How Long Should You Be Resting In-between Workouts?
We all know that guy/girl who sits on their phone for 10 minutes in between sets.
Are you someone who finds yourself taking a long resting period in between workouts? Or are you part of the rare breeds that don’t take enough rest time? How do you know how long you should be taking?
Rest time in between each workout varies depending on your workout and your goals. For example, say you’re trying to lose weight. If this were the case, you’d be doing a lot more HIIT or circuit type workouts (see link to my “HIIT” Blog post at bottom) because you’d want to keep your heart rate up. In doing so, you’d inevitably burn more calories. When you’re doing these types of workouts you’d want to take as little rest as possible! You want to breathe heavily and get a nice sweat going!
On the flip side if you’re trying to build muscle and even gain weight, you’re going to go a bit heavier with a lower rep range. Because you’re using more effort per rep on every workout you’re going to have to take longer rest times in between workouts to recover before your next set. You don’t want to rest too long, usually no longer than 3-5 minutes. After all, you’re still working your muscles and don’t want to lose the pump (blood rushing to the muscles being worked).
This also applies to any main lift. When I say main lift I mean lifts like benching, squatting, deadlift and so on. These take A LOT of energy out of you every rep/set, therefore you’re going to want to rest a little more in between sets to recoup. This goes especially for when you’re PRing (hitting a new personal record). You need time to utilize your best effort, otherwise you’ll just be gassed and not able to perform on these lifts as best as you could.
So depending on your goals and what type of workout you’re doing, your rest times will change. No matter what, don’t be the guy hogging up the machine for 30 minutes sitting there scrolling through instagram on your phone. Nobody likes that guy.. Don’t be him/her..
You Got This
https://corecalisthenics.com/workout-education/hiit-workouts/
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