How do they exercise so intensely most days with such small rest periods?
In: Biology
Body builders train differently from weightlifters and powerlifters. Body builders train to achieve greatest muscle mass, which involve repping to failure and giving enough time to rest. (Olympic) weightlifters and powerlifters train to achieve maximal strength, which involves controlling the volume, rest times in between sets, and training load to target different muscle groups at different intensities during their weekly, monthly, and competition cycles.
There is more rest than you think there is.
Athletes, bodybuilders, and other fitness enthusiasts often schedule their training and workouts to both allow for necessary recovery while maintaining the challenge and stress on their body needed to get better.
Here is an example of a whole body, 3 day split routine:
Day 1: All muscle groups – 1 exercise, 3 sets, 10-12 reps
Day 2: Rest
Day 3: All muscle groups – 1 exercise, 3 sets, 10-12 reps
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: All muscle groups – 1 exercise, 3 sets, 10-12 reps
Days 6-7: Rest
Here is an example of an upper and lower body split:
Day 1: Upper-body muscle groups – 2 exercises each, 3 sets, 6-8 and 10-12 reps
Day 2: Lower-body muscle groups – 2 exercises each, 3 sets, 6-8 and 10-12 reps
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Upper-body muscle groups – 2 exercises each, 3 sets, 6-8 and 10-12 reps
Day 5: Lower-body muscle groups – 2 exercises each, 3 sets, 6-8 and 10-12 reps
Days 6-7: Rest
They do have rest periods. In fact body builders go through massive fluctuations of mass and energy. When you see them compete, they are actually dehydrated and exhausted leading up to that competition.
Athletes on the other hand usually isolate different muscle groups for each day. For example, leg workouts won’t make it harder to do a chest workout the next day. This will usually go in something like a 4-5 day cycle with a rest day in between each cycle. This might look like:
Monday: Chest & triceps
Tuesday: Back & biceps
Wednesday: shoulders
Thursday: leg & core
Friday: rest
Cardio or core do not require excessive rest. One or two days between heavy cardio and core are usually fine, so it’s good to work them in whenever you feel up to it.
The more you train, the higher your work capacity and ability to recover gets.
High level athletes can train at the level they do because their bodies have spent years, often more than a decade, adapting to that workload.
If an inexperienced person tried to match their workload right away, they wouldn’t be able to recover and would burn out and get injured. You work your way up to that slowly and incrementally. And you do that by making sure you are getting adequate rest along the way so you aren’t doing more damage that your body can handle at any given time.
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