Back to Basics - Rest Intervals for Strength Cycle

[tahmad]

Hi All,

Going through my strength phase once again and have been thinking about the rest intervals.  In the RCTM, it notes that, for functional hypertrophy, you're generally aiming for 3-5 minutes of rest between sets.  I tried to find the specific rationale for why 3 minutes for the advanced hangboard protocol, but didn't find one.  So I'm curious - why 3 minutes as opposed to 4?  or 5?  

My assumption is that it has something to do with overall metabolic load*** - i.e. 3 minutes is long enough to recover substantially, but not enough to get back to 100%.  In other words, the climber is carrying over fatigue from set to set (and grip to grip) throughout a 6 grip/3 set each hangboard workout (Or at least I am, I am definitely not 100% recovered by the end of a 3 minute rest).  Point being, we desire this overall sustained/high metabolic load throughout the entire workout to get the best results in terms of hypertrophy.

The second question this leads me to is, is there a reason not to rest more between grips then?  I.e. lets say you rest the standard 3 minutes between each set of a given grip.  But then between grips, you rest for five or even more minutes to get complete recovery.  The downside of this is a lower overall metabolic load, I'd guess, if you are resting to total recovery.  But the upside is that you can probably put a higher load in terms of weight etc. on each individual grip.  Might this be more specific to the hypertrophy of that grip, since the joint angles only get trained within that 15 degree range on either side anyway?  And has anyone tried this?  If so, what sort of results did you see?

*** Side note - what is the actual definition of metabolic load we are using here?  I've always understood it as a specific sort of stress on your muscles, i.e. a consistent demand for anaerobic energy production, but I know this is a pretty simplistic/shaky definition.  The definitions from a simple google search are somewhat technical, so just curious to hear yall's thoughts on this.

Thanks for reading a long-winded theoretical question!

[dsm]

There is an old thread I remember reading discussing these issues. I found it. Here's the link: rockprodigytraining.proboards.com/thread/995/rest-4-min-3-grips

TLDR, the rest periods are set to produce a certain type of metabolic stress, and it's not clear what happens if you lengthen rests between grips and how that affects metabolic stress.

With re: to rests between grips, I do take a 4 minute break between my wide pinch grips because I only have one pinch block and I have a limited number of weight plates at home, so my non-working hand gets an extra minute rest while I'm working the other hand. Despite my 4 minute rest, my wide pinch is still the worst, most frustrating grip to improve.

[MarkAnderson]

When we started hanboarding we were resting 2 min between sets. I felt that wasn’t enough, so I increased it to 3, a relatively radical 50% increase. That seemed to do the trick, so I’ve never felt the need to increase further (though I occasionally cheat towards 4 if I can’t get everything rigged/taped/recorded in time).

My workout takes 80 minutes already, not counting warmup, supplemental exercises or transition time (easily 130 minutes with all that), so I’m disinclined to add another 20 or 40 minutes in extra rest when I know 3 minutes works just fine. Feel free to do whatever you want. I can guarantee you nobody knows what is optimal and I strongly suspect humanity will destroy itself long before anyone does.

[jetjackson]

Jul 4, 2018 18:43:41 GMT -7 @markanderson said:

...and I strongly suspect humanity will destroy itself long before anyone does.

Sheesh, that turned dark.

[tahmad]

Cheat towards four! I'm surprised, haha.

Well OK, interesting. DSM, thanks for the link, confirmed what I thought I'd read about overall metabolic stress. Perhaps if I feel I'm hitting a major plateau in my repeaters I'll try mixing things up and see what happens.

Thanks all!

[Chris W]

I had stagnated on most of my hangboard grips for over two full years and was beginning to wonder if I was doing something wrong. My outdoor climbing was improving, so I told myself not to worry about it and just trust in the process, keep working hard and improve areas that I knew needed work (like nutrition, obvious bodily weaknesses, etc).

Long story short, trusting in the process has been the right thing to do. This season (summer transition season) I've had an obvious qualitative and quantitative jump in my abilities. I matched or beat all my hangboard PB's and finally improved my campus ability on the small rungs. I'm bouldering stronger than before as well.

It's hard when you don't see improvement, but I'd vote for trusting in the training process and working hard.

[tahmad]

Word. Thanks for the testimonial! Gotta just stick with it sometimes.