Recovery Question

[Spoon's]

Please only people that know what they are talking about try to answer this question. Anyone else can feel free to coment.

Ok, After an intense workout of training to failiure/hypertrophy, you are supposed to put 3 days min, between body parts. My question, If you do light workouts on rest days, going for a pump and nothing more, not much work involved. Will this increase recovery time.

My reason for thought is because when you have a pump your muscles are soaked in blood, and your blood has nutrients. So doesnt it make you think that if your muscles are soaked in nutrient, protien riched blood for the whole day, that you would grow and recover faster. And because your not realy working the muscle, its not getting damnaged.

For instance if i worked my chest one day doing heavy sets, and the following days just do like 20 pushups every half hour to keep a constant supply of blood flowing to my chest. That i would recover faster, and grow more?

[Diesel4958]

I would be one of the people that "don't know what I'm talking about" so you can disregaurd this entirely. But, although your arguement sounds like it'd make sense I don't think it'd be worth it. The changes you may, or may not see will be minute at best, and for all the effort it seems rather pointless to me. Also not everyone needs three days rest. I think the changes one would see would also depend on the person and their body. Also if this was such a great way to gain mass, and strength, wouldn't everyone be doing it? Those are my two cents.

[Spoon's]

oh i know. but i remember reading an artical on NO2 and how it works, if you dont know it gives you a good pump, and makes it last longer, so your muscles absorb more nutrients, hence gaining strength, recovery, and size advantages. So i just put two and two together and thought mabe if you just maintained a constant pump all day every day, than good things would happen.

[Cburylax]

Ok, After an intense workout of training to failiure/hypertrophy, you are supposed to put 3 days min, between body parts. My question, If you do light workouts on rest days, going for a pump and nothing more, not much work involved. Will this increase recovery time.

My reason for thought is because when you have a pump your muscles are soaked in blood, and your blood has nutrients. So doesnt it make you think that if your muscles are soaked in nutrient, protien riched blood for the whole day, that you would grow and recover faster. And because your not realy working the muscle, its not getting damnaged.

For instance if i worked my chest one day doing heavy sets, and the following days just do like 20 pushups every half hour to keep a constant supply of blood flowing to my chest. That i would recover faster, and grow more?

The reasoning behind your idea is sound, give it a try.

Don't be suprised if it leads to overtraining though, especially if you're experiencing DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness for people that don't know), which should be happening more regularly than not. This is a sign of a good periodization (defined: varied and constanly changing)* program.

Also, the pump you'd get from a light workout wouldn't be as long as is probably needed to have any sustained effect. NO2 is supposed to prolong the pump for hours, but it is also supposed to stimulate hemodilation, protein synthesis, & protein and carb receptors on the cell walls, etc, effects you can't exactly duplicate with weights and a "natural" pump.

I'd suggest eating properly after you workout, ie getting a good source of protein, carbs, and liquid within 20-90mins, and getting enough rest. Lay off the NO2 until more studies are out there, we just might see someone pass out at the Olympia from a coronary...

C


*I'll try to explain any jargon that I use so that everyone can understand, RYU pointed this out in another forum.