Many factors are taken into consideration to create the best workout for your fitness goals. You probably know that it’s important to choose the right weight to lift and follow a specific rep and set plan. However, when doing strength training, you also need to know how much rest time you should take between sets.
Trevor Thieme from CSCS explains, “Rest allows you to recover between exercises, allowing you to maintain a high level of performance and optimize your results. It’s important to tailor your rest to your goals.”
Follow these recommendations for how long to rest between sets to maximize the benefits of strength training.
Rest time between sets to build muscle
Weight: 70-80% of up to 1 rep (1RM)
manager: 6～12
set: 3～6
Rest between sets: 30-90 seconds
The ideal rest time between sets for hypertrophy (muscle growth) is between 30 and 90 seconds.
“This allows you to maintain high levels of performance while maintaining sufficient levels of mechanical and metabolic stress to optimize muscle growth,” Thiem explains.
Rest time between sets to increase strength
Weight: 80-90 percent of 1RM
manager: 6 pieces or less
set: 2-6
Rest between sets: 3 to 5 minutes
The heavier you lift (especially with compound lifts like squats and deadlifts), the longer you need to rest to allow your muscles to recover. This is because during these exercises the body uses the anaerobic energy system, which can only be performed for short periods of time and requires longer recovery time between exercises. But listen to your body.
“If you’re new to exercise, you probably don’t need to take a five-minute break,” says Chris Gagliardi, ACE-certified personal trainer at CSCS. So You need to expend a lot of energy during a set to fully recover and prepare for the next set. ”
Rest time between sets to increase muscular endurance
Weight: 60-70% of 1RM
manager: 12 or more
set: 2-3
Rest between sets: within 30 seconds
When training for muscular endurance, Gagliardi says, you’re likely lifting relatively light weights, so you can take relatively short rest periods. Also, when you’re aiming for endurance, you’re training your muscles to work longer, so moving quickly between sets is beneficial.
Rest time between sets to lose weight
Weight: 70-80% of 1RM
manager: 6～12
set: 3～6
Rest between sets: 30-90 seconds
Thiem says the amount of time you rest between sets for weight loss is the same as the amount of time you rest between sets for muscle growth. The number of reps and sets are also the same, but for two reasons:
“You can build more muscle and maximize the afterburn effect, which is the sustained increase in metabolism as your body recovers after a workout,” Thiem explains. Read: Burn more calories and accelerate weight loss.
How much rest time should you take between sets to learn perfect form for new movements?
Weight: body weight
manager: 10 or more
set: 2 or more
Rest between sets: 30-90 seconds
If you’re new to weightlifting and want to focus on perfecting your form and building a solid fitness foundation, skip the iron and start with just your own body weight.
“You need to learn the movements properly before adding weight,” says Gagliardi. Although you can rest for up to 90 seconds between sets, bodyweight training is less intense than weighted training, so you may need less downtime to recover between sets.
Tips and suggestions for rest between training sets
Here are some things to keep in mind and pitfalls to avoid while working out.
1. Measure time
Thiem says to keep your rest times accurate between sets, time your workouts using what works best for you. It could be your watch, your phone’s timer, or your wall clock.
2. Avoid long breaks
Don’t wait so long between breaks that your heart rate and body temperature return to normal resting levels. If you’re observing these rest times and still experiencing this, it’s probably a sign that you need to increase the intensity of your reps.
3. Make sure you choose the right weight
When it comes to strength, be careful about the weight you choose. If you want to build muscle, make sure you can only lift that weight a maximum of 12 times. Don’t choose your weight It was done According to Gagliardi, perform only 12 of 15 repetitions of a lift.
If you don’t, you won’t be able to push yourself as hard as you can and the path to your goal will become even longer.
4. Recover fully
“This is difficult for some people because they always want to be intense,” Gagliardi says. “But you don’t want to compromise your workout by not recovering between (workouts).” Keep in mind that muscle and strength gains occur between workouts, not during them.
5. Consider active rest
“If your goal is muscular endurance or weight loss, staying active between sets can improve your endurance and burn more calories,” Thiem says. You do this by performing exercises that target “non-competing” muscles during your main exercise breaks (such as jumping rope between bench press sets).
