Everyone at the gym has a different view on rest. Some people run frantically from one machine to the next to squeeze their workout in. While other people stop and talk about yesterday’s game or the Desperate Housewives season finale for 5 minutes in between their sets.
What is the most efficient time to rest during your workout?
Well, it depends on your goals!
Let’s back up a second. Your body will use energy to complete your workout. What type of energy depends on your workout and how much of it is used depends on how much you rest.
Toning up
Lets face it, a majority of people are trying to tone up for the summer, so I’ll start there. Long story short, toning up requires you to burn more calories (and take in less) in order to be in a calorie deficit, causing you to lose weight.
How do you burn more calories? Rest less and workout more! This keeps your heart beating faster, your blood moving more, and it causes more calories to be burned!
Word of caution:
If you are totally new to health and fitness, you should wait between 90 and 120 seconds in between sets. This is because, with less rest, you won’t have as much energy for the next set. In resting less as a beginning client, you might have decreased performance, and that MIGHT lead to compensation of other muscles and possibly lead to injury.
This is only the case if you are trying to tone up and are new to fitness. However, if you do have some experience working out, then less rest is better!
Here, your body uses oxygen as its primary energy source for the workout.
Gaining Strength
Here is where it gets tricky! If you are trying to gain strength, rest during your workouts(along with a balanced diet!), will be crucial in the development of your muscles!
To gain strength, science says you should rest anywhere from 45 seconds to five minutes. OK, that’s a long timeframe, and what works best is probably somewhere in the middle. My clients who are trying to gain muscle usually rest around two minutes.
Here, your body uses creatine-phosphate as the source of energy. If you body has more creatine-phosphate available for the next set (or rep), the more likely you are to be able to complete. After about two minutes of resting, almost 100% of your body’s creatine-phosphate will be available to do the next set.
With more C-P available, your will still retain enough energy to perform heavier sets and more reps!
So as you can see, the amount of rest should be determined by your goals, and it will help you achieve them if used properly!
Matt Elder is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer. His website, http://www.eldersonlinetraining.com, offers the benefits of a personal trainer at 1/20th the price.
