Rest periods for weight training.
Your training volumes, loads and intensities are really important when it comes to your programming and the outcomes you are trying to achieve. One factor though that often gets overlooked is the rest period.
From my point of view there are two main reasons why it is important to track and be on top of your rest periods when training.
- Too little rest and you can’t repeat your effort, meaning you sacrifice your overall training volumes and intensities for that exercise.
- Too much rest and you don’t create the stress required to trigger a change in systems you are training.
Getting your rest periods right will equate to greater repetitions over multiple sets leading to increases in absolute strength, muscular power, size and endurance. On top of that it will also make your training much safer and your workouts run more time efficiently.
So here are the guidelines:
- Heavy sets 1-5 reps – rest up to 3min-5min
- Moderate sets 6-10 reps – up to 2min-3min
- Light sets 12+ – keep under 90sec
Additional Tip: Using your phone for timing can be a great tool, but don’t let it distract you and blow out your rest periods – so do yourself a favour and switch on do not disturb.
Nathan Spring
