How long do you rest between sets?

[Spottydog]

I've heard that it should be 30sec-1min, but some guy at my gym says it should be "however long it takes", maybe 5 minutes, even!
I think that's WAAAAY to long, because you can't give your all if you're giving only 10 seconds of "your all" and then chilling for enough time to fully recover... I feel NOTHING when I do this. Aren't I SUPPOSED to be tearing my muscles down?
Again, I could be wrong.
So how long should I rest?

**Edit: Sorry for the misquote metaldrummer-- I changed this post slightly.

[HoosierBoy]

I've heard that it should be 30sec-1min, but some guy at my gym says it should be "however long it takes", maybe 5 minutes, even!
I think that's WAAAAY to long, because you can't give your all if you're giving only 10 seconds of "your all" and then chilling for 5 minutes... I feel NOTHING when I do this.
So how long should I rest?

For me, 90 seconds to 2 and a half minutes, but I train for strength and power, not size.

[scorp508]

It depends. On my heavy nights when max effort is requird, 3-5 minutes between sets. On my light nights when speed and rhythm counts, 30-45 seconds.

[metaldrummer]

I've heard that it should be 30sec-1min, but some guy at my gym says it should be "however long it takes", maybe 5 minutes, even!
I think that's WAAAAY to long, because you can't give your all if you're giving only 10 seconds of "your all" and then chilling for 5 minutes... I feel NOTHING when I do this, but his logic is it lets your muscles "heal". I say screw it, I'll heal AFTER my workout... aren't I SUPPOSED to be tearing my muscles down?
Again, I could be wrong.
So how long should I rest?

LOL please don't misquote me. I never said that the time between sets let your muscles heal, all I said was I thought YOU needed longer rests between your sets just by watching you kill yourself. Yes sometimes I will take up to five minutes between sets, especially if I'm doing heavy deadlifts or legs, but I guess you know what you're doing. I wasn't saying you needed to rest 5 minutes, just longer than you were...

[willldabeast]

Ya, I think if you wait that long your muscles loose their pump and the blood thats rushing to them. I think you should rest enough to give it your all but not long enough for them to recover.

[kyokushin1]

I superset alot of my workouts so ill do 2 sets of 8-10 reps right after each other then rest for about 60 seconds.

[chrono_silva]

i used to time myself. usually around 1min-90 sec of rest as i was doing pretty heavy weights but at a lower rep count. however now i try to do rest according to my body, but taking in the time as to not rest too long. this has worked for me. it could be 20sec, 1min or even 2.

[mAssholio]

usually around a minute

[ridley89]

I go about 1 to 1:30 mins for small muscle groups and then about 2 to 2:30 mins for the bigger lifts like bench press, squats, leg press, deadlifts.

[blightning]

just listen to kyo on this one, he does sets of 43 pushups

[blightning]

oh sorry my bad pullups, pushups would probably be like 2,000. But back on topic I rest up to 2 or 3 minutes max.

[Spottydog]

LOL please don't misquote me. I never said that the time between sets let your muscles heal, all I said was I thought YOU needed longer rests between your sets just by watching you kill yourself. Yes sometimes I will take up to five minutes between sets, especially if I'm doing heavy deadlifts or legs, but I guess you know what you're doing. I wasn't saying you needed to rest 5 minutes, just longer than you were...

Sorry, maybe I sorta misunderstood...
I guess I remebered 5 minutes from somewhere else... sorry... my bad.

[SDFlip]

just rest as long or as little as you want.

when i'm trying to move more weight, i'll rest more.

if i'm supersetting, i move immediately to the next exercise with almost no rest.

[Wayneizgod]

I try to keep it as intense as possable..most of the time my rest is like 25-30 sec then im back at it

[naughtyneil]

For larger body parts (chest, back, legs) I rest a little longer as I find them more intense. I usually go with how my body feels as well, get my breath back a bit, have some water, refocus and then I'm good to go.

[Mourning Tide]

80 seconds

[Skull Crusher]

I'm hoping that some people here just have horrible perceptions of time, because 5 minutes - in my opinion - is just way to long to recover from an exercise, no matter how intense the workout is. True, recovery times vary from person to person. But if it takes you 5 minutes to recover, chances are you need some serious work on your endurance/conditioning.

I try to make sure my recovery time is about 60 - 90 seconds max.

[jf1]

good rule of thumb:
rest until your breathing/pulse rate is back to a reasonable level!
i wait until i am no longer breathing heavily and jump back in!
after awhile you wont really have to think about it and you will know when you are ready!

[GoJu]

as short as 30 seconds to as long as 5 minutes

[TonySturch]

60 seconds on smaller lifts. 90 seconds on more taxing single axis lifts. 2-3 minutes or more on large compound lifts. Its a balance between recovery, muscle cooldown, and overall workout length.

[Huss!]

good rule of thumb:
rest until your breathing/pulse rate is back to a reasonable level!
i wait until i am no longer breathing heavily and jump back in!
after awhile you wont really have to think about it and you will know when you are ready!

thats what i do...

[Duckenheimer]

just rest as long or as little as you want.

when i'm trying to move more weight, i'll rest more.

if i'm supersetting, i move immediately to the next exercise with almost no rest.

Yup.

I rest 3-5 minutes between sets, except for leg curl and calf work where I only rest a very short time.

Might experiment with a faster pace of training soon enough, but for now, what I'm doing is workin' great.

you can't give your all if you're giving only 10 seconds of "your all" and then chilling for enough time to fully recover...

The longer you rest, the more force you can exert.

[Dominik]

I'm hoping that some people here just have horrible perceptions of time, because 5 minutes - in my opinion - is just way to long to recover from an exercise, no matter how intense the workout is. True, recovery times vary from person to person. But if it takes you 5 minutes to recover, chances are you need some serious work on your endurance/conditioning.

I try to make sure my recovery time is about 60 - 90 seconds max.

Depends on the goal of the set. If you're truly maxing out on squats and deadlifts or doing some crazy rest-pausing on them (i.e. 20 rep squats), why impose time constraints at all? Rest until you feel ready.

Generally 1-3 mins for bb'ing training is a solid guideline, with longer rest times for heavy freeweight compounds and shorter rest times for machines and isos.

[DJAuto]

Normally, a few minutes between sets. I get a drink of water almost always etc.

Up to 10 minutes between heavy deadlift sets.

[spot_skater]

Whatever time it takes to re-rack and get new weights for warm up sets/ between warm up sets and work sets.
75-90 seconds between work sets when doing isolation/semi-iso exercises. (curls, tricep extensions, db presses of all kinds)
2 minutes between squat sets, unless doing extremely heavy sets, then 4-5 minutes
When training calves I wait till the burning sensation goes away and then hit them again.

[GoJu]

I'm hoping that some people here just have horrible perceptions of time, because 5 minutes - in my opinion - is just way to long to recover from an exercise, no matter how intense the workout is. True, recovery times vary from person to person. But if it takes you 5 minutes to recover, chances are you need some serious work on your endurance/conditioning.

no

[LungeManiac]

For my squat and dead lift days, I rest 5 minutes between sets. I need to catch my breath. Those are intense.

On all other exercises I rest 2-3 minutes maximum.

[ChingChang]

I rest 48.3 seconds between sets, and 14 minutes 32 seconds between exercises.

[knowles.ja]

For my squat and dead lift days, I rest 5 minutes between sets. I need to catch my breath. Those are intense.

On all other exercises I rest 2-3 minutes maximum.

What he said.

[battousai216]

when i do squats, deads, and bench press i go heavy, doing only about 5 reps and rest about 2 minutes. However, with most everything else, i stick to 8-12 reps and rest 45-60 seconds between sets.