From strength to endurance training, how long your rest can impact the results you gain tremendously.
You slam the weights down, take a deep breath and look up to the ceiling. That completed set just took a lot out of you but you're pumped and ready for the next lift. You take a sip of water, change the song you’re listening to, then you get an Instagram notification, why not check it? Then you remember the text that you forgot to respond to, why not text back? You take another sip of water, stare at the weights and think…. “was that too long of a break or too short?” Though this question isn’t on everyone’s top inquiry list, this simple notion of rest is a very important aspect of your training. From strength to endurance training, how long your rest can impact the results you gain tremendously.
Before we deep dive into how long we need to rest and for what type of training we need to rest for, let's look at what happens to your body while you rest. Once that last rep is up and comes crashing down your body is forming lactic acid within the muscle throughout the workout. When we rest it causes the body to improve the capability to buffer the amassing lactate, which increases your bodies ability to tolerate moderate and or maximal output during exercise. In simpler words, when you rest, your muscles recover enough for you to push more weight over a specific time period. Like stated before, rest times are often over looked for the actual exercise, however rest times can literally improve your training regiment immensely.
WEIGHT LOSS
For weight loss and endurance, you want to keep the rest times as short as possible and the weight light. This rest interval is optimal for weight loss due to your body moving much more frequently while your heart continues to pump blood throughout your body. Your core temperature is not allotted time to fully cool, thereby pushing your Anaerobic and Aerobic systems to a threshold of which burning fat is the result. Typically, circuit training is best for those who wish to loose weight while toning their muscles. Their rest times should be in between 20 to 60 seconds, depending on the intensity of the workout.
STRENGTH
With strength training, it is the exact opposite of what you would do for the weight loss training, you want elongated breaks in order to allow your nervous system to recover. Of course, for this type of training, you will have to be lifting anywhere between 80% - 90% of your 1 Rep Max. Conversely, the extended breaks enable muscles to replenish the strength needed to push through the next set. When you take the appropriate time to rest when strength training, studies show that there is a hormonal response within the body to facilitate muscle growth. The rest time for this style of training should be in between 2 – 5 minutes.
HYPERTROPHY
If what you're searching for is looking good in that muscle shirt or filling out some new clothes that you bought, then you're looking for Hypertrophy training, which is defined as the enlargement of organs or tissue from the increase in size of its cells. With this training style your rest time should be specifically moderate, so in other words in between the time for weight loss and strength training. Actually to be exact the rest time should be no more than a minute and no less than a minute. The reason is because if you go over a minute that can compromise metabolic features within your body and potentially decrease muscle growth. On the contrary, resting for too little has proven to not allow enough rest or recuperation to elicit muscle performance for the next set. As stated, 60 seconds of rest should be the perfect amount of time for this style of exercise!
If you want the best exercise program on the market, which utilizes your personal fitness level, your calculated strength and even your biological body type, click the link to find out which program best fits you and begin your journey as a Spartan Warrior!
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