Rest is crucial for muscles to repair and grow. Muscles need time to rebuild and strengthen. In addition, breaking between sets allows the central nervous system to recover from the stress of lifting heavy weights.
Let's have a look at some general guidelines for rest time between sets:
- 20-30 seconds for a set using around 50% of your strength
- 2 minutes for a set using 75% of your strength
- 3 minutes for a set using 90% of your strength. It’s important not to exceed these times as recovery can be compromised if the muscles are fatigued too much.
The importance of resting between sets is to allow the muscles to recover and adapt to their new weight. This adaptation leads to an increased strength of that muscle group. Muscles are elastic and will only grow with work if it is allowed to recuperate. When muscles contract, they create tiny tears in their fibers which must heal for the muscles to grow in size.
The other reason why rest is important is because when you are doing a set, not only do you have to expend energy but also your heart rate increases. Resting allows for your heart rate to go back down so that it doesn't strain too much from the increase in activity at one time.
There are many benefits of taking breaks during workouts including:
-Improved performance
-Increase efficiency
-Decrease muscle soreness
-Less injury risks
Training increases muscle size and strength. Muscles grow during resting periods between sets, not during the workout.
Many people don't realize that even athletes need to have rest time between sets. Without rest time, the muscles will not be able to perform as well during the next set.