Short or Long to get Strong Over 40?

​As I approach 43 years old, I am fitter and stronger than I have ever been. 11 years ago, I successfully lost 20kgs and I have never put back the weight since.

Its Gavyn here, co-owner of the Award Winning Growing Younger Fitness Studio in Howick New Zealand, and make it easier for people over 40 to finally lose weight and get fit.

This video is a personal experiment where I tested a longer rest periods against my usual short rest period during workouts to see if it made a difference in strength.

Traditionally I was always focused on fat loss and maintenance and never really tried to put a lot of focus into getting stronger. As such, my workouts have given me some good results but maybe not as good as I could have gotten.

I decided over new year 2021 to set myself a 6 challenge and test the theory of longer rest periods between sets and see if it made a difference.

I tested my 10 RM (how many reps I can do 10 times with a given weight) on the 31st December 2021 on the lifts I wanted to get stronger in.
Deadlift – 120kg for 8 reps
Bench Press – 75kg for 8 reps
Pull up – Added 10kg for 5.5 reps I retested on the 10th Feb and the results were incredible.

I improved in all lifts.

Deadlift – 120kg for 12 reps
Bench Press – 75kg for 11 reps
Pull up – Added 10kg for 9 reps The main reason that the long rest period helped me get stronger was

This is because much of the energy your body consumes during traditional strength training comes from the Adenosine Triphosphate Phosphocreatine system.

The ATP-PC system uses phosphagens to produce energy very quickly and without the use of oxygen.

Your body has a very small phosphagen reserve, which lasts about 15 seconds. It takes your body about 3 minutes to fully replenish phosphagen stores (Fleck, 1983).

In other words, if you give your ATP-PC system at least 3 minutes to recharge, you'll lift more weight and get stronger faster. And that’s what happened.

I followed a simple plan as follows

• Deadlift / Squat Pattern
• Bench Press
• Lat pull down / Pull up
• A row
• Shoulder press
• Curl
• Tricep Ext

​And I did this 3 times per week

You can check out the whole journey below and watch the 6 week process.

If you are over 40 and would like to get stronger why not  speak to one of our coaches by filling out this Form -  I Want to Get Stronger