How long should you rest between strength training sets?

There is currently no standard answer that suits everyone. The universal range recognized by the sports science community and front-line fitness circles is 30 seconds to 5 minutes. The specific time depends entirely on your training goals, action types and even your physical condition that day. There is no "universal golden rest time" at all.

Last week, I saw a novice in the gym holding a stopwatch and checking the time. He would lie down on the bench after resting for 1 minute for each set of bench presses. As a result, the third set of movements was so crooked that he almost twisted his shoulders. I went up to remind him to take more rest. He also said that the Internet said that you must rest for 1 minute to gain muscle. If you rest for 1 minute, you will lose muscle, which made me laugh. In fact, it’s not his fault. In the early years, the “1-minute muscle-building rest method” was indeed popular in the fitness circle. Research at that time focused more on metabolic stress. It was believed that the strong pumping sensation and lactic acid accumulation brought about by short rest can stimulate muscle growth. This logic is not wrong now, but it is only applicable to limited scenarios. A number of controlled experiments in the past five years have long confirmed that if you practice heavy compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses that involve many muscle groups, resting for 2-3 minutes can actually allow you to maintain sufficient weight and reps for the next set, increase the total training capacity, and increase muscle-building efficiency by about 30% compared to hard training for 1 minute. The two statements are not contradictory at all, but they are just different emphasis of training - if all you practice today are small weight isolation movements such as lateral raises and biceps curls, the muscle participation is low, and a rest of 30 to 45 seconds is enough. After a long rest, the muscles will be cold and you will not be able to feel the force. ； If you want to hit the weight and lay the foundation, you really don’t have to get stuck so much. You’ll be less likely to get injured if you rest enough before doing it again.

In fact, resting between sets is similar to charging a mobile phone. If you only need to watch short videos for 5 minutes, charging 20% ​​is enough.； If you have to drive navigation for two hours and have to take a work call, you must charge more than 80% before you dare to pull out the charger. You can't just plug it out after charging for one minute no matter what you do. Wouldn't that make you unhappy? If you are a fan of powerlifting and pushing your limit, resting for 5 to 8 minutes before trying heavy weights is a routine operation. If you are a CrossFit player who trains muscle endurance, many rests between sets do not even exceed 30 seconds. The goal is far from the goal, and the rest duration is of course not comparable. There are still many people who debate whether they should sit and rest between sets or walk for active recovery. In fact, there is no standard answer. Many powerlifting guys I know squat on the side after a heavy set for a long time without wanting to move.

I have been practicing for almost 6 years, and now I don’t touch the stopwatch at all between sets. I squat down and drink a few sips of water to chat with my friends, or show the new fingers how to use the equipment. If I feel out of breath, and the muscles that exert force have slowed down and are no longer stiff, I start the next set. In the past six months, the bench press has increased by 10kg. There is really no need to be too obsessed with such a trivial matter as the length of rest. It is much more useful to do standard movements in each set and have enough training capacity than to worry about the rest time of dozens of seconds.