Personal Breaks During Exercise

Ashykins

Hello Everyone,

I just have a quick question? It is okay to take breaks during exercise? Say your exercising for 40 minutes is it okay to break in between that?

If anyone does takes breaks, how long do you allow yourself?


Thanks,
Ashton

stormieweather

I take 30-60 seconds in between sets (heavy weight lifting). I do not break in between cardio circuits. I like to keep my heart rate as high as possible, so I may do 20 minutes on the elliptical at max setting and walk straight to the rowing machine and burn it for another 20 minutes at max resistance.

knittygirl52

It's a double-edged sword. Your heart rate goes down so you don't burn as many calories. However, if you're gonna DIE, it's better to take a break and come back to it than to stop after 5 minutes and not come back to it.

madaquarist

I have taken breaks during my exercising, I haven't noticed any problems. With me it usually is only a few seconds to maybe 2 minutes. It all depends on what it is for. Extended breaks would be defeating the purpose. This is from someone who hates to exercise to start with anyways. Hope this helps.

balfonso

I just take 15-20 secs break between each sets and about 20secs-1min moving onto different machines at the gym [if they're free, might be less than that]. I like to keep my heart rate up when doing my circuit.

ivyjbres

I take a break and stretch whenever my muscles start feeling too tight. If I'm swimming laps I take a 30 second break after every lap, I have asthma and bronchitis; the pressure of the water around my chest makes it very difficult to breath faster or deeper when I need to.

Cina04

I take breaks...if I did Insanity w/o taking my own breaks I would die! LOL

Even Shaun T says to take a break when you need it (but it's not coffee break - it's meant to get that sip of water, wipe that sweat and get back into it)

robin52077

I take small necessary ones, yes...

for example, if on the treadmill and really have to pee then I'll jump of and run to the bathroom, go as fast a s I can, then run back to the treadmill,
or if in the middle of a cardio DVD, I'll take a drink of water, put my hair back up when my ponytail inevitably falls down, wipe the sweat out of my eyes or whatever, but I wouldn't PAUSE the DVD and let my butt hit a chair. I keep moving as much as possible.

Even during a DVD if I'm just not up to a certain exercise on a hard circuit, I'll skip it but keep moving. If Jillian thinks I should do Mountain Climbers or Burpees when I am already out of breath, I just tell the TV "NO way, you crazy b!tch" and just do buttkicks instead during that time, but don't just stand there and watch them do it!

blakejohn

are we talking weight training or cardio?