In this blog post I will talk about how long you should rest between sets when you are working out.
It starts with your goals.
How long you take to rest depends on what type of workout you are doing. We are going to look at 3 different workouts below:
*Disclaimer: These rules are not set in stone. Look at them as just rough guidelines that you can use for your training.
For strength workouts rest 1-5 minutes between sets
If your goal is to get stronger you should lift 3-5 sets of 3-5 repetitions per set.
Doing heavy weight for low repetitions is how you get stronger.
If you are doing heavy weight you must take longer to rest between sets. The endurance shouldn’t be a part of it.
During strength workouts your main goal is to rest enough to complete the next set. If you fail a set because you are too tired that is slowing down your strength development.
For Hypertrophy (building size) workouts you can rest 30-60 seconds between sets
For regular bodybuilding purposes I would recommend 30-60 seconds of rest between sets.
You don’t want to cool down too much and you want to keep pumping for most of your gym session.
To build muscle your focus should be on perfect form and contracting the muscle as hard as possible.
In this situation you usually won’t need to rest more than 60 seconds.
For Fat Burning and Endurance workouts you can rest from 0-60 seconds between sets
If you are training to improve your endurance (for example to have more gas in a sport) then you should minimize the rest.
For cardio and fat burning workouts you should be exercising at a fast pace and minimizing rest.
I tell this to my boot camp members all the time:
If you are a bit out of breathe – it’s usually OK to continue. If you feel dizzy, light headed, or sick – take a rest break.
Take the above “rules” as suggestions if they can help your training. They are not set in stone at all and there can be lots of overlap.
Main Points
For Strength workouts rest 1-5 minutes between sets
For Hypertrophy (building size) workouts you can rest 30-60 seconds between sets
For Fat Burning and Endurance workouts you can rest from 0-60 seconds between sets
If you have any comments or questions or if you disagree I would like to hear it. Please post your comments below.