how long would you rest between sets?

Neal_B

Do you always take the same amount of time between sets or do you just wait until you're comfortable and ready?
I pretty much always count 30 seconds between each set.

rccaulfield

Usually till get my breath back and or fully recovered. Depends on your goals!

Running Bing

I read shorter rests are better for building mass and longer for building strength.

I take full recovery which generally works out at about 2 minutes-2'30.

InKonspikuou2

Usually 2-3 minutes on the more heavier compound movements. I don't time it. usually just listen to my body and over time i've gotten used to knowing when i'm ready.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Well just to give you an example.

If I've sqauting I'll usually hit around 160+ beats per minute, I'll go again at 140 BMP. I haven't timed.

J-Fit

Depends on the training goal.

1 min for endurance
2 mins for hypertrophy
3-5 mins for strength and/or power

Inspector Coptoor

Neal_B wrote: »

Do you always take the same amount of time between sets or do you just wait until you're comfortable and ready?
I pretty much always count 30 seconds between each set.

How long is a piece of string comes to mind here.
I wait until i feel able to go for the next set.
could be 20 seconds, could be 2-3 minutes.
depends on the intensity, the lift you;re doing and the amount of weight being moved.

brianblaze

Neal_B wrote: »

Do you always take the same amount of time between sets or do you just wait until you're comfortable and ready?
I pretty much always count 30 seconds between each set.

Until I'm ready. Depends on what I'm lifting and what the goal is that day. Can be anywhere from 30 secs to 2 minutes. Unless it's TABATA Tuesday... I hate Tuesdays. :P

cardio,shoot me

ive never timed it, usually wait until i feel i can give it my all, probably varies from 45 seconds to 5-6 minutes

Brian?

It depends on the excercise and rep scheme really. If I'm doing 5x5 or 8x3 of squats, deadlifts or cleans its about 2 minutes I think. I think I'm pretty good at gauging when I'm ready to lift again as I don't miss lifts on the next set.

On other excercises I'm usually supersetting so there's only about 30 seconds of real rest eg. bench press, no rest, bb row, no rest, leg press 30 secs rest and repeat.

brianblaze

Depends who I'm texting in between sets...

LOL

(Disclaimer: I never bring my phone into the gym)

Transform

most beginners need more rest time and as you increase your conditioning you can pick up the pace - the vast majority of normal trainees in gyms that i see take farrrr to long to rest and do not use enough weight.

Lets not get started on rest time between sets of biceps curls please - just go do some press ups between sets of biceps curls if you really want to know what i would do. Squats, deadlifts etc are a whole different story

Neal_B

brianblaze wrote: »

Depends who I'm texting in between sets...

LOL

(Disclaimer: I never bring my phone into the gym)

HA! drives me nuts when ppl do that!

Based on what you all said, I havent really been giving enough time between sets. I'm not a big lifter or nothin, just a regular guy. 6'1" and bout 75 kg. Someone said 2 mins for hypertrophy. Is that just making your muscles look bigger?

J-Fit

Neal_B wrote: »

HA! drives me nuts when ppl do that!

Based on what you all said, I havent really been giving enough time between sets. I'm not a big lifter or nothin, just a regular guy. 6'1" and bout 75 kg. Someone said 2 mins for hypertrophy. Is that just making your muscles look bigger?

And be bigger.

Neal_B

But not necessarily that much stronger or more powerful??

d'Oracle

Does it really need to be this complicated?

How can something be as precise as 1min, 2 min or 3-5min?
Surely it depends more on what exercises you are doing?

OP what exercises are you doing?

J-Fit

Neal_B wrote: »

But not necessarily that much stronger or more powerful??

Definately stronger and more powerful but not quite so than if you had engaged in strength building methods. Bodybuilders tend to induce saroplasmic hypertrophy which is not usually accompanied by strength gains. Weightlifters and powerlifters attain myofibrilar hypertrophy which is. This is not clear cut though which is why bodybuilders still get crazy strong. Thats science for you.

d'Oracle wrote: »

Does it really need to be this complicated?

How can something be as precise as 1min, 2 min or 3-5min?
Surely it depends more on what exercises you are doing?

OP what exercises are you doing?

Because it is directly related to the level of blood lactate that has cleared by the time you decide to engage in your next set. 2 mins of rest in the 12 rep range will not allow for sufficient lactate clearence, thus the muscle must adapt at the local level (increased size) in order to continue exercising. 3-5 mins allows for sufficient lactate clearence, thus most gains are neural. It very much makes a difference but in practice both methods will make you big and both methods will make you strong. Depends what you value more.

EDIT: Also 2 min rest periods have also been associated with higher testosterone levels, meaning greater muscle growth.

Neal_B

I went to the gym today and instead of my usual wait of bout 30 secs i left a good 2 mins between sets. I must say, I noticed a big difference.
Cheers for the advice people

cardio,shoot me

this thread is full of so much sh1te its unreal, altho i agree what transform said.

Hanley

OMFG... what a load of crap.

If you're doing compound movements, rest as long as you need (ie until you feel ready again).

If you're doing isolation type exercises, go back in after 1-2 minutes.

Some days you'll be ready to go sooner, some days you'll need a bit longer. It depends on about 1,000,000 factors so trying to give blanket recommendations is absolutely retarded.

Like everything fitness related - it depends.

J-Fit

To be fair lads its not a load of crap. Its real, like it or not. Most of you have the intuition to go in and out of your working sets as you see fit but this guy asked a question and he was given an answer. Science is not the be all and end all but it forms the basis for what all of us are doing. Most people take the correct amount of rest by default but to just then come along and rubbish it all because it was more detailed than you care to ever even think about is not cool. Honestly, bang out a 5 rep max on a squat and try and go back in after one minute. You know what happens. Rest, like everything else in the training programme matters. You wouldn't attempt to get strong with 30% of your 1 rep max.

Transform

the point is man that most do not train with enough intensity to warrant long breaks and those that are training hard know their body well enough to know how long to rest.

Next people are going to talk about doing timed reps.

The vast majority of people need to focus on getting the basics right NOT worry about rest times of which as i mentioned most take farrr too long as they are still stuck on their body part split programs (or worse doing cardio only) rather than focusing on working the legs in most sessions (this is for the average 'i want to get in shape and drop the fat' client).

And for the record interval training is associated with hgher testosterone levels which has shag all recovery time.

Mix it up of course but for me intensity is key and for one session per week work to your absolutle limit because you cant do this in every single session.

J-Fit

Transform wrote: »

And for the record interval training is associated with hgher testosterone levels which has shag all recovery time.

Also for the record, so are rest periods of 2 mins between loading parameters of 12 reps of 75% of ones 1rm max. But then it depends on the journal you read doesn't it.