Rest Periods Revisited
This post continues on from an older post about rest periods, and clarifies some of the potential nuances involved. In particular, while longer rest periods may be better, this needs to be considered in the context of a lot of other variables, and being proactive about managing your workouts based on total volume of training (rather than individual variables like rest periods) may be more meaningful overall. This also helps to explain why some lifters can get away with not following strict programming, training by feel, while still seeing great results.
Should You Workout On Vacation?
You don’t need to workout while on vacation. The amount of time people often take for vacations (one to two weeks) is generally not long enough to lose your progress. Even if you do, it’s much easier to get back to your pre-vacation numbers than to get there in the first place. Vacations are supposed to be fun, relaxing, and restorative. You’re not supposed to be going through your normal routine and habits. Taking a break means that you’ll (hopefully) come back to your normal life with enough energy and motivation to make it through until your next break. Traveling, or even vacation days at home, are usually more physical than an average desk job. You’re still moving. However, if it doesn’t feel like enough, a simple workout once a week while on vacation is enough to keep your gains up.
How To Avoid Loss of Progress During Time Off
It’s harder to lose muscle mass than we think it is, people can go up to a month off without noticable muscle mass loss. Strength is harder to maintain in off periods, but once training resumes, strength quickly returns. The most important thing you can do, whether your break is due to traveling, injury, or something else, is to continue doing whatever physical movement you can until you training starts again.
The Rest Period Broscience Is Wrong
The old-school belief is that we needed to vary rest periods depending on how strength or endurance focused we wanted our adaptations to be, as well as how much metabolic stress we want to provoke. Recent research suggests otherwise.
What Is the Ideal Number of Exercises Per Workout?
Should your workout be short, or long? How many exercises should you use? There's a lot of conflicting information out there - but the reality is that in most cases, it doesn't matter too much.