The length of your rest intervals will depend on a couple of different factors. Predominantly it’s dictated by your goal. But it’s important to note that it’s also influenced by factors such as: your work capacity, your stress levels, nutrition, sleep, and the complexity of the exercises that you’re doing.
We need sufficient rest to keep the quality of our work high and to make sure we are actually getting the adaptations that we want. The operative word being: sufficient. Meaning enough, but not too much. This is where that balance comes into play.
Neural – Metabolic Spectrum
Recall from the video on reps, how we talked about the spectrum of adaptations ranging from more neural (focusing on your nervous system) or more metabolic (focusing on some kind of a body composition change). The same is also true for rest. The amount of rest you take between exercises needs to be considerate of what your goal is at that point in time. Not only that, but also how you’re performing the exercises. For example, if you’re doing supersets your rest periods will be different than if you were doing straight sets.
Reccommended Guidelines To Follow
Let’s start giving you some basic guidelines to work with that you can implement into your training right away.
The more rest you take, the more neural the adaptations are going to be. Whereas if you’re taking less rest, the adaptations will be more metabolic focused. Generally speaking you need about 5-6x longer to recover enough if you’re going for the more strength based neural adaptations.
Now take all of these guidelines with a grain of salt. They are not an exhaustive list, and they’re blanket statements and generalizations to help you get started on the right foot.
If you’re supersetting, these are some general guidelines to follow:
- If your goals are more Body Composition oriented, you should be resting between 0-60s between supersets
- If your goals are more Hypertrophy oriented, you should look to rest between 60-90s between supersets
- If your goals are more Strength oriented, you should look to rest between 90-120s
If you’re doing straight sets, then you would double these numbers. Now I know what you’re thinking, why would I rest more if I’m only doing one exercise at a time? To which I would say that’s exactly why: because you’re only doing one exercise at a time. You don’t have to worry about saving energy for the second exercise. You don’t have to worry about one exercise directly affecting the quality of the second with things like grip strength or your ability to keep yourself properly aligned/braced for a longer period of time. If you’re only doing one at a time, push yourself harder than you could’ve otherwise and then rest more because if you did the set right, you’ll need it.
Once again, these are general guidelines only meant to get you started on the right foot. There’s a lot of room to manipulate your rest and work intervals to get the desired outcome. Just like we mentioned with reps, the adaptations on the Neural – Metabolic spectrum are not exclusive to certain ranges. There is always going to be an overlap in the benefits, these guidelines just allow us to bias one over the other from time to time. And again, there is a lot of benefit from travelling up and down the spectrum to get the most out of each, to help you get to your goal in the most efficient way possible.
For the energizer bunny, sure he or she might be able to reach their goals eventually if they just keep pushing with their nonstop circuit style workouts, but I would ask them to consider if there was a way to reach their goals without beating themselves up so much, wouldn’t they prefer that? The same goes for the Tommy Texters or the Sally Soundtracks. Sure they might see some change eventually after a long period of time, but why would they not want to make the most of their time and see results sooner? Regardless of what those results are. Remember, why work harder needlessly, when you can work smarter. You clearly have the work ethic and drive, now we just need to focus that into a more efficient approach for you.
In the next part we’ll be going over Load and how to use it more intelligently so that it’s never a limiting factor for your progress again.
Asad Sayal
Share This Post
Join personal trainer Asad Sayal, as he looks at essential factors to consider when designing your workout. From reps to rest periods, Asad explores how taking these variables into account, and using them in unison with each other can help you reach your goals quicker, avoid plateauing and progress your fitness journey.
Asad answers this not-so-straightforward question by defining what exactly a rep is, introducing rep ranges and how you can use this method to optimize and progress in your workouts. He also touches on the relationship between reps and load.
Did you know that the order in which you perform your sets is critical to your performance? Asad explores how to organize your sets in a certain sequence, in terms of intensity and difficulty, to get the best results and avoid injury.
Asad reviews the various types of sets that exist and which you should use depending on your workout type and goals. He discusses straight sets, supersets, tri-sets and circuits.
Setting a tempo for your workout is one of the most overlooked variables. Asad defines what setting a tempo for your workout really entails, and how you can use it to make the exercises you already know, feel completely new.
Did you know you can change how an exercise feels and what it does to your body just by varying the tempo? Discover how altering the tempo can produce a different kind of result and can bring about potential weaknesses and imbalances.
Rest and recovery are commonly misunderstood and misused. Asad explores common mistakes in regards to rest periods and different considerations that need to be made to ensure you are getting the biggest return on your effort.
Asad reviews general guidelines you can implement into your training, to ensure you are getting optimal rest. He discusses how the amount of rest is dependent on what your goal is at that time, and how you're performing the exercise.
Asad defines load and how it directly relates to the other variables covered thus far: reps, sets, tempo and rest. He highlights the value of thinking beyond just the amount of weight you lift in any given exercise.
Have you ever been stuck on a certain weight and can’t seem to go heavier? Does this mean you’ve reached the ceiling to your strength? Asad explores how you can combine variables, like tempo and reps, to avoid plateauing and increase the weight in your exercises.
To sum up this series, Asad recaps all the variables you should consider when designing a training program. He defines progressive overload and emphasizes the importance of the variables covered in this series and how to use them in synchrony with one another.