How much rest between sets: strength, mass or endurance?

Restoring the body between approaches

There are three types of recovery:

1. Extra urgent
2. Short term
3. Long-term

Ultra-urgent is the restoration of the body during training.

There is a direct connection between the length of pauses between sets during training and the speed of recovery.

After performing a strength exercise, recovery processes immediately begin in the human body. They concern both the working muscle and the whole body:

1. Decomposition products - metabolites (for example, lactic acid) are removed from the muscle.
2. The energy reserves of the muscle cell are replenished and restored. The fastest resource here is creatine phosphate

But the problem is that muscles and energy systems are restored unevenly. Therefore, the duration of pauses has to be chosen on the basis of the arithmetic mean.

REST BETWEEN SETS AND MUSCLE GROWTH

For many years I have been developing individual training programs for home and for the gym. I try to paint them in great detail and meticulously, down to the smallest detail. But at the same time, I never specify exactly how much rest between approaches. Because the answer to this question will be different for each of us and it will depend on a dozen parameters. What does science think about this and what kind of rest between approaches is ideal when gaining weight, let's figure it out together. The most interesting things about training and sports nutrition on my telegram channel https://t.me/bestbodyblog

What is the relationship between a break between sets and a specific goal?

They are directly connected. The answer to the question of how long you need to rest between approaches depends primarily on your own well-being and the training task. If we put together the scheme accepted in modern bodybuilding, this is what comes out:

• Strength training – rest 3 minutes
• Mass training – rest 1 minute
• Weight loss workout – 20-30 seconds

I'm sure you all know these numbers, but in fact, for a long time they were based only on habits developed over the years. And in some ways they really correspond to reality, because when working with a heavy barbell we are simply forced to take long pauses between sets. But the fact that during the period of weight gain the minute time interval is the best turned out to be a fiction.

In 2014, the journal Sport Medicine published the results of a study by two scientists, Menno Henselmans and Brad Schonefeld, on the topic: “The influence of rest time between sets on resistant muscle hypertrophy.” It described the following experiment: a group of 42 men was divided into two equal subgroups.

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Each of them trained for a month, performing 7 exercises (basic and isolated) in one session at the rate of 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions. They trained in a three-day split, that is, after a day of training followed by 1-2 days of rest. The difference in the training of these groups was that the first rested 3 minutes between sets, the second - 1 minute. What did the results of the experiment show? The first group, in comparison with the second, added:

• In strength indicators in the bench press and squats by an average of 20-24%.
• In gaining mass of all muscle groups, (especially the chest and legs) by an average of 9-14%

The increase in strength with increased rest time was expected, but the increase in muscle mass against this background came as a surprise to many. True, if you think about it, there is nothing extraordinary in this - more rest - more working weight of the apparatus - more muscle stress - more testosterone - more muscles.

Note:

For me, the Henselmans-Schoenefeld research came as a surprise, but for a different reason. I am used to working on weight using the split method (when one large muscle group and one small one are pumped in one session).

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GERMAN NIGHTMARE And these athletes worked out in a circular pattern (fulbadi), while they pumped their legs in every lesson. What does this mean? Even such a training scheme gives tangible results in gaining body weight with accentuated pumping of the lower body.

Conclusion:

The greatest effect in the growth of muscle mass comes from strength training with an average (8-12) number of repetitions and rest between sets of exercises for up to 3 minutes.

Despite the results of the experiment described above, I propose to take a closer look at the different types of training and the recommended duration of rest, and figure out where is the plus and where is the minus?

How much rest between weight approaches?

Plus:

blood will not leave the working muscle group, as happens with longer pauses between approaches. Performance will practically not decrease, since the level of lactic acid will not rise as high as when working with shortened rest periods.

At the same time, the nervous system will have time to rest well. Therefore, with such breaks between sets, you can perform exercises without significantly reducing the amount of working weight. And, most importantly, steadily gain muscle mass.

Minus:

Long pauses lead to an increase in the duration of the lesson. If you consider that a workout aimed at mass needs to be done in 45-55 minutes, this means that the compilation of a set of exercises must be approached very carefully and include the most difficult basic exercises. And warming up before training needs to be given increased attention, because performing basic movements greatly loads the body’s articular-ligamentous system.

Conclusion:

increasing rest between approaches leads to an increase in working weights, which means that in addition to the chances of muscle growth, the chances of getting injured also increase.

How much rest between approaches to terrain?

I don’t like the expression training for relief, because in order to increase muscle detail you must first simply lose weight. It is in this spirit that I propose to consider a training style with breaks between approaches reduced to a minimum. What is the point of such a reduction?

• First.
  Increasing the volume of work completed during training. If when working for mass you can perform 16-20 approaches per session, then in this case it’s already 24-26, albeit with a lower working weight.
• Second
  . Increased calorie consumption. The body requires more energy to perform an increased amount of workload. With a diet designed for weight loss, this leads to a decrease in the percentage of adipose tissue.
• Third.
  Shock to the muscles. To cope with it, the body needs to connect more muscle fibers. In this case, both their hypertrophy (thickening of the fibers) and hyperplasia (increase in the number of fibers themselves) occurs.

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HOW, WHEN, WHY AND HOW MUCH? Note:

When it comes to terrain training, the biggest benefits come from not only reducing the rest time between sets, but also increasing the number of repetitions of the exercises, as well as adding cardio exercise after strength training. Or as a separate lesson.

Drying the body. Terrain training:

Plus:

metabolism increases. Lung volume increases and the functioning of the cardiovascular system improves. Blood does not leave the working muscle group. The level of lactic acid increases, which in turn stimulates the synthesis of growth hormone.

Minus:

the nervous system does not have time to recover between approaches, an avalanche of fatigue occurs, bordering on overtraining, and strength indicators drop.

Conclusion:

short pauses between sets help in weight loss and improve muscle definition. At the same time, they are a strong stress factor and aggressively affect all systems of the body.

Rest between sets of strength training

Strength training is always about low reps and high weights. If you do not give your muscles enough time to recover, fatigue will manifest itself after the first approach. This will entail a decrease in the effectiveness of the entire lesson. Therefore, you can rest for up to 5 minutes between sets of exercises performed in a strength style. And sometimes more.

Such a long rest period is due to the need to reboot the anaerobic energy system, which is the main one for performing maximum muscle contraction in a short period. In other words, to work with heavy weights and low reps, you need to take long breaks.

Plus:

the nervous system has time to rest normally, it becomes possible to work with maximum weights at the limit of possibility without significantly reducing them during the course of the lesson. This leads to increased strength and endurance of the articular-ligamentous system. As well as the core muscles, which work indirectly in all basic exercises without exception.

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Minus:

blood does not have time to stay in the muscles, they do not receive the volume of load necessary for hypertrophy. Hormonal levels increase, but for a short period of time. Only fast muscle fibers are involved in the work. People whose muscles are dominated by slow fibers find it extremely difficult to cope with power loads.

Conclusion

: strength training is always accompanied by long breaks between approaches. It simply cannot be any other way.

What is the best rest period between sets?

Better is the one that allows you to cope with your goal. In my opinion, even within the same workout, the duration of rest between approaches can be changed. Yes, that’s what we all do, because we are forced to take longer pauses between sets of squats than between sets of barbell curls.

So, the figures described above are not dogma, but food for thought. When training for mass, the first exercise of the complex can be started with a break of only 1 minute, but as fatigue increases towards the end of the session, the pauses can be extended to 2-3 minutes.

Note:

In terms of gaining mass, it is the exercises at the end of the complex that give the greatest return. Especially their last sets and reps. By this time, the muscles are already thoroughly tired, and in order to cope with the load, the body will simply have to use all its reserves. True, the risk of injury at the end of the lesson is the highest. Therefore, you need to approach the final sets very responsibly and consciously increase the rest between them.

Well, besides, as I have said more than once, you can go even further and perform exercises with a 3-minute break in one lesson, and only 30 seconds between them in the next. This leapfrog will “invigorate” the entire muscular system and will allow you to activate both types of muscle fibers: fast and slow.

Conclusion:

The duration of rest between approaches depends primarily on the goal pursued in the gym. But at the same time, it can and even needs to be changed.

Afterword

I hope my article on rest periods between sets was interesting and useful. But, in my opinion, the quality of rest is much more important than knowing the exact duration of the break between sets. Whatever your reason for coming to the gym, you need to train consciously, without turning the process of gaining weight or burning fat into a battle with your body. Because health is more important! May the strength be with you. And the mass!

Author: Stanislav Mikhailovsky. Personal trainer

Source

How long should you rest between sets?

Rest between weight sets should be:

1. Large muscle groups (chest, legs, back) – 2-3 minutes.
2. Small muscle groups (shoulders, arms, abs, lower legs) – 1.5-2 minutes.

But keep in mind that these numbers are not dogma! They change depending on your health, level of training and other factors.

For example, you pump your legs by doing a heavy basic exercise - squats with a barbell.

If the set was very intense, you may need an extra minute to recover.

Afterwards you do leg extensions while sitting on a block. This is an isolation movement that is not as energy-intensive as squats. Therefore, 1-1.5 minutes may be enough here, instead of the regulated 2-3.

Rest between workouts is also important for improving performance.

Large muscles take longer to recover than small ones. Therefore, the rest will be different.

Increasing rest intervals throughout the exercise

In order to reduce the risk of injury, athletes working with heavy weights do a special warm-up - before heavy approaches, several light (warm-up) exercises are performed.

Since the weight during the warm-up is an order of magnitude less, the body’s fatigue is lower. This means that recovery processes go faster.

During warm-up approaches, you should rest less than when performing basic work.

The main criteria for recovery are normalization of breathing and a decrease in heart rate. Plus subjective feelings of readiness to work.

As a result, the rest during warm-up can be 30-60 seconds.

As the weight on the bar increases, the duration of the pauses also increases.

The greater the muscle mass and working weights, the longer the rest

There is a direct relationship between an athlete's weight and rest after exercise.

The more muscles you have and the heavier weights you train, the longer your rest will be.

This is due to uneven growth in strength and recovery levels.

For example, for beginners, strength growth in a year can be 300%. Whereas the body’s ability to recover from strength loads increases only by 50%.

In practice, the following situation occurs:

• A beginner with a body weight of 65 kg performs squats with a 40 kg barbell. 1.5-2 minutes will be enough for him to recover from the load.
• An athlete of average fitness weighs 85 kg and squats 130 kg (about one and a half of his body weight). He will need 2-3 minutes to recover.
• An advanced athlete weighs 100 kg, and the barbell weighs 180 kg (almost twice its weight). His rest between exercises and approaches can reach 3-5 minutes.

How much rest between exercises also depends on the level of training and the characteristics of the body.

What influences the amount of rest

So, there is a lot of different information about what affects how much to rest between sets. I won’t carry snot all over the page and will now try to systematize all the MAIN, in my opinion, factors, as well as analyze in more detail the importance of each of them.

Load direction

To understand how much rest between approaches you need to take into account, first of all, what the load is aimed at. Those. understand why we perform these same approaches. What is our goal?

1. Development of maximum strength.
2. Gaining muscle mass.
3. Losing weight.
4. Cutting (fat loss with minimal muscle loss).

So, currently, most strength programs (developing maximum strength) recommend resting from 2.5 to 5 minutes, and for gaining muscle mass from 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes.

This looks quite logical, because... muscle growth, and therefore an increase in strength, is stimulated by lifting heavy weights! And this can be achieved with fully restored reserves of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and creatine phosphate, which in turn are restored only with a rest of at least 2 minutes.

Workouts aimed at losing weight should contain more cardio load (aerobic), as well as with a large number of repetitions per approach, so the rest between approaches should be reduced from 30 to 60 seconds.

Number of repetitions per set

As a rule, this point is directly related to the direction of the load, but I will still consider it separately. The heavier weights you use, and therefore the fewer repetitions, the more rest time you need between sets.

There are some recommendations in this regard, but they are more than approximate, although it makes sense to pay attention to them:

• in the range of 1-3 repetitions (strength development): rest 2.5-5 minutes;
• in the range of 4-7 repetitions (muscle growth): rest 2-3 minutes;
• in the range of 8-12 repetitions (muscle growth + pumping): rest 1-2 minutes;
• in the range of 13 or more repetitions (endurance development, energy training): rest no more than 1 minute;

Muscle group size

I think the conclusion is one of the simplest! The larger the muscle group, the more time it takes to recover. It's simple.

I will now look at recovery time specifically from the point of view of muscle growth, and not from an increase in strength or endurance. Here are my recommendations in this regard:

1. Legs (hips), back, chest: 1.5-2 minutes (for legs it is acceptable to increase the rest to 2.5 minutes).
2. Shoulders, arms, legs (lower legs): 45 seconds-1.5 minutes.

Type of muscle fibers trained

I’ll say right away that now I will not consider this issue in detail, because... here is my cool article about muscle fiber types.

I'll say this. Our muscles contain different types of muscle fibers, which are responsible for different intensities of movement, and therefore are trained differently, and also have different recovery times. That's all for now. Just be aware. We will take this factor into account in our conclusions at the end.

Lactic acid

Lactic acid is a metabolic product during anaerobic glycolysis. It is this that causes a burning sensation in working muscles.

Each subsequent approach in terms of the degree of muscle destruction is less effective than the previous ones, due to the gradual decrease in contraction power, because acidic metabolic products (lactic acid) accumulate in the muscle.

Those. It is logical to conclude that all subsequent loads do not enhance the effect of the previous one, because the muscle does not develop maximum strength sufficient to cause microtrauma. And accordingly, REST BETWEEN APPROACHES IS NOT LIMITED BY ANY SPECIAL CONDITIONS other than the time you have allotted for training.

The main thing is that rest ensures that the concentration of lactic acid in the muscle decreases sufficiently so that the muscle can again reach its maximum rate of energy expenditure.

Naturally, complete removal of lactic acid during rest between approaches is impossible, because it takes several hours after training to completely remove it, but a significant part of it is removed in the first few minutes after the approach.

As a rule, 1-2 minutes between sets is enough for sufficient recovery. This time will not completely remove lactic acid from muscle tissue, but it will reduce it enough to allow you to do another full set.