ULTIMATE GUIDE: REST TIMES BETWEEN SETS.
Original question from Ratel on Quora:
How much should I rest between sets of weightlifting? A rest break should take about a minute to optimize muscle growth, right?
Daaayum Ratel, MY BRUDDAH!
You're falling for the NO PAIN, NO GAIN myth, bruh— let's tackle this problem once and for all, but first.
For those of you that are in a hurry or are too lazy to stop and put that grey matter to use and fully understand how and why you rest between sets— REST 3-5 MINUTES— that’s a decent rule of thumb to go through your workouts resting probably enough.
Building muscle and strength is about the QUALITY of the set, and the quality of the set has absolutely nothing to do with how much your muscles are burning nor how fucking exhausted you're— it's just ALL ABOUT PERFORMANCE, BABY, so one goddamn minute ain't gonna cut it.
To determine how long you need to rest, you need to pay attention to THREE BASIC METRICS OF REST:
YOUR CARDIO.
YOUR MUSCLES LOCAL FATIGUE.
THE TOLL ON YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM.
You need to wait until you're not out of breath anymore, so your body has sufficient oxygen to perform— you need to wait until the sheer temperature and acidity of the muscle are back to the base level so you can do as many reps as optimal— you need to wait until your nervous system is sufficiently recovered to use the heaviest weights possible.
Before we move forward, let's tackle WHY not resting enough is suboptimal, and you've gotta understand that one's ability to recover between sets is HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL and TRAINABLE.
What you're doing by resting a single minute between sets is introducing METABOLIC CONDITIONING— which improves your overall fitness and athletic performance by increasing cardiovascular endurance and enhancing the body's ability to burn fat for energy— potentially reducing your rest times with a BIG CAVEAT— AT THE INTENSITY YOU'RE WORKING.
Essentially, you're becoming super efficient at performing AT THAT INTENSITY, and guess what? That's incredible for a fighter, for a Crossfiter, for sports performance in general, but for us mortals that are just trying to look J-J-J-JACKED, LEAN, & MEAN, it serves borderline no purpose whatsoever.
So, let's break this shit down.
THE TOLL ON YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM.
The first limiting factor that will determine how long you need to rest between sets is your NERVOUS SYSTEM— your brain's ability to recruit enough motor units to perform the lift— think about how many workers are going to be needed to get the job done, how many motor units are required to move that amount of weight.
If the answer is A LOT, to perform this squat, my nervous system AS A WHOLE will have to recruit as many motor units as possible, then you're going to need to rest A LOT to allow the nervous system to recover.
If the answer is not that much, to perform these biceps curls, my nervous system will use just a bunch of localized motor units on my biceps; as a whole, it's barely being taxed, then the nervous system isn't going to be a primary lifting factor to determine how much you need to rest.
The only tangible metric you can follow to know if you rested enough for your nervous system to recover is PERFORMANCE— you need to be able to move as much weight for a similar number of reps between sets; otherwise, your nervous system is not recovered yet.
If you go there, hit a set of six repetitions with 315lbs on the squat, and if in order to hit another set of six repetitions with 315lbs on the squat again, you need five, eight, TEN minutes of rest, SO BE IT.
Having your nervous system fully recovered between sets is particularly important if you want to progress your strength— which, by the way, is imperative for building muscle— you simply CAN'T build strength optimally if you're always lifting with an exhausted nervous system because all you're doing is lifting at 60% of the capacity your nervous system would have if fresh, but feeling like you're working at 110% capacity because you decided that that's how BEAST MODE looks like.
So if there's a big strength component to the lift you're doing— a squat, deadlift, row, leg press, anything really heavy— REST AS LONG AS YOU NEED TO DESTROY, as long as you need to move the heaviest weights possible, this might make your rest time between sets of an overloading exercise vary WILDLY between sets, and that's how it goes, take as much time as you need to give your best effort in the next set.
YOUR MUSCLES LOCAL FATIGUE.
The second limiting factor that will determine how long you need to rest between sets is your MUSCLE LOCAL FATIGUE - the buildup of metabolites and acidity in your muscle cells due to anaerobic contractions that result in increased blood flow and metabolic stress in the muscle worked, so think about the muscles involved in the exercise.
If the muscles involved in the exercise ARE BIG, your glutes, quads, pecs, lats, and traps— they'll require a bit more time to clear up the local muscle fatigue.
If the muscles involved are not that big OR perform specific patterns of motion that isolate them, like delts, biceps, calf, and triceps— they'll require a bit less time to clear up the local muscle fatigue.
This will allow you to maintain a high level of metabolic stress, which is essential for promoting muscle growth by increasing sarcoplasmic content within the muscle.
The tangible metric you can follow to know if you rested enough for your muscles to recover is REP PERFORMANCE - you want to be able to perform a similar number of reps with good form between sets to accrue to enough volume to stimulate hypertrophy while trying to keep your rest periods short and focus on performing each set with maximum intensity.
YOUR CARDIO.
The last limiting factor that will determine how long you need to rest between sets is your CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE— your heart's ability to pump blood, deliver oxygen and nutrients to working muscles, and remove waste products. Think about how quickly your heart rate increases and decreases after a set of heavy lifting.
If your heart rate is skyrocketing and it takes a long time to come back down, your cardiovascular system is being taxed a lot. In this case, you'll need to rest longer between sets to allow your cardiovascular system to recover.
On the other hand, if your heart rate barely increases and comes back down quickly, your cardiovascular system is barely being taxed.
The best way to determine if you've rested enough for your cardiovascular system to recover is by monitoring your HEART RATE— it should be in a similar range between sets, indicating that your cardiovascular system is ready for the next set.
If you find that your heart rate is still elevated after several minutes of rest, take as much time as you need until your heart rate returns to a more normal range. Remember, having your cardiovascular system fully recovered between sets is critical for optimal performance and progress in your lifting routine.
So if you're doing an intense lifting session that requires a lot of cardiovascular effort— like a high-rep circuit or a heavy lifting day with low rest periods— make sure you take the time to let your cardiovascular system fully recover between sets. Your progress and performance depend on it.
That's basically it; these are the main factors to evaluate how much you need to rest between sets when you're working towards GETTING BRICKHOUSE!
People usually start strength and hypertrophy training with a distorted perception of what it takes to progress, especially when they come from a running background.
They remain forever small because they simply can't understand that strength and hypertrophy work is pretty much LAZY WORK— most workouts are supposed to be easy, you don't kill yourself every set, that's just building too much fatigue, you rest as much as needed to perform a great set, and that might mean sitting on your ass doing nothing for 3-5 minutes, and you do just enough to generate a stimulus and GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE GYM & EAT.
3-5 SETS.
3-5 MINUTES REST.
3-5 EXERCISES.
That's a SOLID template the vast majority of lifters, beginners, intermediates, and even some advanced people can simply use as a rule of thumb.
The IDEAL is attacking the three-factor model EVERY SET, but sometimes we're just lacking brain power and focus on training optimally, and keeping that consistency in check by just punching the clock can be way easier with a simpler approach.
Yo, I hope I was able to chop the head off this Dragon once and for all.
If you need any clarification, just ask me in the comments, and I'll gladly elaborate further!
NOW GO BANG THAT IRON, MY BRUDDAHS!
STAY ON THE IRON PATH!
Big KISS
THE POTATO MAN