How long should you rest?

L

limited60

0
I am still trying to find that optimum amount of time to rest between sets. My goal is to increase strength and size, and I always train heavy (no light days, but I do light sets for warm up and burn out sets).
I have seen in Men's Fitness that 1 minute is great (or even less), and in Musclemag that 2 minutes is great.
Does resting longer aid recovery >> then allow heavier lifting to continue, or does a short rest stress the muscles more >> resulting in greater gains. I just want to maximize growth.
(FYI I use a slow and controlled tempo on every set)

TIA
Chris
 
I hate to say it, but it really depends on your goals? Since you are trying to get bigger, for hypertrophy you can rest up to three minutes between sets, which would also help you milk more out of each set.

I don't recommend going balls out every time though. You are only numbering your days before you get a shoulder or knee injury. Do some restorative workouts in there. Also, even for hypertrophy you don't absolutely have to do slow, controlled movements in every set. In fact, tempo may not deserve all the hype it gets.
 
A good rule of thumb for rest periods is that you should rest long enough so that you are able to do the same number of reps on each set. Another way to guage is to rest until your heart rate or breathing return to a certain level.
One technique to get long rest periods between sets without wasting a lot of time is to superset opposing body parts. That way you only rest 60 seconds between sets, but each muscle group gets 3 minutes of rest before being worked again.
I agree with JP, having learned the hard way by tearing both rotator cuffs, you need to do some restorative workouts where you concentrate on feel and form, do 12-20 rep sets and stop a couple of reps short of failure. You still should get a good pump form this workout, but it oes not stress you joints. That gives your connective tissue a chance to catch up to your muscles, since muscle tissue can get stronger much faster than connective tissue.
 
I sort of disagree. I believe that if you are working at 100% intensity, no matter how long you rest, with keeping the weight constant, your reps should decrease. My resting periods depend on how many reps I'm doing, and to what intensity level I'm going at.
scott
 
You can find tables that will give you a range of rest time for different reps. These tables have been formatted according to your body's physiological ability to "refuel". Very heavy lifting involves the phosphagen energy system, which uses ATP and creating as fuel. These can be replenished in 3-5 minutes, which is why the rest period you will find is in this range.

Generally, the higher the reps, the shorter the rest, the lower the reps, the longer the rest. ;)
 
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