Q: The [Old Man Young Muscle 2] leg-day workout only takes me 35 minutes. Love it, but I sometimes have trouble catching my breath with 20-second rests. Not on everything. The main problem occurs when I do gluteal pull-throughs, rest 20 seconds, then do a Speed Set of DB squats. Can I take a longer rest?
A: By all means, rest longer. You don’t want to terminate your squat set way early due to cardiovascular failure…
That would short-circuit optimal fast-twitch activation, the very thing the short rest is designed to trigger…
If you’re breathing like a locomotive when you start your squats, you won’t tap into a maximum number of high-growth fibers before failure; however…
You do want somewhat labored breathing when you start the squats. The goal is to have the slow-twitch fibers fatigue early due to oxygen debt…
That’s so the target muscle shifts to fast-twitch early and through most of your squat reps…
Slow-twitch fibers generate ATP for power via aerobic metabolism—with oxygen…
Once those fibers crap out, the fast-twitch fibers take over. They create ATP through anaerobic glycolysis…
In other words, fast-twitch do NOT require oxygen to fire. They are more glucose fueled…
Try 30 seconds between sets. If you still have trouble, extend it to 40—but that should be the limit. Gradually work down from there.
Check out the study that opens Chapter 7 of OMYM2. It compared standard longer rests vs. drop sets vs. 20-second rests—with volume equated.
It showed that the 20-second-rest group got slightly better muscle growth than either of the other two, and with much shorter workouts…
You should be able to handle 20-second rests on most of your STX sequences. Keep in mind that pull-throughs and squats are two compound, large-muscle moves, so that STX sequence is much more cardio demanding.
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