Hey everyone, another technical one today. Rest periods. I think it's a good one to talk about not just from an improvement point of view but also for consistency.
The consensus from people is that depending on your goals you need to be doing the following:
Hypertrophy - 1 min
Strength - 3-5 min
Endurance - <30 seconds
That's what people belief that's what you need to do for training, however new research is showing that might not be the case.
One study took a sample and one group trained with 1 minute rest and the other group rested for 3 minutes. The results were that the 3 minute group was more beneficial for hypertrophy & strength and that there were equal amounts of endurance for the two groups. Looking over a range of studies it was conquered that resting for more than 1 minute was more beneficial in all of the areas than resting for under 1 minute. Resting more means that your muscles have more time to recover so you can have a higher volume session.
So how long should you rest for? For me it's all about time and making sure you're consistent. You can't spend all day at the gym therefore you need to choose a rest time that allows you to get adequate rest but push yourself enough so you work hard. Consistency as well, you don't want to rest for 2 mins for one rest period then 5 for the next. Keep yourself accountable and stop scrolling through Instagram between sets. A 2 minute rest can quite easily turn into 10 minutes of not doing anything.
There's also an argument for different rest periods depending on the exercise being performed. Heavy compound movements using a lot of energy means muscles need more time to recover. So you might end up resting for 3-5 minutes. Whereas if you're performing isolation moves they require less energy and less muscles so your body can recover faster. Therefore you can aim for 1-2 minutes rest.
To conclude. As with a lot of topics I talk about, end of the day it comes down to:
1. Personal Preference
2. Can you be consistent
3. What are your fitness goals
As I've said all along, the problem at the moment with the fitness industry is people are being armed with the wrong information. Which then gets passed onto their friends or the thousands of followers they have. Give people the right information and a choice of what they can do to best benefit them. You're going to create a more positive and beneficial community where everyone's helping each other.
Thanks
Cameron
Additional Sources
Jeff Nippard - How Long Should You REST Between Sets?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR94rNsArv0&list=PLvG_3cbJ1hwKWpObm3RMXIiN798-o-P0n&index=3&t=0s)
PictureFit - How Long Should You REST Between Sets?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXjHG7Z7k5g)