question on rest minutes between sets

siehatsdrauf

hey everyone!

I'm doing a programm called "100 push ups" ( I found it on this site: http://www.hundredpushups.com/ )

anyways you do 5 sets and in between the sets you have to rest for one minute. the next time you do the workout, the rest time adds up to 90 seconds and I've seen days where you have to rest for two minutes.

I don't know how to describe my question and I feel kinda silly to ask this:
believe me, I am exhausted after one set but I don't really know what to do! If I lay down for a minute I'm starting to get cold because of the sweat on my skin. but I don't want to do an additional exercise during my rest because I really have to push through the push ups and need to save my strength for the "real" exercise. so today I just started to dance around until the time was over and I was able to do the next set :laugh:

do you have any ideas what to do in the meantime?

krstfolo

Rests are built in to programs depending on the goal. Longer rests are designed for strength gain, the reason being that your muscles are given the chance to fully recovered so you are going in fresh and can go heavier than if you were going in fatigued. So in the case of the pushups, they are giving you a full recovery period so that you can do the next required set with the same ability as the first and so on without being fatigued. Shorter rest periods are designed more for working in an exhausted state and keeping your heart rate up. You obviously noticed a performance difference between a set after a shorter rest than a longer.

Pushups are a full body though so every other exercise you do is going to impact that. If you just feel like you get to cold in between, you can do light movements and stretches to keep warm. Arm circles, swings, etc will all keep you moving and not make you go cold. Just moving around a little as well, I wouldn't just lie on the floor.

siehatsdrauf

thank you!