By Joe DiMartino
Working Out
Joe DiMartino
One of the most common mistakes I see at the gym (and you see it all the time) is the amount of rest people take between sets.
Sometimes you are waiting to use a machine or looking to see if it will be available for your next exercise, and you see a person not doing anything other than looking at their phone. While you are waiting, you notice five minutes have gone by, and you have not gotten to that machine.
This is frustrating, but what is the point here? The amount of time spent resting between sets varies on what you are trying to accomplish.
For instance, if you are lifting very heavy weights (85-100 percent of your one-rep max) then it is correct to be resting three to five minutes between sets. This is the amount of time it takes to achieve approximately 100 percent recovery of adenosine trisphosphate and phosphocreatine. It is basically the amount of time needed to get your energy back for optimal heavy lifting performance.
However, if you are lifting for muscular endurance or hypertrophy (which most people are), your rest period should not be longer than one minute. Within that one minute your body is able to recover approximately 85-90 percent, and that is perfect for what you are trying to achieve. Let’s say you are in the basic group of doing three sets of 10 reps per exercise. Your rest period should be one minute or less.
If you have been taking longer than that in the past, try this out. If you are on the shorter side of a minute, the exercise will feel extremely challenging. If you take the full minute, you should be able to execute almost as well as if you took three minutes.
Do not get distracted by your phone and waste time. This is why I do not think you should even bring it with you in the gym. Keep your rest periods short. You will get better results, be more time efficient and get out of the gym quicker.
Joe DiMartino is a NASM certified personal trainer with a bachelor’s degree in sports management from the University of New Haven. He is the owner of In Shape at Home LLC, where he focuses on training clients in their homes. He can be reached at 203-751-3336 or joedimartino2@gmail.com.