Here are a couple of pics from today's workout.
What's the most important part of your workout for maximum muscle growth?
It's resting between sets.
In lots of instances, rest times are just way too short. I usually need at least two minutes of rest between sets. Today I needed about 5. It all depends on how fast you go to failure and how you feel on any given day. My point is that you need to rest as long as necessary to feel ready to give your full effort on the next set. As a newbie to the gym, all of this I'm learning as I go along. But I do recall the same thing applied when surfing bigger waves in Hawaii. On TV all they show are the surfers on the waves. But actually, about 90-95 percent of the time you are "surfing," you are actually either paddling out or sitting on your board waiting for a set of waves to arrive. And should you experience a wipe out, even more time is spent in swimming after your board. This means that only about 5-10 percent of your time out in the water is spent in actually riding waves. But that 5-10 percent makes all the rest of your day worthwhile.
Each person is different in their training styles and goals, but do keep an open mind when it comes to perhaps taking a bit more rest time between your sets, especially if your goal is to gain muscle to your God-given potential.