However, if you are doing endurance-type training or using lighter weights, you should only wait 30-90 seconds. If you are lifting moderately heavy, then you should rest 2-3 minutes between exercises. How long Should You Rest Between Exercises? I recommend that you set a timer to make sure that you are sticking to the recommended rest periods. I recommend that you sit down, catch your breath, and get your mental state ready for the next set. You can either rest completely between sets, or get ready for a superset exercise. What Should You Do When resting between sets? This will simply waste time and might decrease your ability to maintain consistent efforts between sets. Resting more than 5 minutes per set can “cool you off,” lowering your core body temperature and decreasing your blood circulation. Especially if you aren’t training for maximal strength. In general, you should not exceed 4-5 minutes of rest between sets. Using short rest periods allows you to keep your heart rate high to develop your aerobic system.ĭo not expect to get any significant muscular size or strength using this training modality. Obviously, the weight lifted will be â€œlightâ€ compared to the other three training modalities, so the intensity of the exercise is much less.Įndurance training resembles cardio more than anything. This is beneficial for athletes who enjoy long-distance, or long-duration athletic events such as running or CrossFit.Įndurance training will typically use rep ranges > 12 reps per set.

This is also known as metabolic conditioning or met-con for short. If you are training for endurance or metabolic conditioning, your rest periods should be 30-90 seconds between sets. How Long Should You Rest Between Sets To Build Endurance? Only an experienced lifter should use this type of training due to injury risk. The purpose of the longer rest period is to allow the accumulated fatigue from the sets to dissipate and allow you to perform more than one set. Training in this range is tough mentally and physically. This means you should be using weights where you can only perform 1-3 repetitions per set. It is always fun to dabble in the maximal strength range from time to time. This type of training requires the use of very heavy weights. If you are training for maximal strength ( i.e 1 rep max training), you should use long rest periods of about 4 – 5 minutes. How Long Should You Rest Between Sets When Using Maximum Weight? The longer rest periods should allow you to keep the volume relatively constant across sets.

In addition, it may take a minute or two just to get your mental state ready for subsequent sets. Several studies have confirmed that 3 minutes is a good time frame to rest to build muscular size and strength. The heavier weights will fatigue your central nervous system much more than hypertrophy range weights. Conversely, you should at least be able to get 3-4 solid reps per set. If you can do more than 6 repetitions per set, then you are not training for strength. This means your weights should be challenging. It should go without saying that if you are training for strength, you should be using heavy loads. If you are training to build strength (aka strength training), you should keep your rest periods between 3 and 4 minutes. If you wait too long or go too soon, then you can negate the effects of hypertrophy training.ģ minutes goes by fast. (For more details, I have an entire article on how many sets and reps you should do here)ģ minutes is the sweet spot. This means that you should only be able to perform 7-12 repetitions per set with whatever weight you are using. When training for hypertrophy, you should be lifting weights that are moderately heavy. If you are training for muscle growth, research shows that you should keep your rest periods to about 3 minutes. How Long Should You Rest For Muscle Growth (AKA Hypertrophy) In other words, are the weights light, moderate, heavy, or very heavy?

Training for maximum power/ absolute strength.

Training for hypertrophy (aka to build muscle mass).In general, there are four different types of training goals. The rest period between sets matters if you are looking to optimize your training for a specific goal. the longer your rest period needs to be.the fewer reps you will be able to do, and.Similarly, the more repetitions you do per set, the shorter your rest should be. In general, the heavier the weight, the longer your rest periods should be.

You should rest between 0.5 to 5 minutes between sets depending on the amount of weight you are using.

Rest time in between sets