strong lifts - does it really take you 45 minutes?
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LernRach
Posts: 286 Member
I have done Strong Lifts in the past, was successful but got pregnant, so I stopped. But now i have started again and have read up about it again. They are saying you should wait 2-4 minutes between each set of reps! Is that really necessary? Will it make my workout better if I do? If I'm feeling "ok" can I just wait a minute or thereabout? (I realise that as I increase the weights, I will probably need to increase the time in between to get my arms/legs to want to work again...)
Thank you
Thank you
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Replies
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The guy behind SL recommends either waiting until your pulse is back to normal or waiting 1.5 minutes if the set felt light, 3 minutes if it felt heavy or 5 minutes if you failed to get all 5 reps.0
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But from your experience, is that really necessary? I find myself standing around doing nothing for ages, feels like a waste... If it will make it a "better" workout, I suppose I will do it, but just wanted to find out0
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The point of the 2-4 minute range is to give the body some ability to recover ATP used for muscle contraction during the set. The best test results I have seen say it takes 10-12 seconds of rest for every second of work for the ATP cycle to occur. Since this is the short duration, high output energy pathway this is what you are trying to allow to recover. And it is the most applicable and best pathway for strength development. Generally you start SL at a low enough percentage of 1 RM you should be able to recovery quickly.
Rest as long as you feel you need to. You may even want to time your rest periods if you have not in the past. 120 seconds can go by very quickly. If you realize you are struggling to recover increase the rest period.0 -
Once the weight gets heavy you'll have no choice. But if you're just starting out and the weights are really light, I'd say start the next set when you feel ready for it.0
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The point of the 2-4 minute range is to give the body some ability to recover ATP used for muscle contractions. The best test results I have seen are it takes 10-12 seconds of rest for every second of work. Since this is the short duration, high output energy pathway this is what you are trying to allow to recover. Since you generally start SL at a very low percentage of 1 RM you should be able to recovery quickly.
Rest as long as you feel you need to. You may even want to time your rest periods if you have not in the past. 120 seconds can go by very quickly. If you realize you are struggling to recover increase the rest period.
Ok, so you are saying it makes sense that at the moment when I'm only doing 12.5kg or something like that, that my recovery time is quick, whereas in a month it will take me much longer to do?0 -
The heavier it gets the more likely you'll find the need to rest that long. It rests both your muscles and your central nervous system. I ran it for 25 weeks and couldn't finsh a full 5x5 without about 2-3 minutes between sets without my form breaking down. So by the end it was over an hour for the whole work out.0
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The point of the 2-4 minute range is to give the body some ability to recover ATP used for muscle contractions. The best test results I have seen are it takes 10-12 seconds of rest for every second of work. Since this is the short duration, high output energy pathway this is what you are trying to allow to recover. Since you generally start SL at a very low percentage of 1 RM you should be able to recovery quickly.
Rest as long as you feel you need to. You may even want to time your rest periods if you have not in the past. 120 seconds can go by very quickly. If you realize you are struggling to recover increase the rest period.
Ok, so you are saying it makes sense that at the moment when I'm only doing 12.5kg or something like that, that my recovery time is quick, whereas in a month it will take me much longer to do?
Yes, but I still think you should time the rest periods and make sure you are going short.0 -
The point of the 2-4 minute range is to give the body some ability to recover ATP used for muscle contractions. The best test results I have seen are it takes 10-12 seconds of rest for every second of work. Since this is the short duration, high output energy pathway this is what you are trying to allow to recover. Since you generally start SL at a very low percentage of 1 RM you should be able to recovery quickly.
Rest as long as you feel you need to. You may even want to time your rest periods if you have not in the past. 120 seconds can go by very quickly. If you realize you are struggling to recover increase the rest period.
Ok, so you are saying it makes sense that at the moment when I'm only doing 12.5kg or something like that, that my recovery time is quick, whereas in a month it will take me much longer to do?
Yes, but I still think you should time the rest periods and make sure you are going short.
Yes, time it. The SL app has a timer built in.0 -
The point of the 2-4 minute range is to give the body some ability to recover ATP used for muscle contractions. The best test results I have seen are it takes 10-12 seconds of rest for every second of work. Since this is the short duration, high output energy pathway this is what you are trying to allow to recover. Since you generally start SL at a very low percentage of 1 RM you should be able to recovery quickly.
Rest as long as you feel you need to. You may even want to time your rest periods if you have not in the past. 120 seconds can go by very quickly. If you realize you are struggling to recover increase the rest period.
Ok, so you are saying it makes sense that at the moment when I'm only doing 12.5kg or something like that, that my recovery time is quick, whereas in a month it will take me much longer to do?
Exactly this, but probably more like several months to half a year or so, depending. Go ahead and take less rest now but be aware that you'll need more once you start to use weights that "feel" heavier.0 -
When I started I took short rest periods, and the total workout took about half an hour. As the lifts got heavier, rest periods got longer, and it took about an hour. At that point, the workouts were just too long, so I dropped to 3x5 instead of 5x5.0
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Try super sets. It's will give your muscles the rest time while working another. No time wasted or feel like wasted time.0
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Lol correct! I don't actually know what super sets is but I know strong lifts has worked for me in the past so why not do it again!!
Thank you for your responses, I suppose I wil persevere, make sure I take a reasonable break and see what happens.... Time is of essence when I'm in the gym as I have a 7wk old baby so I need to make sure I use the short time I have wisely
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I don't know how big the effect is, but Mark Riptoe suggests that women need less rest between sets than men.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10269471/strength-training-for-women-rippetoe-article
At the same time, from experience I know that occasionally I need to really have some rest to catch my breath. So just wait for how long feels right to you.
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The point of the 2-4 minute range is to give the body some ability to recover ATP used for muscle contractions. The best test results I have seen are it takes 10-12 seconds of rest for every second of work. Since this is the short duration, high output energy pathway this is what you are trying to allow to recover. Since you generally start SL at a very low percentage of 1 RM you should be able to recovery quickly.
Rest as long as you feel you need to. You may even want to time your rest periods if you have not in the past. 120 seconds can go by very quickly. If you realize you are struggling to recover increase the rest period.
Ok, so you are saying it makes sense that at the moment when I'm only doing 12.5kg or something like that, that my recovery time is quick, whereas in a month it will take me much longer to do?
Exactly. Early on I waited about 60 seconds between sets and was out of the gym within 20 minutes.
6 months in I was waiting 3 minutes between sets regularly, and it took a lot longer!
In each instance I was waiting so long as I felt I needed to, just later on the lifts took so much out of me I needed real time to recover
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I don't know how big the effect is, but Mark Riptoe suggests that women need less rest between sets than men.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10269471/strength-training-for-women-rippetoe-article
At the same time, from experience I know that occasionally I need to really have some rest to catch my breath. So just wait for how long feels right to you.
Exactly. Take the time necessary to have a successful workout. You don't want to fail a set when an additional minute would have given you enough recovery to be successful. I understand time constraints and the need to get out of the gym but that is a balance that you will have to strike for yourself when the weights get heavier.
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Ok I will certainly take this all into consideration! Even as the weights increase now I can see it definitely takes me longer to recover then it did originally....0
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Right now I rest about 1.5-2 minutes between sets but I expect it to move to 2-3 as the weight increases.0
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Lift when your ready0
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