How does rest time matter? Like each week I’m trying to increase 1kg to my BD press or weighted dips but I’m also considering reducing rest time from 3 mins to 2 mins, is that important and will it be considered progress if I reduce rest time between sets as well as increase weight?
yup, reducing rest time is progress. Vince Gironda was a big fan
What you are describing is consistent with Escalating Density Training as described by Charles Staley. Enjoy.
I think manipulating rest intervals is a really underutilized tool. I’ve been doing this:
Week 1: Compound movements: 2 mins
Iso movements: 60s
Week 2: Compound movements: 90s rest
Iso movements: 30s rest
Week 3: Same as week 2 just with and added set per exercise
Week 4-6: Compound movements: 3 min rest
Iso movements: 90s rest
After the 3 weeks of lower rest periods, strength always shoots up the 3 weeks of longer rest periods.
In the “more than one way to skin a Cat” nature of weight training, it does.
- Increased rest time → heavier weights lifted → progress
- Decreased rest time → greater amount of ‘work’ being done → progress
Both are viable approaches to training, and you’ll find many successful people who have employed both at times in their careers. If shorter rests in new to you, simply realize that your weights in successive sets may dip a bit, but that lifting as heavy as possible isn’t the sole method of building muscle.
S
Great answers thanks guys
[quote]EyeDentist wrote:
What you are describing is consistent with Escalating Density Training as described by Charles Staley. Enjoy.
Thanks for the link
IMO, don’t compromise tension for a lower rest time. Id rather spend an extra 20 minutes at the gym and have higher tension sets with longer rest than rush through less valuable sets.
[quote]TWB2013 wrote:
IMO, don’t compromise tension for a lower rest time. Id rather spend an extra 20 minutes at the gym and have higher tension sets with longer rest than rush through less valuable sets.[/quote]
See Stu’s post.
Everything will work temporarily.
I like John Meadows approach to Arms, but fuck your fcking dead by end of the workout and its pretty short 45-50 minutes.
[quote]optheta wrote:
I like John Meadows approach to Arms, but fuck your fcking dead by end of the workout and its pretty short 45-50 minutes.
[/quote] Do you have a link?
[quote]tazui1982 wrote:
[quote]optheta wrote:
I like John Meadows approach to Arms, but fuck your fcking dead by end of the workout and its pretty short 45-50 minutes.
[/quote] Do you have a link?
[/quote]
Hmm shit its in Zraw’s thread like on page 9 or 7. He posted a routine that Meadows had him doing for a week.
Rest between sets is something that is grossly underrated. Personally I rank it as high as exercise selection and loading parameters when it comes to getting gains.
I personally feel that if you can decrease your rest intervals without losing performance, you will get much better gains. I also find that nothing kills my focus more than long rest intervals, if I want to stay in the zone I gotta move quick.
I rarely take more than 90 seconds even for my heavier lifts and normally stick to 45-60 seconds, sometimes 30. But I gradually worked my way down. It would be a big mistake to make a drastic cut in rest intervals… that is sure to kill your performance since you are not used to it.
A good rule of thumb is to decrease by 15 seconds per week and lower as long as performance is good then stick to that and strive to improve other parameters.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
I personally feel that if you can decrease your rest intervals without losing performance, you will get much better gains. I also find that nothing kills my focus more than long rest intervals, if I want to stay in the zone I gotta move quick.
[/quote]
I will say this…I don’t know if I agree with the “better gains” statement, but I know for sure it made a gigantic difference in my body comp over time since I started training that way.
decreasing rest intervals has been the biggest change since then.
Probably the most valuable lesson I learned from running the Big Beyond Belief program was the importance of rest times. Like the above posters have said, treat it like a loading parameter, and don’t be afraid to manipulate it to periodize your training blocks. Training for two weeks at 90 seconds, one week at 60, then one week of 120 will show how powerful a tool it can be.
Sounds good thanks guys.
I like to train upper body with less rest due to that i lose that tunnel vision as well as my pump. I rest on legs from 1-3 minutes since Im using considerably more poundage to destroy those stubborn leg fibers.