Scott I know in the book you give rest times. In the old serious growth the rest times changed and sets increased to build fatigue before pulling back. Do you think that rest time and volume is still a strong variable to include for progression or on the grand scheme of things do you think weight and or reps is still the best progression method. Thanks
CC,
Good Question! I'm not familiar with how rest intervals are altered to foster progression in Serious Growth, but this is certainly a factor that could be periodized.
A few other thoughts:
The rest intervals I have in the Basic and Turbo version (for Loading sets) are there as a compromise between allowing decent recovery, but also keeping workout times to a reasonable period of time, especially given that the Loading sets involve "zig-zagging" where you're alternating between isolation and compound movements. There's a practical limitation here if you're to hold on to more than one machine (which isn't always necessary - other story there), as well as to create the pre-fatiguing effect (e.g., but doing a knee extension just before squatting, to preferentially target the quads), so not having 7 minutes between sets makes sense, especially if you're someone who does better with the higher volume tiers.
The idea of progression / changing rest times is such that (as I understand it) one would presumably build fatigue resistance, for example by shortening rest intervals but maintaining load and reps performed. A strategy then of course would be to cycle back to shorter rest intervals and manifest the performance gains underlying the greater work (density) capacity by using higher loads (with longer rest intervals), only to start the process over again. Underlying this is kind of performance gain would be both greater muscle physiological cross-sectional area (size) as well as perhaps some metabolic changes (enzymes, myosin isoforms).
With FT, the other set types (Muscle rounds and Pump sets) are more metabolically engaging, and would presumably train those same underlying adaptations I mention above, with perhaps the advantage that one could target the relative focus on load vs. workload engagement under metabolical stress (higher rep sets) by choosing workloads for the Muscle rounds that were heavier vs. lighter (failing earlier vs. later in the MR's) as well as how one chooses to do the Pump sets (e.g., 15-20rep straight sets vs. 5's into the hole type sets with tons of partial reps, etc, lasting 60s or so).
So, to get at your question, the bottom line is that there will have to be some progressive form following function principle at work to evoke size gains such that the loads a/o reps get higher a/o the rest intervals are reduced.
For some - I think this works better for the more genetically gifted, where adaptation to the overload of weight training tends toward hypertrophy generally - this can happen with higher volume sets and lower rest intervals. The Tension is high (enough) and recovery abilities high enough to recover from the substantial stimulus of doing a TON of work. Think of a Pro who was not terribly strong, but did a ton of sets and looked ridiculous. Think perhaps Phil Heath, Flex Wheeler or maybe Paul Dillet here.
For others, where genetics are not as great, including recovery, the focus may need to really be on a progressive tensile stimulus - Heavier loads taken to extremes with very careful attention to total volume and recovery. Think Jordan Peters here.
Naturally, there are all kind of hybrid situations in between and the most incredible bodybuilders are often this who can get away with (at least for years) training with massive weights with high volume. Think the GOAT here: Ronnie Coleman.
As mentioned in a another thread, the guys at Oxygen work with pretty much the only genetic elite (check out the Muscle Minds Podcast where Brandon Curry came on and we talk about this). They go to town with tons of volume such that if you can't recover, you don't hang and aren't around too long. (These guys just don't train there that long...)) If you can recover, this means you're also reaping the crazy stimulus that comes with doing high volume ,lower rest interval (and heavy load) training: The greater the stimulus you can recover from, the greater the growth you'll get.
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So, in the grand scheme, I'd say that manipulating both rest interval and load / reps can be put to good use, but the context of the rest of training should be taken into account. (If a metabolic stress component is already in place, elsewhere, adding this to a training system by using short rest intervals and neglecting heavy loads wouldn't be my choice.)
For someone who is not making progress, has gotten really strong and has not tried training with "heavy" loads with shorter rest intervals, though, I'd say that this would be a wise way to introduce a novel stimulus to promote growth. This could be done with a daily undulating periodization or a linear periodization approach or anything in between.
-S
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