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How Much Rest to Take Between Sets

How Much Rest to Take Between Sets

Weight lifting routines are comprised of the exercises you’ll do combined with the amount of sets and reps. But there is another component and it might just be the most important. How much time to rest between each set.

If you read each of my three muscle building plans, you will see that I offer a recommended number of sets and reps per set, but make no mention of the time to rest between each set. I DO give a time frame for how much rest to take between each workout and body part. Why do you suppose that is?

Before I explain why my view on the subject is the best, let me give you some back ground information. The single most universally accepted principal of building muscle is that compound exercises (those that work multiple muscles and joints), builds the MOST muscle in the shortest time frame. By nature these moves require a maximum effort each time, especially if you include the second most widely accepted principal of weight lifting, that being “use as much weight as you can.” Combining these two principals done sincerely, will produce the most muscle in the least time. The operative words here are “done sincerely”.

First off, let’s give a brief explanation on the 3 different primary energy systems that your body uses to produce ATP, which is the primary fuel your muscles use for exercise.

These definitions come straight from Wikipedia:

ATP-PC System (Phosphogen System) - This system is used only for very short durations of up to 10 seconds. The ATP-PC system neither uses oxygen nor produces lactic acid and is thus said to be alactic anaerobic. This is the primary system behind very short, powerful movements like a golf swing or a 100m sprint. Translation: Best for short bursts of intense lifts.

Anaerobic System (Lactic Acid System) - Predominates in supplying energy for exercises lasting less than 2 min. Also known as the Gylcolytic System. An example of an activity of the intensity and duration that this system works under would be a 400m sprint. This is what you’ll partially use for bodybuilding and creating muscle mass.

Aerobic System - This is the long duration energy system. By 5 min of exercise the O2 system is clearly the dominant system. In a 1km run, this system is already providing approximately half the energy; in a marathon run it provides 98% or more. You use this when doing aerobic activity.

So you can see clearly that each of your lifting sets will fall in the anaerobic energy area. So the question becomes, how long does it take for your body to “recover” from an anaerobic exercise event, or one that lasts less than two minutes as most sets do? This is where it starts to get interesting.

There are all sorts of research that indicates you get close to 90% of your muscles ability to work back in 90 seconds. On the assumption that this research is accurate, most web “programs” recommendation is to rest as little as 30 seconds and up to as much as 3 minutes, depending on your goal. This is where I get lost. Depending on your goal? I thought the goal was to build muscle!?! Which brings me, finally, to MY VIEW.

The debate about rest between sets is a LOT like the debate about free weights verses machines. I leave it to the people who are interested in TALKING about muscle building, but no nothing about ACTUALLY building muscle.

IT DOESN’T MATTER!

The whole debate MISSES the bigger issue, the REAL point.

Maximum effort “done SINCERELY”.

If you're wandering about the gym in between sets socializing or jumping from machine to machine in a blur, then there is no way you can focus. If you can't focus, there is no way you can determine how your body "feels" in order to gauge proper rest time. And if you can’t gauge your proper rest time, the one that allows you to give maximum effort, done sincerely, than using an arbitrarily set, predetermined rest interval will only give the ILLUSION that you are training maximally. You aren’t.

Among many other reasons, this is why so many people fail to build muscle. It is not about using the correct free weight movement verses a machine, it is not about resting for a set number of seconds between sets. It’s about a maximum effort, done sincerely.

To give an illustration, here’s what I do. Bench press, 5 sets, 6 reps each. I pyramid up so that set 4 is my heaviest. My weights are written down in my log, so I have my goal. After the first set, I stretch a bit, add weight and do set two. Add weight, walk to the drinking fountain head down, no talking, walk back, focus, set three. Walk to the drinking fountain again, no talking again, walk back again, gauge my “feel”, load the bar, assume the position, and focus, eyes closed until I AM READY TO LIFT my heaviest weight. I have NO IDEA how long this takes! 90 seconds? 3 minutes? Don’t know, don’t care. And then I lift. It’s not about the time. It’s about the amount of weight and getting it 6 times. After this, my heaviest set, I stretch a bit, gauge my feel, decide on what I think I can handle for 6 more reps, strip some weight (MAYBE), assume the position, eyes closed, focus and then lift till I fail, hopefully on rep 5.

I will repeat this pattern for each exercise that I am going to do that workout. I will chat a bit between exercises. But if I am interrupted between a set of a given exercise, I start that sets pre-lift prep over. One of the worst arguments I’ve had in the gym was when somebody that should have known better walked up and started tapping me on the shoulder while my eyes were closed prepping for set 4.

Taking myself a little serious you say? Maybe. But I don’t go to the gym to talk. I am there to lift weight with maximum effort done sincerely.

I damn sure am not there to watch the clock.


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