| Detail October 15, 2004
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Top-level fitness
athletes, like Chantal Dicaire, know it's important to take periodic breaks from the gym
in order to keep progressing.
(photo July 2004 by Doug Schneider) |
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The Importance of Rest: Revisiting
Vince Gironda's "Train 21, Rest 7"
From a very young age we’re taught things like:
"the more you work, the more you earn," and "the more you study, the better
your grades." This is all fine, and generally true, too. Unfortunately, the same
doesn’t hold true in the gym, although only a few people actually know this.
There’s a misconception about weight training. Some
people think that the longer you train, the more you’ll grow. If that were true,
I’m sure that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have spent 24 hours a day in the gym. But
he didn’t.
To cut to the point, if you spend twice as long in the gym
your muscles won’t grow twice as much. In fact, your muscles might not grow at all,
and they might even shrink! Surprised? You won’t be if you understand the term overtraining.
There are a lot of different theories and ideas on just how
much time is the right time to spend in the gym, and I doubt it’s something
that will ever be solved since everyone is different. Some can handle more time and
volume, while others handle less. But there is one thing that most experts agree on: you
don’t actually grow in the gym, you grow when you rest. And that is key,
although a lot of people don't realize it and just think more, more, more.
It’s only recently, unfortunately, that more attention
is being paid to the importance of rest, but that doesn’t mean that until now everyone
was neglecting it. Once again, as in previous articles, I’ll bring up the
greatest physique trainer of them all, the late Vince Gironda, since he talked about the
importance of rest for decades. In a 1983 issue of Iron Man magazine, he penned a
brilliant article called "Train 21 Rest 7: A Unique Training Formula for Correcting Those
‘Sticking Points'." I highly recommend that everyone read it because the
information in it can be invaluable to help you improve.
Although the article was directed specifically at
bodybuilders, it’s applicable to almost anyone who goes to the gym, male or female;
it’s certainly very relevant for fitness and figure competitors. And despite the
title of his article, training for 21 days and resting for seven is not just a valid
method for breaking so-called "sticking points" – it’s a valid
training schedule for making long-term gains.
In the article, Gironda describes the importance of rest.
As he states, "Rest is nature’s method of restoring the nerves and whole
body." This is key to remember: our muscles grow and our bodies improve when we rest.
Continually pounding away, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after
year, will likely break down the body to the point where it finally can’t
recover, or you get injured, and then you’re forced to take a break. You need that
rest, regularly, in order for the body to restore and replenish itself.
Gironda’s concept of training for 21 days and resting
for seven can be ideal for many trainers, particularly for those who are older and whose
recovery abilities aren’t what they used to be when they were young. (Gironda
generally let young beginners train as often as they wanted, and for as long as they
wanted, capitalizing on their enthusiasm and their superior recuperative powers due to
their young age.) It’s also ideal for those who train extremely hard – such as
fitness and figure competitors – regardless of their age. The week-long break can
give a much needed rest to help keep the gains coming. As Gironda said in the article,
"I have found three weeks of concentrated training to be about enough, and the point
at which most bodybuilders become bored and stale. And at this point, after three weeks of
hard training, I find one week of rest to be much better than would a change of program,
because the softening up of muscle tissue allows for renewed energy by the storing up of
vitality and re-stimulation to muscles for the resumption of training."
Now, I know what you’re going to say: I can’t
take a break or I’ll lose my gains. This, admittedly, is the toughest thing to
overcome when adopting a program like this because we’ve been mentally conditioned to
think that we must always be in the gym. I know, because when I tell some of the
people I train to "take a week off," they often look at me like I’m crazy.
Some even try to sneak into the gym during that week, fearful that their hard-fought-for
physique will vanish somehow with those seven days of rest. Unfortunately, when they do
that they’re only hurting their progress.
The people who do understand the importance of rest
have no trouble taking that week off. In fact, they look forward to it because they know
how much it can help them. For most, the tiny bit that they lose is more than offset by
renewed energy and enthusiasm when they return. Some actually gain when they take
the week off – their bodies being so depleted before, that when they finally take the
rest, the body almost miraculously heals and improves! I knew one person who took ten days
off and came back stronger – much stronger.
So consider the amount of rest in your training program,
and plan your rest periods to help you gain. Think about the benefits: next time
you’re fretting over whether or not that week-long vacation down south is going to
ruin your physique, you now might be able to enjoy it even more since that vacation can be
an integral part of your weight-training regime. You’ll be getting better while you
rest!
...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com |
