allows you to accomplish 3-5 reps, then doing one rep, rack the weight and wait 15 seconds, then do another rep. Repeat this until you complete 4-6 reps overall. This is one rest-pause set for strength.

Instead of keeping the spotlight on either size or strength, we have created for you an alternating rest pause training routine that modifies the two workouts to give you the chance to train for both hypertrophy and strength gains. To simplify this for you, lets look at one-arm and one-leg weightlifting exercises.

Utilizing the dumbbell curl as an instance: Pick a weight that your able to use to finish 6-8 reps. Then complete 3 reps with your right arm, do the same with your left arm. Switch arms again for another 3 reps. Endure in this style, doing 3 rest-pause sets for 3 reps, then two rest-pause sets for 2 reps, finishing off with one rest-pause set for one rep.

After completion, you will have endured 14 reps on each arm with a weight that you could generally complete only 6-8 reps. This method forces not only the target muscle/s to grow but also encourages their pure strength. Studies show that when executing unilateral exercises, your able to lift more than 50% what you could lift with both limbs! If these numbers don’t tell you to incorporate Rest Pause Training into your workout routine, then you might as well be the guy in the intro of this article.

Author: Will Werner

In recent years, weight training has gone from the hobby of chisel-jawed Austrian celebrities to the staple form of exercise for people of all cultures and backgrounds. Its popularity is often a source of mystery for non-believers, who often see it as an excuse for vanity and massaging one’s own ego. Whilst this may be true for a certain percentage of the population (admittedly, in my time, I’ve seen my share of bicep flexing and posturing in front of the local gym’s more reflective surfaces) there are many health, fitness, and mental benefits associated with weight training. 1) The first and most obvious benefit is the increase in size and tone of the body’s musculature. By making small tears in the muscle fibers, the resistance-based movements trick the body into over-compensating when making its repairs so that in future it can more easily cope with the weight. This size increase will be accompanied by a strength gain also, which can be useful in day-to-day life (see: moving furniture).

2) Secondly, resistance exercises cause a metabolic “spike” that allows you to continue burning an above-normal amount of calories even after the exercise period has ended. For those who are unhappy with their body composition, this is a great solution to the problem of unsightly body fat.

3) Psychologically, any form of exercise is a good idea but weight training in particular is known to cause better self-confidence and esteem. Whether this is related to the size and strength gains, a release of endorphins while exercising or simply an increased feeling of well-being is undecided, but who cares! We could all use a more positive mental attitude from time to time. If you want to get an added edge in the gym you might also like to read more on training supplements like the Maximuscle Thermobol Review

4) My last argument to extol the virtues of weight training is the benefits it can provide to sports people. It’s often forgotten that full-body fitness is hugely important, even to athletes such as sprinters, who would appear only to need use of their legs to propel them forward at such a rate. This, like many assumptions, is incorrect. The truth is that upper body muscles (especially the biceps and triceps) are instrumental in creating momentum in the running motion and that without them runners would be unable to achieve such phenomenal speeds. So, next time you’re in the gym, step off the treadmill and pick up a dumbbell!

Author: Gary Bunn

Nitric Oxide (NO) is a gas that that is important to a broad range of bodily functions including controlling blood circulation and helping to regulate activities of the brain, lungs, kidneys, stomach and plenty more. For the most part it facilitates communications among cells. For bodybuilders, the most interesting process in which NO is involved is the dilation of blood vessels. This is known as vasodilation and that is exactly why you should be interested in NO and what it can do to improve your performance. Vasodilation refers to an increase in the flow of blood through the body, which means faster and more efficient delivery of nutrients like amino acids, creatine, glucose, and oxygen to the muscle fibers. This helps your muscles to grow bigger and recover faster while facilitating the removal of waste products like lactic acid and CO2 that can decrease performance. Greater blood flow also enhances the delivery of anabolic hormones like testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-I, all of which are important for muscle growth. Other benefits of increased blood flow include reduced inflammation and a bigger and longer-lasting “pump,” too.

In our bodies NO is synthesized by L-arginine by an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). This catalyzes the conversion of L-arginine to nitric oxide and citrulline. Under normal conditions our bodies produce it only in very small amounts-enough to do what needs to be done and that’s it. Production of NO is increased during exercise but not necessarily to the degree that we’d like to see. Some of the numerous benefits of boosting our bodies’ output of nitric oxide include:

Increased vasodilation, which increases blood flow to the skeletal muscles, which improves the transportation of oxygen and the delivery of nutrients to the cells;

Increased strength and improved stamina;

Gains in lean mass;

Enhanced, more rapid muscle recovery;

Improved endurance; and

Extended muscle pump.

Numerous studies such as one conducted at the University of Texas, have shown that supplements can boost the body’s production of nitric oxide more than just exercise alone. Another study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology showed that a pre-workout stack of L-arginine combined with citrulline can boost measurably boost nitric oxide levels. Their research showed that the combination of the two supplements increased nitric oxide levels more than either supplement taken alone.

There are a lot of different NO-boosting supplements on the market. Knowing what was discovered in the British study though, in looking for supplements to boost your NO output, you might want to look for one that contains not only L-arginine but citrulline as well. There are other ways to up your body’s NO production as well including:

Don’t eat fatty foods within four hours of working out: A study conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore showed that high-feat meals hamper the ability of NO to dilate the blood vessels for up to four hours;

Eat watermelon: Several studies such as one conducted at Texas A&M University indicate that watermelon contains NO-boosting molecules;

Eat cocoa: A study conducted at the University of California, Davis showed that cocoa boosts nitric oxide levels. Chocolate contains flavanols that are similar to those found in fruit, red wine and teas. One flavanol in particular though-epicatechin-is directly linked to increases in NO output. A teaspoon or two of cocoa extract is enough to stimulate NO production.

You should also know about a possible side effect. Specific dosing guidelines have not been established so don’t go too overboard supplementing with L-arginine because you might just wind up with a case of diarrhea. It’s not very common but it does happen. If you’re supplementing with L-arginine you should start with a low dosage to understand your body’s tolerances and see if you have any side effects. Increase your dosage until you achieve the optimal balance of maximum benefits/no side effects. Also, remember to consider other supplements that your might be taking because many of them are fortified with amino acids including arginine.

Most of the heavy duty research into the science of muscle growth is relatively new with the majority of the really interesting stuff just happening in the last 10-15 years. The point being that research into the benefits of NO is just really starting to gain ground. I have no doubt that in the next few years we’ll be hearing a lot more about what this amazing molecule can do-not just for the muscles but for the entire body.

Author: Mike Westerdal