Rest Periods Between Sets

Lots of people in the gym don’t pay enough attention to rest periods,  they just do the next set when they feel up to it.  Advanced lifters who know their bodies really well can get away with this, but for most people they might have a good or bad day at the gym and have no idea why.

Rest periods will greatly affect performance from set to set.  Your rest periods should be determined by your goals and workload.

If you’re trying to gain mass, shorter rest periods 30-90 seconds are better than 3-5 minutes rest.  Shorter rest periods will increase hormonal concentrations that help build muscle or burn fat.  However shorter rest periods increase the amount of fatigue and rest periods of less than 1 minute reduce force/power output by 12-44%.

So if you’re using a traditional approach short periods are not the best for building strength.  Full ATP re-synthesis takes 3-5 minutes, full phosphocreatine re-synthesis takes 8 minutes and after 2 minutes rest it will be at 84%.

This indicates that if you're training for maximal strength or power you need at least 2 minutes recovery but 3-8 minutes is preferable to ensure there is enough energy to stimulate high threshold motor units.

Everyone knows an interval timer can be used for intervals, but you can also use it for rest periods. You can set it so an allocated time or rest period will reset each time.