By Karen Sessions NSCA-CPT (MsFit)

www.Iron-Dolls.Com

Many
factors apply when it comes to bodybuilding, and the most overlooked
aspect is rest. As simple as that may seem it is essential.

Rest
will allow your muscles to recover. Without proper recovery, you will
never grow. Thus, you will never achieve that award winning physique
you worked so hard for unless you make sure to incorporate adequate
rest.

In this article I will
teach you how to properly tie-in rest into your workouts, making sure
all of your hard efforts pay off 100%.

Rest Between Training Sessions for Muscle Growth

I
have had people tell me they can actually feel their muscles gaining
size during a workout. Although it might seem like it, that is false.
This "feeling" you get is called a pump, and is not to be confused with
muscle growth.

Muscle growth
(hypertrophy) takes place during rest, not during a workout. You may
get a pump during training, but it's merely blood being pumped into the
heated muscle, making it harder and increased in size temporarily. When
this happens, many get a mental pump and drag the training out,
resulting in over training, which is something we don't want to do.

When
your muscles repair themselves after training they are slightly
stronger than before, which can lead to further growth if training is
continued after sufficient rest.

It
is important to note if you train before the muscle is fully recovered,
you can retard growth, and if you fail to train at all you will lose
size.

Rest needs vary for each
individual. Dietary guidelines, stress, genetics, sleeping habits, age,
and supplements all are contributing factors to recovery. So what may
work for someone else, may likely not work for you.

Boost Your Muscle Gains In Minimal Time!

How Long Before My Muscles are Recovered?

It
takes a muscle 7 to 10 days to fully recover naturally. Therefore,
training a body part twice a week is worthless. You will produce far
better results by training each muscle group once a week.

Other factors that affect recovery are adequate sleep, proper nutrition, and supplementation.

Sleep
is important for muscle growth and you should get a minimum of 8 hours
a night. Added power naps throughout the day are a benefit.

Nutrition
is important on the days you train, as well as the days off since
growth takes place away from the gym. Many people fail to make the off
training days productive by eating haphazardly. Your off training days
are just as important as your scheduled training days.

Rest Between Sets for Muscle Growth

Just
as resting between training sessions is important, so is resting
between sets. This is often neglected when it comes to recovery.

Lactic
acid is the little culprit that causes the soreness in your muscles the
days following training. It is also the burn you feel when you lift to
complete failure toward the end of a set, lessening your movement.
Because of this burn we tend to stop our session short or lighten the
load of our weights, cheating ourselves of a good workout.

For
indirect growth, you want to allow enough rest so that you are fully
recovered, but not to the point where you are cooling off. Therefore,
two minutes of rest works well for gaining mass, power, size, and
strength. If you start your next set before the two minutes, you can
lack strength and intensity. Save the short rest periods for your
"cutting phase" when your load is somewhat lighter and you are training
at a faster pace.

Fitfully Yours,
Karen Sessions NSCA-CPT
aka: MsFit

P.S. For additional ADVANCED female bodybuilding inforamtion, check out www.Iron-Dolls.Com!! When you have the raw and uncut facts, the rest is childsplay.

About the Author

Karen
Sessions has been in the fitness industry since 1988 and is a
multi-certified personal fitness instructor and specialist in
performance nutrition. She is a nationally qualified natural female
bodybuilder, holding numerous titles in the southern states including
two overalls.

Karen has written six eBooks
on fitness. She also writes articles for several fitness websites, and
distributes two monthly newsletters regarding weight loss and female
bodybuilding.

Karen
has helped hundreds of clients reach their goal of transforming their
body. Her success and success stories speak for themselves. www.Iron-Dolls.Com

**The
contents of this article should not be considered as medical advice.
You should consult a physician before starting a fitness program.

This
newsletter is protected by copyright, 2004, Karen Sessions, All rights
reserved. You may use this newsletter in your e-zine or website as long
as the copyright and links remain intact.**