Hi CT,
I am hoping you will shed some light on this for me.
In one of your recent posts, you made a comment eluding that 3-minute rest periods may be beneficial for weight training. And Paul Carter has been touting this for hypertrophy for quite some time.
I am using the Modified Hatfield Split and I tried this suggestion this morning and my workout (20 sets, 6-8 reps) lasted an 1:25 hours, as opposed to my usual 0:55.
I remember reading somewhere that workouts lasting this long were not good as workouts lasting much over an hour cause a big increase in cortisol.
So, I am confused.
Do the longer rest periods benefits outweigh the rise in cortisol? or negate it? Or is this not true?
or…?
Thanks in advance!
Ok, the length of the workout has NOTHING to do with cortisol.
VOLUME does.
The time spent in a building called THE GYM doesn’t release cortisol (unless being there in itself causes you stress). Saying that you produce more cortisol from “longer” workouts simply comes from the fact that, typically, a longer workout has more VOLUME.
But if you do, for example, 5 sets in 2 hours (which is a very lazy workout) you will release a shit ton LESS cortisol than if your workout has 30 sets in 30 minutes.
Longer rest periods are actually something that LOWERS cortisol and adrenaline.
The variable that influence cotisol in training are: volume, effort level (how hard your push your sets), psychological stress, neurological demands, training density and training competitiveness.
There is no temporal factor.
5 Likes
This is why I reached out to you as none of that was making any sense. You are great at clarifying the false information out there.
It’s hard with so much false and/or conflicting information right at our fingers tips. Your insight, assistance, and inspiration is greatly appreciated!