Hi everyone welcome back to Strength Training, part 4. Thank you for being patient. Today I want to talk about timing between sets and its applications. How much rest do you need? Very often when I’m at the gym I see three types of people training: those that know what to do and how much to rest, those that rest way too much or those that go way too fast. Let’s start with people who rest too much. Okay, we have all seen it, you walk up to the squat rack and someone is there posing in the mirror taking selfies, chating with friends ECT… doing curls! They are also taking 5-plus minutes between sets! Rest assured this is someone who doesn’t care about results and is wasting their time and everyone else’s as well.
I had to say this because I’ve seen it one too many times and I’m sick of it – lift or move on! Next up is the type of client that thinks if they stop and rest they’re going to blow up like a giant puffer fish! Oh no, 911 emergency got to keep moving at all times once I stop the gains stop, oh no! Okay, I want to address these situations and educate everyone on what amount of rest creates what adaptation. First off you have three muscle fiber types in your body. Muscle fiber type 1, type 2A, and type 2B. Are you with me so far? So type 2A and B are fast-twitch muscle fiber types. The type 1’s are slow twitch muscle fibers. Generally in our natural untrained state we are about 50/50 as far as ratio fast/slow with genetics being the determining factor. However, depending on how you train, you can shift the balance to 80/20 more in favor of fast-twitch. Fast twitch fibers have two times the hypertrophic capacity of type 1 muscle fibers, and, as I said before, the more muscle on your body the more your metabolism increases the more fat you burn. It’s sort of like the rich getting richer scenario. Here are traits of fast vs slow twitch. Fast are much bigger and stronger, use the phosphagen, glycolysis system, so they recover and regenerate slower than type 1 muscle fibers. Type 1 muscle fibers use the oxygenation system so their recovery is near-constant.
A good classic example that most can understand is the marathon runner vs the sprinter. The marathon runner is 80/20 slow twitch and the sprinter is 80/20 fast twitch. The marathoner is small and possibly flabby or probably flabby and jiggly, no six pack, arms and legs are smooth. This sprinter is muscular and ripped! No fat, six pack, ripped quads, bulging biceps – the whole nine yards. Why is this you ask? Is it possibly just a coincidence… No, it has everything to do with rest and intensity. You see, running long distance is really no different to your muscle twitch fibers and your energy system than lifting light weights and racing from one exercise into the next with no rest period. By doing that you’re essentially just doing cardio and increasing type 1 fiber which is the smallest fiber in capacity. That won’t amount to much in terms of getting that lean sexy body. Instead you’ll be skinny with that small patch of fat that you just can’t seem to get rid of. No I’m not bagging on marathon running or any other endurance sport. In fact, if you want endurance this is the way to train. Short or no rest periods. However, if you think this is the best way to get rid of those love handles you are sadly mistaken. So here’s the bottom line! Sitting around doing nothing will get you nothing or not much. No rest or rest up to 30 seconds will increase endurance. 60-90 seconds rest will help increase muscle or (hypertrophy). 2 to 5 minutes of rest will help build strength. Above 5 and the muscle is starting to cool down and you are wasting your time.
Of course you need to know this: you are not just resting for the sake of resting. The sole purpose for this “resting” is to increase intensity so that you HAVE to rest. The amount of rest will determine how much you lift. The longer the rest, the heavier the lift. Remember the sprinter, he pushes a lot harder for a much shorter period, and then rests for a longer period before the next sprint so that he can match or beat his previous times. So should you with the weights. So do each set as heavy as possible without breaking form for the prescribed amount of reps matching the desired adaptation and then rest the required amount of time, no more, no less.
Now go out there and punish that iron! Thanks for reading my blog. Join me for the next blog where I will discuss part 5, different set types. If you have any questions or comments please leave them at the bottom. Thank you.
