Is rest the best for recovery?

[Dastardly]

Recently I have been avoiding any exercise other than my barbell training. This is both in the hope of helping recovery and for not unnecessarily burning precious calories.

This differs quite greatly since before this winter, when I was doing a lot of cycling and a lot of general active messing around with skateboarding, basketball etc..

For the past 3-4 months I have however been doing NOTHING but the barbell training sessions. I have also ramped up my eating to as much as I can financially and volumetrically manage.

I was just wondering if this is the best course of action? It hasnt actually helped my progress much. When I was doing a lot more and eating less I was progressing faster but it may just have been due to being more of a beginner. But I am finding endurance harder definitely, in terms of higher heartrates kept for longer and the feeling of higher alertness/more energy.

I also have more persistent aches & pains now than when being a lot more active.

What have your experiences been?

Does regular participation in other sports/activity actually work better than doing nothing else?

[BruteForce]

Recently I have been avoiding any exercise other than my barbell training. This is both in the hope of helping recovery and for not unnecessarily burning precious calories.

This differs quite greatly since before this winter, when I was doing a lot of cycling and a lot of general active messing around with skateboarding, basketball etc..

For the past 3-4 months I have however been doing NOTHING but the barbell training sessions. I have also ramped up my eating to as much as I can financially and volumetrically manage.

I was just wondering if this is the best course of action? It hasnt actually helped my progress much. When I was doing a lot more and eating less I was progressing faster but it may just have been due to being more of a beginner. But I am finding endurance harder definitely, in terms of higher heartrates kept for longer and the feeling of higher alertness/more energy.

I also have more persistent aches & pains now than when being a lot more active.

What have your experiences been?

Does regular participation in other sports/activity actually work better than doing nothing else?

It depends entirely on your training goals. Is rest, recovery, and your food important? Yes, more than any other aspect of your training.

If your goal is to become as strong as you can in the weight room as fast as you can, then yes, you should do nothing but train the weights. If your cardio is suffering and you are worried about it, do some cardio every day, if you wanna play a sport, cut back on the weights and play your sport.

You need to define your goal if you would like specific advice, but the simple answer to your question is yes, rest is just as important for recovery as is your diet.

brute

[msingh]

If your goal is to become as strong as you can in the weight room as fast as you can, then yes, you should do nothing but train the weights. If your cardio is suffering and you are worried about it, do some cardio every day, if you wanna play a sport, cut back on the weights and play your sport.

Dont know about that. The guys who do best on these boards seem to incorporate a good amount of conditioning work in addition to strength training. They're quite fit. Not doing conditioning work might help you get 70sbig (ha), and i'm sure it leads to longer rest periods between sets (10 minutes bro for heavy presses), but i'm not sure that's such a great thing.

[Mr.City]

Your spiel is getting old, Msingh. Your argument is nothing but hearsay and your complaints stem from not following the proper nutritional guidelines, not the program itself.

[Mr.City]

Dastardly, could you give a typical day of eating for you? Also ,how much sleep?

[msingh]

Getting old? As far as I know that was the first time someone has made a link between the typically long rest periods of people training according to the ss.com principles and poor conditioning. It makes sense that as guys go months without doing anything but lifting and dont work on their conditioning, eat to grow much fatter, that their rest periods between sets go up from poor conditioning

[Dastardly]

I want to focus absolutely on strength. I do not care about cardio/endurance fitness unless it affects the lifts.

I only mentioned the endurance thing because I noticed it slightly. I can feel this quite strongly on my power cleans (actually hang cleans) where I am making little progress and just ending up rather tired. I cannot clean anymore now than I could do during the summer. It hasnt really moved on.

I may just be imagining it, but I feel that I used to have a lot more energy over many more sets than I do now. Was working with 5x5 last year and never felt "too tired" to be explosive for cleans. I was also doing more exercises. This may be the weather or other factors. But I feel it is a possibility that I was riding my bike hard in the summer.

What is more important to me is how it affects muscle recovery. Will doing more moderate exercise help me progress squat, deads, press & bench better? Or is NO physical activity really the best option here.

[Mr.City]

Have you ever given thought of the conditioning work created by the strength exercise itself? While not incredible, SS does improve conditioning somewhat.

[PVC]

Have you ever given thought of the conditioning work created by the strength exercise itself? While not incredible, SS does improve conditioning somewhat.

(for an unconditioned individual)

[msingh]

Have you ever given thought of the conditioning work created by the strength exercise itself? While not incredible, SS does improve conditioning somewhat.

Maybe it's better than NOTHING. but that's not saying much.