Rest period between sets

StephieAmber

Hi all

Just wondering how long y'all rest in between sets. I'm doing some circuit training, so compound strength training exercises and interval training. My sets are a minute long, but I don't know how long to rest in between. When my trainer is there I don't pay attention because she just tells me when to move on to the next set, but when I"m working on my own I get easily confused how long I should rest. She's away on vacation right now, so I figured I'd ask the next best - you guys

How long do you rest between sets?

jenneyd

dummies.com has this suggestion, which goes along with what I have read in fitness magazines.

Weight Training: Knowing How Long to Rest between Sets
By Suzanne Schlosberg and Liz Neporent

The amount of rest you take in between sets during a weight lifting routine is a variable that you can toy around with. In general, you should follow these guidelines when strength-training:

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If you’re a beginner, rest about 90 seconds between sets to give your muscles adequate time to recover.
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As you get in better shape, you need less rest — only about 30 seconds — before your muscles feel ready for another set.

If you follow a chest exercise with, say, a thigh exercise, you typically need less rest than if you do consecutive exercises for the same muscle group, such as two chest exercises in a row.

After the first few weeks of training, you can fine-tune the amount of rest you take between sets according to your goals. If you’re using really heavy weights and doing fewer reps in order to bulk up, you can take up to 5 minutes between sets so that your muscles can pump out their greatest effort each time.

If you’re short on time or you like a fast-paced workout, try circuit training: You move quickly from exercise to exercise with little or no rest at all. Circuit training does a decent job of building strength, and can be a good substitute for an aerobic workout, especially if you start and end with a fairly long aerobic warm-up and cooldown.

Azdak

It depends on the goals of your program and the type of lifting you are doing.

If you are doing a metabolic/depletion type of circuit, then the goal isn't primarily to build strength, but to work at a high intensity. For that type of workout, rest time should be brief. For example, in the circuits I do, I like to organize them around groups of 4 exercises, which I do without stopping in between--just the time it takes to move between stations. That takes about 3:45. Then I rest -- either do some ab or back work or set up the next group of 4 exercises, or, at the end just walk around sucking air, for 60-75 sec. Then repeat. But I find if I do a stead diet of those workouts, my strength levels for traditional exercises (bench, squat, etc) drop notably. And that routine is not a great muscle builder.

For a traditional lifting program, rest periods are inversely proportional to intensity. So, if you are doing 12-15RM sets, you might only need a max of 60 seconds. At 2-4RM, you might need at least 4 min.

StephieAmber

Great information! Thank you so much!!