Is a Rest Day Good for Bodybuilders?
The act of bodybuilding refers to training the entire body to promote muscle growth, strength and aerobic capacity. While bodybuilding is known for lifting heavy weights to fatigue muscle groups, one of the most essential aspects of bodybuilding is rest. While rest is important, it is the duration of rest between workout sessions and exercise sets that produce benefits.
While bodybuilders may strength train more frequently than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of two days per week, the same muscle groups should never be trained in consecutive days. The essay, “Recovery in Training: The Essential Element” published by the University of New Mexico suggests resting one to two days between workout sessions. Exercisers who only work one or two muscle groups in a single training session may engage in weightlifting sessions on consecutive days. For example, if you train the shoulder and chest muscles on Monday, you must wait until Wednesday or Thursday before training these muscle groups again.
Rest in Sets
Although rest days are imperative for bodybuilders, rest durations between exercise sets are equally essential. Bodybuilders typically engage in hypertrophy training, so bodybuilders should rest between 60 to 120 seconds between each set. Resting for longer than 120 seconds for experienced bodybuilders does not seem to have a beneficial effect when it comes to hormonal responses that trigger hypertrophy, according to a study published in the January 2009 issue of “The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.”
Perhaps the most important benefit of rest days for bodybuilders is to prevent overtraining. Overtraining refers to working a muscle with such frequency that muscle fibers are unable to recover and adapt. Side effects of overtraining may include chronic muscle soreness, high resting blood pressure and compromised physical performance, according to the American Council on Exercise. In extreme cases, strength training without ample rest can lead to systematic overtraining, which is when the body enters a negative nitrogen balance, according to fitness professional and natural bodybuilder Jeff Behar. This catabolic state results in the excess production of cortisol, which leads to a decrease in testosterone, impaired muscle function and actually prevents muscular growth.
While proper rest days and rest periods between exercise sets are essential to prevent overtraining, muscles require rest days to restore their force generation, reports Lance C. Dalleck, Ph.D. in the ACE Fitness essay “Training Recovery: The Most Important Component of Your Clients’ Exercise Programs.'' Rest days are essential for bodybuilders to allow muscles ample time to repair so they may execute high-intensity exertion in the next exercise session.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need?
- University of New Mexico: Recovery in Training: The Essential Ingredient
- The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: The Effect of Resistive Exercise Rest Interval on Hormonal Response, Strength, and Hypertrophy With Training
- American Council on Exercise: What is Overtraining? Are There Any Easy-to-Recognize Size or Symptoms?
- BodyBuilding.com: Rest & Overtraining
- American Council on Exercise: Training Recovery: The Most Important Component of Your Clients’ Exercise Programs
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