Just wondering about how fast you guys are pushing through your workouts ; your rest between sets, rest between muscle groups , etc .
I’m using a push / pull / legs split and taking 30-35 minutes to complete 16 -17 sets. Some sets are straight, some done in various Zones , Clusters , etc.
Interested in hearing about the rest of you …
10 sets in 20 minutes using 30-10-30 full body, i only rest enough to get from one machine to the next, set the weight and get into position to start
Yesterday, I got 15 rounds of 8 front squats, 1 prowler push/drag and 5 burpee chins knocked out in 41 minutes.
I the burpee chins were the “rest”.
If I’m doing my own thing I’ll do 2-3 minutes (timed rest) between sets. Currently doing DC training so I’m in and out fairly quick
What’s up? How are you liking it?
I like it. I’m pretty deep in a deficit so I’m making it a point to take plenty of rest days. I’m doing the 4 way split but with a little bit extra recovery.
I plan to run it soon while trying to gain so I think then I’ll really be able to see it shine.
As for now, just enjoying the diversity and the shorter gym sessions.
I’m doing the Eternal Warrior plan. It’s taking me about 60-70 minutes to get through it depending on the day. I’m not resting at all between the three exercises in a circuit and then am resting about 2 minutes between circuits. I’m doing 6-7 circuits on the strength work and then 3-4 on the assistance work (1-2 warmup sets depending on the day).
Irrespective of whether I feel good or bad, 30 min for me is a hard stop. After that too much nervous energy is spent (irrespective of exercises involved) and that negatively affects my recovery. Although in my late teens I used to train 60-90 min with no negative signs. I suspect I have lowered my tolerance to exercise which is not a good thing for one having mostly ST fibers. In general, I would prefer to have a crisp 20 min workout and have another one in the evening (I did it on the Ultimate Diet 2.0) if needed. Also to increase frequency instead of volume/duration per session.
I like the original Arthur Jones Nautilus routines but with less volume.
Unlike SuperSlow Zealots who believe pre-exhaust must be for the prime movers only, ex. hips pre-exhaust for the legs, I am of the belief in training areas of the body.
Por ejemplo, Arthur used leg press/leg extension/ squats as a lower body.
Otro ejemplo, is calf raises/leg curls/stiff-legged deadlifts with no rest between sets. Darden refers to this as metabolic conditioning as he routinely states this is a great way to train overall.
It works because more total muscle fibers are involved and exhausted within the anaerobic window. Leg press involves a few different population of fibers than a leg extension, ditto squat, but all are involved in running , walking and standing.
Two recent metabolic conditioning sets I like are thus:
Ivanko gripper/hammer curls/ pulldowns. No rest
Done unilaterally for each arm resulting in 2 sets of pulldowns
lateral raises/Nautilus decline press/pulldowns
No rest!
For most standard exercises (non-compound) I try to keep rest under a minute. If doing HIT style, often times my rest is around 30s between sets.
If doing compound exercises, I rest as long as I need to (I aim for 3-5 minutes) because I’m going for weight lifted, rather than eccentrics. I keep rest relatively short during warmup sets though.
As for total workout length: often between 60 and 90 minutes, most commonly an 1h 15m with cardio/warmup/stretching included.
-I used to do bro splits for like 2 hours a day and honestly I do much better now with roughly an hour (I’m 28 now).
-I did DC training for a very short period and the workouts were pretty short comparatively because Rest-Pause (Trudel style) moves your training along pretty quickly, usually under 60 mins.
-Fortitude Training is about an hour to 90 mins, depending on tier.
Based on some of the above posts, I’d have to say my workout pace is slow, perhaps even leisurely…
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve drifted toward longer rests between sets, maybe 3 to 4 minutes between work sets. Even though my volume is on the modest side, my workouts end up being 70 to 90 minutes due to those generous rest periods. But those longer workouts seem less taxing than when I used to try to push fast through shorter workouts. For conditioning purposes, I prefer to do interval work on an elliptical machine as a separate workout.
Being retired, the longer workouts aren’t a lifestyle issue, and I enjoy the more relaxed pace, which helps consistency. When I got past 65, I found myself struggling more with keeping volume and intensity in line with my diminished recovery ability and work capacity.
That laterals, nautilus press, pulldown circuit sounds intriguing.
I was looking at some of Frank Zane’s old pictures, including ones showing his side delts.
I wanted to double exhaust the side delts, which have a variety of muscle fiber types.
Start with bent dumbbells side laterals, immediately into Nautilus decline press, (front delt & side delts), immediately into pulldowns (rear delts & side delts), at which point the side lateral deltoids are en fuego!
I go really fast, usually less than a minute between exercises, if I use multiset I usually go 30 seconds between everything (Gironda style) so I would do 15 sets in less than 18 minutes total time, if I use single set training it’s very similar, I only rest a bit longer after bench and leg press, those I need a good solid minute after
Mine is very similar , about a minute between exercises for the same muscle but about 15 - 20 seconds between sets of the same exercises, as Gironda advocated. I remember in his ‘Wild Physique’ book he said to strive for not even taking your hands off the bar during you rest. LOL, I wonder what he’d do today if someone was checking their phone between sets ! No doubt he’d be paying for a lot of smashed phones …
Only thing I changed in the last year was taking a couple minutes between muscle groups instead of jumping right into biceps from back … or chest from shoulders, etc. I’ll take a couple minutes to regroup now before starting the next body part.
Anytime I’ve tried to go about it at a more leisurely pace, I’d get lazy , the workouts would drag on too long as I lost focus, etc. I have to start aggressively and go hard or I have a shit workout. I don’t watch the clock as I train but I do note the time I start and time I finish to make sure I wasn’t wasting time somewhere along the line.
I just read something CT said on his forum about this… saying something along the lines of being ‘dumb’ once you start your workout and quit over thinking things.
My pace is fast, 15-30 sec rest between sets…sometimes faster…“High Density”.
As they say… different strokes for different folks.
I will say that the original reason I started to extend rest times was philosophical, and came from the more strength focused approach advocated by the Starting Strength crowd: with multiple sets, longer rest times allow you to keep the weight high for subsequent sets. The idea is/was to keep muscle tension as high as possible, thinking it makes for a better stimulus. Not saying that is a fact, just that is what the theory seemed to be.
Once I trained like that for awhile, I came to prefer it. I suppose it isn’t as effective to train that way if you are interested in building work capacity or if you want to get conditioning as well as strength out of the workout, or if you are time constrained.
Also, while I am less time constrained than some younger working folks with jobs, and kids to take care of, I don’t have infinite patience either. So I tend use strategies like super-setting exercises. For example, alternate bench presses with rows, so that I get longer rests between sets of benches and rows, while keeping the time between exercises shorter. And I do use back-off sets or a reverse pyramid scheme to allow for some shortening of the rest periods. It is a compromise of the Starting Strength philosophy, of course. But life generally involves compromises of conflicting goals.
Also, I’m not sure how old you are… but maybe you’ll find that as the years go on, you will have to redefine what it means to be aggressive and hit the workout hard.
Doing EMOM workouts now, so my pace is pretty quick. 30-35 seconds between sets. Three minutes between exercises.
Not including warm up (10 minutes on rower and some jumps), the workouts take about an hour.
John Casler used to post on the old forum some years back and and claimed ~5 minute rests were best for size and strength while recommending a pyramid approach of 30/20/10 or 20/10/5 (working off memory).
For myself, the short rest gradually happened over the last 10 years or so. Initially, not being as conditioned, it felt so demanding but the endurance/conditioning aspect happened over time. For the life of me, I don’t think I can train any slower as it would drive me nuts.
But I also don’t use “heavy” or max loads like traditional one set to failure, slow, heavy 6-10 reps.
I am often using something like a 15 RM weight (give or take as it varies…sometimes could be 12 RM or up to 20 RM) to do short sets with short rest, brisk yet controlled reps, multiple sets and exercises…very Gironda-like. These workouts seem to have an endorphin-like effect as well creating a positive mood and almost a subtle high afterward. I train first thing in the morning. Usually three days a week…with three alternating days of pure ‘cardio’ (exercise bike or fast power walk on treadmill). I usually take off one day a week. Exercising first thing in the morning really jump starts my day. Being able to do this at home helps a lot too.