Thread: Rest periods between sets....necessary ?

Are rest periods during your weight training workout necessary? Some trainers will encourage people to rest several seconds or minutes between sets of lifting. Here is one scientific study that supports this idea.


The study, done in Iran, measured testosterone and growth hormone in two groups of men. One group lifted weights with no rest periods. The other group lifted weights with repeated rest periods.
The results of the present study support rest period in [resistance exercise] sets as an important variable to increase the anabolic hormone concentrations, and it should be mentioned that short rest intervals elevated greater increase in [growth hormone] concentration compared with 120-second rest. However, [testosterone] response was greater in the [resistance exercise] protocol with a 120-second rest interval between sets.

Effects of very short rest periods- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20555276

Short rest. In the study, men who rested only 60 seconds between sets of their exercises—squat and bench press—gained the most growth hormone.
Long rest. On the other hand, men who rested 120 seconds—two minutes—between sets of their exercises gained the most testosterone.
Therefore:
This study is a good reason to take rest breaks while lifting weights. Waiting one or two minutes between sets of your lifts is a way to increase your growth hormone and testosterone responses.
And:
This will yield greater strength and mass gains for your athletic goals. More information about growth hormone is available.

Great source, bro. I love seeing ncbi/pubmed on here. I'm generally very skeptical when I read something from BBC or something like that. I actually had my PI send something like this to me and he's done similar research for 15ish years. I've only been doing it for about six months haha. Only thing I don't like like about ncbi is I have a harder time finding relevant clinical research, I see mostly animal/molecular research. You have any way of sorting through the millions of docs?

Good read!

I was always taught that the amount of rest you take between sets is determined by the type of workout.

If you’re using really heavy weights and doing fewer reps in order to bulk up, you can take up to 5 minutes between sets so that your muscles can produce their greatest effort each time.

Circuit training does a decent job of building strength, and can be a good substitute for an aerobic workout, especially if you start and end with a fairly long aerobic warm-up and cool down. You move quickly from exercise to exercise with little or no rest at all.

Originally Posted by capytan

Great source, bro. I love seeing ncbi/pubmed on here. I'm generally very skeptical when I read something from BBC or something like that. I actually had my PI send something like this to me and he's done similar research for 15ish years. I've only been doing it for about six months haha. Only thing I don't like like about ncbi is I have a harder time finding relevant clinical research, I see mostly animal/molecular research. You have any way of sorting through the millions of docs?

No real specific manner Capytan... Keywords and reading. Pubmed is filled with SOOOOOOO much literature. It is unfortunate so many searches turn up studies on animals. There's a few other equally good sites out there as well.

Just done an article on this. The problem with these studies is that they are done either on college kids who play videogames all day or semi-athletic people. World class trainers agree...rest periods are dependent on intensity and volume in effect for hypertrophy

I usually rest 3-5 minutes when lifting heavy and 1-2 minutes when light. It's kinda a guess u just know when your body is ready to go again so a lot of the time I don't even really pay attention to how long my rest was

Thought 90 second breaks were ideal for hypertrophy. I have been trying to stick to that unless I'm doing heavy squats or DL's.

Nice read,I usually rest under a minute

if u already have 1500mg of exogenous test running and your shut down do you think your body will still produce any extra testosterone?