Another popular question we get asked a lot in the app chat with our members is around recovery between exercises and sets. How long should you wait before doing your next set and does it matter at all? Here’s a closer look to help you understand it a little better…
Answer:
How quickly do YOU recover?
Everyone is unique and everyone has different fitness levels, therefore your ability to recover is unique to YOU. A beginner for example may find they need a little longer to recover as they aren’t used to the muscular endurance needed for working out, or the overall volume or load you’re lifting in a workout may require a longer rest between your sets as you’re not as used to it. But in terms of how much should you be resting, there are some general guidelines as to how you can tweak parts of your workouts for varying results once you’ve found your flow with working out.
Weight Loss/Muscular Endurance (30-45 seconds or under)
- Shorter rest can lead to increased fat loss due to working at a higher intensity
- More calories burned in less time as heart rate is elevated more
- Increased muscular endurance
Muscle Building (Ideally 45-60 seconds)
- Allows for good performance on working sets due to increased recovery time
- Best potential for muscle gain due to a balanced work:rest ratio
- Prevents you from cooling down too much and keeping your muscular pump
Increase Strength (Anywhere from 2-5 minutes)
- Get stronger due to elongated rest periods for heavier weight lifting
- Allows body to recover fully and increases force production and muscular power
Remember that these are just general guidelines and each person is unique in their ability to recover between sets while also keeping intensity high. Luckily the app allows you to either follow our recommended rest protocols between sets, or you can even set your own by simply using the edit settings function during a workout then going to ‘rest timer’.
Currently in the app, your rest between sets is automatically set based on a goal….i.e. if its a low rep set then we’ll generally give a little longer rest between sets, whereas if it’s a more intense workout you may find the rest is lower (anything between 30-60 seconds). Once you tick off a set, the rest will automatically drop in for you too!
If you like to stick to a certain workout quite regular, then changing rest is one way you can switch things up, so if you feel you’ve hit a plateau, try switching things up next time.
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