Tuesday, October 03, 2006
The Importance of Rest during Weightlifting - Gary Breuhan
It’s taken a long time, but the strength and conditioning community is finally starting to embrace the concept of “rest.” We now realize that muscles grow after we’ve left the gym, and that the central nervous system, the true governing body of performance, requires several days – and possibly even weeks – to recover after maximal challenges. However, as far as we have come, we’re still missing the boat in one regard. Our modern “revelations” have brought us to realize the importance of chronic rest, but judging by what you see in many gyms nowadays, most people are still overlooking the importance of acute rest – that is, rest between sets.
We need to look to two ends of the spectrum when considering the importance of acute rest. First, many lifters and athletes are resting too long in between sets. Obviously, this leads to less productive use of training time, but more concerning is the fact that prolonging workouts excessively can have a negative effect on one’s endocrine function. In an ideal world, training sessions should not last more than one hour, the point at which hormones that break down muscle tissue rise appreciably. You need to get-in, do your thing, and get-out, so it’s important to pay close attention to the rest periods you’re taking between sets.
Previous research has also established that circulating growth hormone levels are increased with shorter rest intervals during resistance training sessions. If you want to maximize output of this crucial muscle-building, fat-burning hormone, you’d be wise to keep an eye on the timer between sets. Short rest periods are also crucial for endurance athletes seeking to make the most of their interval training; if the rest intervals last too long, the athletes won’t be challenging the buffering capacity of the metabolic system.
Conversely, many athletes’ impatience is actually shortchanging their efforts, as they aren’t resting long enough in between sets. Heavy resistance training protocols geared toward enhancing maximal strength may actually require rest intervals as long as 8-10 minutes! While the muscles themselves may feel recovered from the previous effort, the nervous system that tells those muscles to fire takes appreciably more time to recharge between efforts. If one doesn’t rest long enough between efforts, subsequent force output will drop off, and the overall training effect from the session will be compromised.
This same phenomenon is true with high-impact plyometric training, sprinting, and agility protocols, which may demand rest intervals in the 3-4 minute range. It’s also imperative that athletes be given ample rest when learning a new technique, so coaches would be wise to put their athletes on a timer to prevent them from rushing when a new skill is introduced. Finally, adequate rest is necessary in interval training protocols to ensure that a sufficient amount of quality work is performed in spite of the incomplete rest periods.
The take-home message is that regardless of your goal – size, strength, speed, agility, technique, or endurance – you need to pay close attention to timing your rest periods between sets. Letting them run long or cutting them short could be the difference between “good” and “great” results. We all know that it’s very easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re all fired up to lift, so we don’t instinctively look to the clock to start timing our rest immediately upon finishing a set. With that in mind, why not “outsource” this thinking to a quality timer like the GymBoss? If you bring the attitude and the effort, we’ll take care of the timing.
Training Goal Optimal Rest Period Length
Strength 2-5 minutes
Power 2-5 minutes
Hypertrophy 30-90s
Muscular Endurance 15-30s
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