The amount of rest you take between sets is of critical importance to gaining muscle mass and strength. But not for the reasons you believe. The research behind rest periods shows some very clear trends that will make a big difference on your ability to make progress. Keep reading to see how you should rest during your workouts.
In my many years as a coach and athlete, I can tell you that most athletes don’t really pay much attention to their rest between sets. Most casual gym goers do their set, sit down (and check Instagram), and then start their next set once they feel recovered. There is also a small minority of athletes, often from formal athletic backgrounds, that religiously time their inter set rest periods. So which one is right?
The interesting answer to this question is that both methods, self selecting rest periods, and objectively timing rest periods have been showing to work in various research studies. A better question is how much rest do you need to gain strength, or muscle mass? Here we will find some useful differences, and surprising results.
Short vs. Long Interset Rest Periods
Most athletes and coaches tend to prescribe longer rest periods for heavier loads, and they tend to prescribe shorter rest periods for higher volume hypertrophy training.
In this research study, untrained athletes were given the same workout program, with one group resting 2.5 minutes between sets, and the other resting 60 seconds. They found that the long rest group made greater gains (12.3%) in upper arm size vs. the shorter rest group (5.1%). The duration of this trial was 10 weeks. That settles it right? Long rest periods are clearly the way to go. We have one research study after all!
Try again. This shows that you can make better muscular improvement with longer rest periods with no difference in strength. However, you need to remember that these are newer athletes, and their response to training will be different than someone who’s been inside a gym for years. Let’s look at a study with more experienced athletes.
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Self Selected Rest Periods vs. Timed
This was a very interesting study, conducted on athletes with strength training backgrounds. These athletes did a heavy 5×5 style strength workout, with one group resting 3 minutes between, and another group resting 5 minutes between sets. The final group rested as much or little as they saw fit.
The researches noted that all groups decreased power output across sets, and they all subjectively rated sets 3,4, and 5 as harder to complete. In the end, they could find no difference between any of the groups. In other words, all groups produced just as much power across all sets. Interestingly enough, they found that when athletes selected their own rest periods, the hards sets, 3,4 and 5, each got a progressively longer rest period.
The other conclusion we can draw from this study is that your subjective tiredness or need for rest doesn’t actually match the amount of rest you actually need. Remember, the athletes that rested for 5 minutes performed just as well as those that rested for 3 minutes. I’m sure that extra rest felt nice, but physiologically it appears they didn’t need it.
Decreasing Rest Periods
To be perfectly honest I had read literally zero research about decreasing interval training, which is unfortunate, because it shows the most promise for athletes looking to make great gains quickly, while avoiding over training.
This research study had two groups of young men, familiar with lifting, perform a 6 week training protocol where one group had a consistent 2 minutes of rest between sets, and the other group started with two minutes of rest, decreasing to only 30 seconds of rest by the last week.
They found that the group that decreased their rest intervals completed much less overall volume, and yet they found no difference between either group in the amount of muscle or strength gained in the squat and bench press. This could be a fluke. Maybe we should look at another decreasing interval study.
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Decreasing Interval Training with Creatine
The researchers in this study had the same two groups. Both groups were given creatine, and both groups completed an 8 week training program where the control group got 2 minutes of rest the whole time, and the other group started with 2 minutes and decreased the inter set rest period by 15 seconds each week.
They too found that there was a significant decrease in total exercise volume in the decreasing interval group. This makes sense as they are asked to lift maximal loads, with much less time to recover. They also found that both groups gained a similar amount of muscle mass and strength, with the decreasing interval group showing a little greater gain in muscle mass.
This chart shows the total training volume by week for the constant interval (CI) or decreasing interval (DI) groups. You can see a drastic drop off in lifting volume, and yet both groups made the same gains, and the DI group gained even more muscle mass.
The researchers also noted that they believed the creatine did help attenuate some of the volume drop off in the decreasing interval group. They also stated that they had no true control group, and they could not say this with certainty. Creatine is one of the most studied lifting supplements. It has been shown to be quite effective. I tend to prefer creatine in pill form, as the powder version tastes bad to me.
Discussion
This decreasing interval research is huge for functional fitness athletes for many reasons. First and foremost, it indicates that similar, if not greater results can be gained with less overall volume. This means you have more time, and energy to devote to other aspects of training. I would also guess that the reduction in training volume would mean you are less likely to incur injuries.
Decreasing interval training is also more time efficient. It allows you to pack in more training per unit of time than waiting for long rest periods that are physiologically unnecessary. I would also suspect that this kind of training has a greater carry over to most WODs and Metcons, as the volume and energy system demands would be very similar.
I don’t think this style of training would be ideal for all training methods. For olympic lifters, and power lifters, it probably makes more sense to take longer rest periods. You may not actually need them, but psychologically you’ll feel “ready” to attack the next set. I can tell you that I’ve seen more athletes fail a set mentally than were physically incapable of lifting the weight.
I think decreasing rest period style training would be great for a hypertrophy, or muscle gaining program, like this one. It would also work well for athletes looking to get ready for a competition or otherwise build up to peak fitness.
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Final Thoughts
I’m going to start writing a program incorporating this research and I can’t wait to try it out. Make sure you sign up to our email list so you don’t miss this program when it is emailed out. If you have some thoughts or questions put them in the comments below. Now get out there and get training!
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