👟 Chilled Gains

Good morning, and welcome to the first edition of The Pump — your personal fitness chauffeur. In today’s edition:

• Why PRs Need Rest ⏸️

• Nope, Microtears Don't Really Matter 🤯 

• The Cold Secret to Muscle Growth ❄️

• Meme of the Day🤣

Have a great one. We’ll see you back here Monday morning.

—Keshav Khaneja and Shaun Abram

Research Roundup

🔬 Your PRs Need Rest

A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research looked at how rest intervals between sets affect strength gains.

Researchers divided dudes into two training groups and had them train 3x/week for 8 weeks.

One group rested 1 minute between sets while the other rested 3 minutes.

After 8 weeks — the longer rest group gained way more strength (their max squat and bench press shot up 15-25 lbs more than the short rest group).

The reason:

More rest allows your muscles to recover fully between sets. This lets you lift heavier weights each set. Lifting heavier = bigger strength gains over time.

The Takeaway:

• Resting 3-5 minutes between heavy lifts allows better strength development over time. And longer rest leads to higher quality reps for each set.

• Aim for 1-2 minute rests on lighter exercises like curls. Go for 3-5 minutes between heavy compounds like squats. Vary it for overall muscle and strength adaptation.

Trivia Time

Which Muscle Makes Up Over 25% of Total Muscle Mass in the Human Body?

Answer at the bottom. (Hint: Kim Kardashian's best asset)

Gainbusters

Biggest muscle-building myth… ever

Welcome to today’s dose of Gainbusters, where we bust myths that claim to help you gain muscle and give you the cold hard truth.

Today we got a popular one: Lifting weights will get you girls. Microtears in muscle fiber are the primary stimulus for muscle hypertrophy.

Let’s dive in…

Myth: You’ve probably heard that microtears in muscle fibers are the key driver of hypertrophy. At least, that is what these two videos with over 40M combined views suggest…

The story goes like this: when you lift weights, you create small tears in the muscle fibers that your body then repairs, building the muscle bigger and stronger.

Truth: Microtears DO NOT Stimulate Hypertrophy. In fact, some studies even suggest too much muscle damage can hamper your gains.

Why?

• Shorter rest periods between reps cause more muscle damage… yet we know that it is longer rest periods that produce more hypertrophy.

• For microtears to be the key factor, you would expect to see greater gains at high rep ranges.

The final nail in the coffin — muscle damage from microtears peaks 24-48 hours after a workout. But protein synthesis is elevated from 24-72 hours. This timing mismatch suggests microtears are not the key driver.

The KEY is mechanical tension 🔑 

This tension signals your body to synthesize more muscle proteins (aka MPS), which allows the muscles to adapt and get bigger over time.

TLDR: Microtears happen, but they don't drive the gains train. Just focus on keeping the tension high through hard training and progressively overloading.

🔗 Snippets

Research: Taking cold showers after weight training may boost muscle growth by increasing satellite cell activity. Brr! 🥶 

Stat: 48-72 hours. That’s how long it takes the glutes to fully recover after intense training. Make sure to space out your glute sessions!

Watch: Doing exercises by their literal name… (glad she didn't do deadlifts though 💀)

Meme of the day

🤣 “wE aRe rEbelS”