Mastering Your Rest Time Between Sets (Ultimate Guide For Best GAINS)

Help me make more cheesy content:

A key component to any resistance training plan or program is the amount of rest you take between sets. Also known as inter-set rest intervals, the recommended time for rest between sets can vary depending on who you ask, which internet community you follow, or which buffest friend you listen to and ignore the rest. Generally, more rest is a ideal but it's not always the best. So in this video, we'll talk about how to choose the PERFECT amount of rest for you and your goals.
#musclegrowth #gains #fitness

Reference List

Picturefit on YouTube! I share some of my health and fitness tips with you. Come check out our content! New fitness topics on a weekly basis. Want to learn about more health and fitness topics? Ask it in the comments! Learn all you need to know and what to do at the gym. Learn about aerobics, strength, hypertrophy, power, and endurance!

Any information in these videos should not be taken as personal healthcare advice. If you have questions about your health, please speak directly to your personal healthcare professional. #cardio #gains #lifting

[obato]

I used to dread leg days and sometimes even skipped them - until I increased my rest times from 3 minutes to 4 between sets of deadlifts and barbell squats. Now I'm much less terrified of leg days and haven't skipped since.

[MrAkatsukio]

2-3 minutes for isolation, 3-5 minutes for compound. Works really good and every Set feels fresh until you die with the last one. :D If you have less time go for antagonistic supersets!

[tkaesthetics]

This channel got me into working out. i remember a time when there were no posts, and i felt lost, when you came back, my life improveed

[devilsadvocate]

That flexible approach really is the most intuitive❤

[Olav_Hansen]

I have a really simple rule of thumb for myself; I have one of those heartrate watches, so I take a rest until my heartrate starts to drop to about 130. When doing a set, it can go 150-160 if it's a hard set, but then stays at 140 for 1-2 minutes after, then suddenly dipping rapidly from 140. During that drop, I can go for another set.

By this point I've also somewhat reliably started to feel that point as well. It feels like the point that you 'could go for another set' so to speak.

I think that the heartrate monitor was a good replacement to 'intuition' until I got to that point. Now I watch less and less, but every time I do look it happens to be during the drop.

[gasparsigma]

My simplified approach for hypertrophy: wait 60s for most, 90s for the worst ones (squat, bench press, pull ups for me), and if you fail before your target whatever it was because you weren't completely rested add an extra set at the end to make up for the missed volume.
E.g: you plan to do 3x10, on the first you do 10 reps but on the second set you can only do 9 and the third only 7, add an extra set with 4 reps you've missed and it'll equate the volume while being more time efficient than resting for 3 minutes

[izzyfoxy]

Another informative video laid out in bite sized portions. Dude never missed since years ago. Keep em coming!!!

Also personally I do the last tip too! I set a 2min timer but only for a gauge.

[jontc]

Yeah I think I can feel when I'm ready for the next set. Thanks for this info

[thisisnotmyrealname]

I rest 3-4 minutes between compounds and 1.5-2 between accessory lifts

[Godsen]

A method I've come to whether is perfect or not is:
Smaller exercises 1 min. and I see how I feel then;
Bigger exercises 1 min. 30 sec. and I see how I feel then;
Squat 2 min. and I see how I feel then.
Most often, I tend to do the next series as soon as the time's over, except the last one which is when I take a couple breaths more before engaging.

[FrankieD]

Your vid dropped just in right time, thanks!

[jasonfoos]

As always, great video!! Didn't hear anything about super sets. Do two exercises one after another. While you are resting one muscle you can work another muscle. I would love to hear more about how that fits in with the bigger picture. Maybe we need more research on this. But this could be a way to cut down on workout times, while not sacrificing rest periods. Just a thought! 😊😊

[secret]

I love your videos! Please keep them going

[Siggerou]

Need your advice here gym bros!

I generally lift heavy 2x upper and 2x lower per week. (24-27 sets per gym session, close to failure, but no compound due to some older issues with knees and shoulders)

I try to go to the gym when it's almost empty and instead of fully resting between sets, just do a set of a different muscle group.

So during leg day I will do 1 set of glutes, then 1 set of quads, then one set of adbuctors, then adductors, then some other muscles I only know how to pronounce in Greek, and then repeat until I complete all 3 sets of each exercise. And then hit calves, abs and lower back in the same way.
I found that my muscles get more time to rest between sets while I am not wasting time, and the only limiting factor is my overall tireness (which I would say is not that high since I am also a beach-volleyball player with decent cardio) and I can always squeeze a minute or two of complete rest in between, if I really need to catch my breath.


Is this something legit to save time while resting enough, or is there any implication/downside I should be aware of?

Many thanks! 💪

[magyee]

I use both intuition and fixed interval for my rest time between sets.

Take BB bench for example. My rest time is fixed to 2 mins between sets. When the rest time is up, I will go back to bench and take 5s to 30s to prepare myself mentally before starting a new set. (Like taking a few deep breaths), especially at the last set. So at most I would take 2min30s for rest time.

Very less time consuming compared to intuition alone and more mentally prep compared to fixed interval only.

[wakjob]

Dr. Mendel Henderson just completed a study this year... 2 min. yielded the most hypertrophy.

[jk]

I think that the most beneficial would be doing supersets or trisets with 3 min rests. Supersets and trisets will reduce the amount of rest periods, but will require more effort which leads to longer rests. I would set a stopwatch to 3 min, start it after each superset/triset, and look if i'm good to go earlier. If not, wait until 3 min break is over and come back to doing another set

[daviddavies]

Hello there picture fit I'm a big believer in 1 minute rest max and I do compound strength training and it works for me as that's what my pt has set me and the results say it all as my strength has mega increased 💪💪also my conditioning has improved massively and I believe it's because of the short rest very rare I rest more than a minute even with isolation exercises 1 min max

[m]

I use heart rate as an indicator: start the next set once HR drops to Zone 2/1.
This correlates with duration -- the tougher the set, the higher is the HR and the longer it takes to settle.

[Articxs]

Thank you, your videos are always quite helpfull! ☺️