I bet Marilyn was a rest-er. Did she like vodka? Maybe she was a Russian spy!!
Right after “Who does she think she is? Where does she get off giving fitness advice?” (Answer: I’m a total nobody! And I try never to give advice. If anything, I live as an example of what not to do.) the criticism I get the most is “It’s hard to trust her experiments since she doesn’t always follow the workouts/diets the way they’re written.” Guilty as charged! And exuberantly so! My Experiments are woefully unscientific but what I lack in rigor I like to think I make up for in entertainment. After all, have you ever found a workout that calls for sparkly tutus and neon sunglasses? I love to workout and part of the reason for that is because I make the workouts adapt to my life not the other way around. And part of my life happens to be my short attention span. I blame Saved By the Bell. (All your problems solved in 30 minutes or less – and in lacy bike shorts!)
But I can totally understand the (un)scientific frustration and for those of you who are ever bothered by my adapting various workouts to be what I want them to be (condensing Rachel Cosgrove’s 16-week plan into 8 weeks, mixing four separate workouts to come up with the Ballerina Experiment, refusing to ever do a lat pulldown no matter what the workout says), rest assured that the Gym Buddies share your frustration. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Are we doing this the real way or the Charlotte way?” Allison’s taken to checking up on some of the workouts I bring in on her phone just to make sure I’m not accidentally-on-purpose making them harder.
Which is why “Step away from the dumbbells Charlotte! It’s not time yet!!” was a common refrain on the weight floor the past two weeks as we’ve started The New Rules of Lifting for Women. Gym Buddy Krista even threatened to tackle me.
“Can’t we just cut it down a little bit?” I’d whine. “They’re soooo long!”
And no, I’m not complaining about how long the workouts are (they’re pretty short actually – 30 minutes or less most days). I’m whining about the rest periods. For some reason Alwyn Cosgrove is insistent on the rest periods between sets and between workouts. He strongly cautions against rushing through from one exercise to the next and instead mandates anywhere from 60 seconds to 115 seconds between every single set.
Do you know how long 115 seconds is? It’s 5 seconds shy of two minutes. Did I mention that’s between every set? It’s making me NUTS. Two minutes is not long enough to get into a really good conversation about potty training and yet it’s far too long to stand there and “heeyyy” at each other. Maybe I should bring in my knitting? Remember, I’m the girl who can’t sit still through an entire movie and those are made to be entertaining!
This has long been an issue for me. Back when we were doing Lindsey’s barf circuits, she instructed us to rest 1 minute between each circuit. Not for this girl! I’d sprint from one station to the next and the Gym Buddies, feeling compelled to keep up with me, would run too. We could finish a 45-minute workout in 30 minutes? Score! “You know,” Krista said once as we panted and tried not puke. “These probably wouldn’t make us barf if you’d take the dang rest.” Suffice it to say, the day I learned about super-setting was the happiest day of my weightlifting life.
But this is probably where the answer to the first question people ask about me comes into play. I’m no fitness expert. Obviously. The only college level exercise class I took was sports psychology (fascinating, by the way!). I have a degree in computer science for pity’s sake. And, you know, Alwyn’s an actual expert with vetted credentials and stuff. So Krista’s right, there’s probably something to this whole waiting business. He wouldn’t have us wait that long just to be contrary would he? Would he??
He doesn’t explain the reasoning behind his prescribed rests in his book so I looked it up. Says Livestrong, “Inadequate time between sets results in decreased performance and possible clinical symptoms such as nausea.” Hmm…there’s that nausea thing again. But I would like to point out that I feel totally ready to go and not in the least nauseous after 30 seconds. Max.
Quoth the American College of Sports Medicine, “the duration of rest period significantly influences the metabolic, hormonal and cardiovascular responses to a short-term bout of resistance exercise.” Okay, but how exactly? My gut says that more is better so if I can handle no rests that would be best metabolically right? (Duly noted: my gut was also what told me double cardio was a good plan, that eating like a squirrel was healthy and that I could pull off a funky mod-Buddhist-monk sheath I found at the thrift store. Fail on all fronts.)
From Livestrong again: “Strength goals require high loads, few repetitions and full recovery periods, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Hypertrophy goals require moderate loads, high volume and short to moderate rest periods. Muscular endurance programs require low intensity, high volume and very short rest between sets. Time between sets is goal-specific and affects overall results.”
Rest periods are goal-specific? Now you’re talking. I don’t care a whit about hypertrophy. Muscle endurance is useful for some things. But do I want to get stronger? Heck to the yes! So that requires… “full recovery periods.” So fine. I need rest. But how much?
Weight Lifting for Dummies advises, “If you’re a beginner, rest about 90 seconds between sets to give your muscles adequate time to recover. As you get in better shape, you need less rest — only about 30 seconds — before your muscles feel ready for another set.” But I’m not a beginner, so what’s up with the 115 seconds?
Long story short, I read a lot of books and a lot of web sites and I just confused myself further. (Although I did learn that apparently a) the US sucks at weight lifting and b) not using proper rests between sets was the reason for our slide into ignominy. The Russians are pretty much professional rest-ers. And they are also the country that invented vodka… coincidence?)
Help me out – are rest periods between sets really that important? Why? And how long? Any of you impatient like me and prefer to make every weight workout into a circuit? Anyone else totally unable to sit still through an entire movie?
updated to add: You really need to read Gym Buddy Krista’s comment below (#2). This is why I laugh every day at the gym, people. Man I love my girls!
Oh, honey — I have the same problem. Patience is not one of the virtues I was given. If I can turn a 20-minute strength workout into 19 minutes, I’ll do it. Plus, I get bored very quickly. Unless I’m trying to recover my breath or taking a water break, I see no reason to stop moving. My body doesn’t seem to be objecting… yet. 🙂
I’m watching you girl!! I AM the restinater and there shall be no cheating during this particular experiment. Mostly cause, dang girl, you’re hard to keep up with. Oh, and for those of you who care, I am the official break-keeper this experiment…and if it says break for 75 seconds, by golly we’re going to break for that whole minute and a half! 🙂 Yes, I know.
Buwhahaha! I love you. I bumped your comment up to the post!
BWAHAHAHA!
You keep her in check, Krista!
And Charlotte, maybe you should bring your knitting.
Or nail polish.
Or “Moby Dick”.
🙂
Beck, I see your BWHAHA and raise you a maniacal MUWHAHAHAH! And nail polish – good idea! I’m sure this will make everyone on the weight floor love me even more;)
Perhaps if you’re not needing that much rest then you’re not at the stage of lifting heavy? But I haven’t started reading my copy of ‘New Rules …’ yet so I’m not exactly certain what you’re doing lifting-wise though. Does he say rest even at the start with light weights? I don’t really get that if that’s the case.
I’m into powerlifting (deadlifting, squatting, benchpressing) and as I’m now lifting/squatting around 100kg at the finish, I NEED that 60-120 seconds break between sets as the weight builds up. My muscles just won’t work otherwise and without the breaks I’d have as much chance of lifting a kitten as 80-100kg.
That’s an interesting point! Maybe we need to be working on lifting heavier! I feel like I really push myself but maybe I don’t… hmm, going to think on that one! The one thing for sure I could do more on is the deadlift – the problem is that my grip strength gives out first.
Yes. Try upping the weights a bit and see how this makes you feel. You might come to appreciate those rests.
We tried our darndest today to live as heavy as good form would allow but I dunno. It’s hard knowing exactly what “lifting heavy” means. For instance, the first move was a combo R. Deadlift and bent-over row. Well I can DL a heck of a lot more than I can row so I kind of went in between with 95 pounds which felt like an easy DL and yet the row was so difficult I almost couldn’t complete the sets. And yes, with the pull-ups I def. appreciated the entire rest period but everything else… I don’t know.
Charlotte dearie, I am a fitness expert (and humble person) and I weigh in by saying you could and should shift to active rest, not this old school passive rest lame-o-ness. Since I am in my nighttime rest mode I will look up the research another time. Consider thusly, mistress of the GFE — if you just worked your legs, why not “rest” them as you train your upper body? Who has time to stand around between sets looking gorgeous? Use that time to do an unrelated muscle or movement. idea.fit has lots of articles on this if you are interested …. Or looking for something to do while waiting for magical rest.
Well he has us alternating between different body parts within each set (i.e. Bulgarian split squats alternated with shoulder presses) but then he tells us to rest between each pair. If that makes sense. So it’s either the best or worst of both worlds;)
YES! Rest periods are very important. When you are lifting -especially with some the workouts that Alwyn designed- you deplete all the glycogen (energy, power) in your muscles. The rest period is what allows your muscles to “restock” their energy supplies enabling you to continue. The heavier the weight, the longer the rest period. (When I’m bench pressing over 100#, I rest for 5 minutes! Or I fail at the next lift).
It’s very common to want to rush through a workout, however, it will end up backfiring on you. The possible results: Metabolic meltdown (remember those 2 hours unplanned naps you sometimes have?), nausea, DOMS, or dehydration.
DOMS is awful. The longer it takes to set in, the worse it is for me! I once had it take 18 full hours before I felt it and I wanted to cry when I did!!
Oooh I wonder if that’s the mystery behind our random “metabolic reactions” we sometimes have! Interesting! Allison benches over 100# without rest. But then she’s 25. I only do 95. I’ll have to think on this one.
As for the DOMS… I have to say that those are kind of the norm. I know, I’m not supposed to be sore after every workout but I usually am. Maybe I need to think over that too.
I am no expert. But, like you, I enjoy reading about fitness online.
I have heard that different rest times result in different. . .results. . . regarding weight training. Personally, I’m a fan of both. I tend to circuit train, so I’ll do incline crunches with a 10-lb weight and then move to the bench to do overhead presses, then back again. Working different muscles in different ways but still moving the whole time (keeps the cardio up, too!).
That being said, if I’m just doing something like bench press or single leg squats or something, I have to rest or I literally can’t do it by the last rep of the second set. And I really don’t want to drop the barbell on my neck or fall over in the gym. . . so rest it is.
I wonder if the fact that I don’t feel like I “need” the rest means that I’m not lifting heavy enough? Will have to think on this!
I like Ben Greenfield’s advice, similar to Kymberlyfunfit’s above, which is to simply work a different muscle group. Then again, he also has advice about 10 minute workouts.
I just love your humor, you are very entertaining!
I am not sure about Russians being total resters, because when I was a skater my trainers barely let me rest at all. We trained and workout 6 days a week and about 5 – 7 hours a day, with very little rest in between.
Me personally I prefer shorter rests, anything over 15 seconds is too long. I think I would go insane if I had to rest for 115 seconds, I am a very go go go kind of person and I love to keep moving. I also think 30 minutes is a perfect time for a workout, anything less is just too short and and anything more is just too long, but if you are resting half of the time in a 30 minutes workout, it would feel much longer.
Haha – thanks! Very cool that you were a skater! It sounds like your training was grueling.
not shockingly the RESTING is this misfits fave fave part.
I follow Rachel Cosgrove’s FBB and must admit I use the rest times in the book as more of a “guide” ie. I generally only rest if I’ve completely maxed myself out in the last set and need to stand around for a minute doing nothing simply so I don’t keel over. Hmm.. I think I should probably be paying more attention to those rest times. 115 secs does sound long though. I think Cosgrove’s max rest times are only 90 secs.
Yes, her times were much shorter. And we too pretty much used them as a “guide” as well;)
Well since I work out alone I don’t have anybody to talk to 🙁
This is all very interesting! I suppose I vary the rest period and lifting speed depending on how I am feeling. I’ve long just followed my instincts with this stuff and for me it may be more important that it’s going than how well it’s going 🙂
When I was dead-lifting, I gradually increased my rest time along with the weight. 150-lb lifts only needed a minute to rest; by the time I got up to my max of 275-lb, I was resting THREE minutes.
Hmmm… yes, like I replied to another commenter, maybe the fact that I don’t feel like I “need” a longer rest means I’m not lifting heavy enough?
I’m doing this experiemnt with you – WEEK 2 HOLLA!!! – and I admit that when I wrote up my spreadsheet to bring to the gym (I’m a nerd), I didn’t bother with the rest period bs. I didn’t write it down. If I am huffing from lifting hard, I take a longer break to catch my breath, otherwise, I dont pay attention. Maybe I rest 30 sec between sets? Err….maybe less? I’m going to pay attention today.
Hahhaahh! Glad I’m not the only one who er, estimates! And we start stage 3 this week – let me know what you thought of stage 2!
Charlotte, I wrote a long comment but it was “eaten”! I will come back later.. your site still “fights” me! 😉
Oh Jody! I’m so sorry! I don’t know else to try…
It’s so funny that you wrote this post because I went through more or less the same thought process when I pulled the New Rules of Lifting off my shelf. I hate sitting around waiting between sets – I am there to get the workout done, not sit around. Usually I will just disregard the instructions and alternate exercises without any rest in between. So I pretty much turn every workout into circuit training. But, this time I figured I would actually follow the instructions. I’ve only had a chance to do one workout so far and I’m only at 60 second rests. You’re right that the workout was really quick, even with the rests. Not sure how I’d handle 115 seconds of waiting around. At least you have your gym buddies. I’m alone in my basement. If I’m lucky maybe one of the cats will hang around with me.
But the picture of you just standing in your basement while your cat stares at you will have me giggling all day. I love it.
I’m a rest-cheater. If it says rest after an upper body exercise, I’ll do a set for the lower body. Or throw in some jumping jacks, or even the 80’s cardio staple, marching in place. (I know, you thought I was gonna say grapevine!)
When it comes to working out, I have the attention span of a 4 year-old at an amusement park. Who has to pee.
Please please tell me you grapevine on the weight floor sometimes? For me??
For you? Perhaps I’ll go upstairs to the weight room today and start a conga line of grapevines!!!!!! (How awesome would that be?!?!)
Um, yeah. I’m there with you. I have 30 mins 2 times a week to dedicate to weights and I feel GYPPED if I can’t squeeze in at least 7-10 different exercises. I am not lifting super heavy, and I like the benefit of a little cardio while I lift. I’ll find an empty room and set up circuits for myself a lot of times so I can get more done without resting. I feel like resting the muscle group while continuing to work something else is still “resting”. Although, I am not a weights expert. I’ve only ever done them to help keep strong for my “real” training.
And I tend to fall asleep in movies. Like Jurassic park. In the theatre. Roars and rumbles apparently are my sweet, sweet lullabies… 🙂
I slept through Jurassic Park too!
Man, you guys stink! Jurassic Park can have like 52 sequels and I will SEE THEM ALL!!! Animals eating people…I tell you, it’s therapeutic!! 😉
I think I just remember why, despite being friends for years, we have never once seen a movie together.
Party pooper!
Totally guilty on the unable-to-sit-through-a-whole-movie thing. My husband hates it, but I have things to do!
I found that part of NROLW very frustrating, too. Especially when I was the gym by myself. I always wondered what I was supposed to do for that almost two minutes. Wander around? Drink water? Stare at myself in the mirror? What?
A previous commenter suggested nail polish. You could get an entire pedi complete with topcoat done by the time your workout’s over!
I’ve sort of cheated my way around this as much as I can by alternating upper and lower body exercises in my workouts so that “technically” I’m resting one group while I use another…I find resting over 30 seconds to be maddening…
My problem is not really giving my body “off days” for workouts except for weekends…and any thoughts on that?
Um, I have the same problem. Except I workout on Saturday too. But yeah, you and I both should work in an extra day of rest in the middle of the week somewhere. Repeat after me: muscles only grow when we’re resting!
I’m so the same way. I don’t belong to a gym so I follow DVD’s for my workouts and P90X or Tony Horton’s One on One and to me some of the brakes between sets seem to take forever! I feel like I’m being gypped from a workout cause your only really working for 3/4ths of the time.
Hahahah – when we did our P90X experiment, after the first few times we’d just fast forward his breaks (and all his talking! my goodness that man is chatty). We also did the yoga vid on double speed sometimes…shhh…
i am one of those I CANNOT REST people. i am doing jamie eason’s trainer right now and do three sprints of the Gold’s gym stairs between sets.
thanks for the post, definitely something to think about!
Glad to know I’m not alone! Is Jamie Eason’s workout good – should I add that to my experiment list?
Probably! I am only following the workouts, not the nutrition. The nutrition is typical clean eating–pair carbs with protein, add healthy fat, yadda yadda.. except she does say no starchy carbs in the evening and fruit only around a workout or w/ breakfast and I can’t be bothered to follow those guidelines. But I am LOVING the lifting workouts. I am only on phase 1 (of 3) and so far there is no cardio. I know in the next two phases there is some cardio, HIIT and some carb cutting and carb cycling, so it will be interesting to see what the guidelines are and I *might* give them a shot. It would be cool if you added it to your list and did it to a T–would love to hear your thoughts if you did it!
Hi Charlotte. I have not read other comments but they may say the same thing – rest periods are more about what your goals are in terms of the workout. Lift heavy & put on muscle & size may require more rest in between sets. Not as heavy but still trying for that muscle, less rest. Power lifters, more rest. Lean out, circuit training. It really is about the goals for you.
Me, I circuit train but do 1 body part & then another & keep moving with moderate weight & drop sets. Sometimes I even try a bit heavier & drop set but I still circuit train to keep leaner plus with age, anything to help me fight this crap! 😉
When I truly lift heavy and push myself, I neeeeeeed a couple minutes of rest in between sets. It’s partly for physical recovery and partly for the mental zomg I can’t believe I’m going to have to do that again. I think – for me – a quick recovery time is an indication that I could go harder during my set.
I’m doing NROL4W for the whole thing, and I just finished stage 3. I can’t imagine how you are doing it in 30 minutes! Especially since it calls for 15 minutes of interval training at the end of every other workout. In any case, yup, everyone nailed it. If you can go right into another set, try more weight. That might be why you can zip through the workout too, If you are using the most weight you can, you just can’t go fast. I’m so wrung out at the end of my workouts, I’m surprised I can walk to the car.
Sorry – I should have been more clear. I wasn’t including the 15 min of intervals in the 30 minutes, just the weights. On interval days it takes us about 45 minutes to get through the workout. As for the weights, the past two workouts (since I posted this) I’ve been lifting as heavy as I absolutely can. And I am TOILET SORE, so I’m pretty sure they’re heavy enough. But… I still feel like the rest periods are too long. I know. Sometimes I wish I could just get you guys in the gym with me and tell me what I’m doing wrong!
I’ve been working through NROL4W for a while, and definitely find the rests too damn long in stages 2 through 5 (I skipped 1). I try to lift as heavy as I can, but I still find the long rests tedious, and they make some of the workouts really long. I’m also struggling a bit with having SO many compound exercises – I’ve come late to developing my upper body strength, so what I can handle for say, the push press part of a squat-to-push-press is definitely not taxing the lower body. On the other hand, I love DOING those exercises.
The stage 6 workouts are shorter, and I’m finding the rests better suited to me – I’ll stick it out through stages 6 and 7 now, but I certainly won’t go back to the stage 3, 4 and 5 workouts without some significant modifications.
Looking forward to hearing what you and your gym buddies thought of it!
Sorry for the double post, just remembered the other aspect I wanted to comment on. I find it a little confusing to know what weight I should be lifting when Cosgrove has you drop back weight for the first workout of a new stage, and lift heavier with fewer reps as you progress through the stages. I’m finding that really, there’s very little difference between what I can lift for 4 reps, and what I can lift for 8 or 12. Now I’ve started stage 6, for example, I find I can only lift 95-100lbs in a set of 2 lat pull-downs when I could lift 90lbs for 8 reps in a previous stage. There’s no way I could manage the 112lb 1RM that the calculators tell me I should, based on my 8 rep weight. It means my first two workouts of each new stage have involved considerable trial and error, while I try to work out the right weight.
Oh I know! Those “warm-up” sets have us really confused too. We do a lot of dubious math before just kind of guessing. Not to mention that I will never again do a 1RM of back squat. The hemorrhoids were just not worth it;)
I think it depends on the weight and on the exercise. You do a 5RM backsquat (and you have been doing those for a while so that the 5RM is related to your underlying strength rather than your ability to coordinate your muscle fibers) you need a couple of minutes rest. Same for deadlifts, assuming that the limiting factor is the posterior chain, not the grip, and for bench presses. So any of those “big three” near a PR (and you would generally try to PR at every session, or at least once a week if you are into lifting) will require you to rest because they are just exhausting.
Now for assistance work… For rows, or biceps curls, or whatever else you fancy the rest you need might be much shorter, especially if you superset so that the arms recover when you work your legs. But if you have been consistently squatting for a while and you dont need a few minutes rest between 5RM sets then yes, the weight is too low….