So you’ve just squeezed out another set. You’re feeling strong. Strong like bull. Pretty soon, your body is telling you it’s ready to go again; so you do. And so on. Nothing wrong here, right? Probably not, but – depending on what your goals are – there may also be an abject lack of anything right.
When it comes to rest periods, I see most people to be divided into two basic camps: those who adhere to a schedule and those who don’t. Even magazines like Men’s Health tell you that it takes 3-5 minutes to replenish ATP stores (of course, they usually gloss over where this is appropriate), so some people stick with those numbers – typically on the low-end. Other people hate sitting aroud and will pretty much lift again as soon as they think they can. I feel an example coming on . . .
We’ll take two guys with identical workout plans in terms of exercise selection and order. Guy A is sticking with the magazine-recommended rest period. Guy B hates sitting around, so he’s keeping things around a minute. Who’s right, who’s wrong?
“Both. Neither. Shit. Is this a trick question?”
Longer rest periods lend themselves better to strength development, so if Guy A has selected an appropriate intensity (something he can do five reps of or less ), his seemingly leisurely pace will pay off in an ability to lift those heavy-ass weights for multiple sets.
Shorter rest periods lend themselves better to conditioning or hypertrophy (I’ll leave the conditioning stuff for a future article). So if Guy B has decided to prioritize getting bigger, then he’d doing the right thing.
But wait! What if Guy A is lifting (relatively) light weights (say, something he can do more than 10 reps of)? Well, there’s a very simple answer to that: he’s making poor use of his time in the gym.
And what if Guy B is lifting heavy weights (something he can do no more than five reps of)? The forecast is no better.
The reason for Guy A’s inefficiency is that he’s not utilizing an intensity that maximizes strength. Don’t get me wrong; he’ll probably get stronger, just at a much slower pace than he could be. The truth is that he doesn’t need that much recovery time – his lifts just aren’t intense enough. Yet, at the same time, he’s not stimulating his muscles enough to faciliate much in the way of adaptive changes, so he won’t be putting on much size either. To sum up, Guy A is taking way too long to accomplish way too little.
Over to Guy B. The reason for his inefficiency is that even though the weights he’s selected are fine, he’s not resting long enough to be able to lift them repeatedly. In theory, this means he’ll fail at every set after his first. In practice, this usually translates to him dropping enough weight to lift again within his desired time period. And while this will help him put on some size, this may not be his goal . . . Especially if he’s a competitor trying to stay under a certain weight.
Is there a moral here? Yes. It’s that you need to examine your goals before you determine how long you should be resting.
Let’s make it easy and organize things according to goal
Objective Intensity Rest Period
Strength <6 reps 3-5 minutes
Strength/size 6-8 reps 2-4 minutes
Size/strength 8-12 reps 2-3 minutes
Strength endurance 12-20 reps 1-2 minutes
While this is far from being an all-inclusive list in terms of approaches and rest periods (among other things, it assumes a standard lifting cadence), it does provide a good general guideline for those sticking with the basics in terms of lifting. Here’s to not spending any more time in the gym than you need to!
