Rest periods and over all time at the gym.

[BizzyIzzy]

I can go into bigger details, but the to shorten into a nice and simple summary:

I used to go anywhere for an hour or possibly more to the gym without ever timing myself unless I was in a rush in the morning before work. Used to leave with minor sweat and not much hard breathing.

Pretty much now I time myself to absolutely no more than a 2 minute break in between sets, and 2 minutes is considered my slowest laziest day. My lifts have not really gone down in weight and the ones that did, did so with a very minor percentage. I started doing this in the middle of a cut and think it has been great to me.

An example of my Chest and triceps day would be 3-4 exercises for chest and 3 exercises for triceps. Now going by this I can spend the absolute minimum time at the gym for about 24 minutes to the maximum of 42 minutes. (7 exercises all 3x8)

Yet I see people posting how they spend as much as over an hour at the gym, and i used to be one of them. So am i handicapping myself here? Is there a benefit to this at all? Maybe added indirect cardio? More calories burned this way, so beneficial for cutting? I just see some dudes sit on a bicep machine for the same amount of time I have already done Incline bench and am finishing up decline bench.

Granted I know there is some variable involved like lets say if I just sat there and took my time spending 10 minutes on an incline bench doing 225 pounds in a 3x8, dropping the weight of the bench all the way to 170 and acting as if 3x8 with 1 minute breaks is to be more proud off is not practical. But what if the weight only dropped to 205 and I am able to do 3x8 with 1.15 minute breaks (about 4.5 minutes to finish)

P.S - Also wondering for people who clearly body build and are not strength training, what is your workout like that you spend over an hour at the gym?

[NoexBB]

Just to throw it out there, a good way to cut down on total gym time is to do fewer sets with more reps. It's the rest that takes the time, not the sets. Cut down on sets but make the sets longer and you can get a great workout in less time.

I ought to know, I am in the late stages of medical training and my time is SHORT, but even I have time to work out because I do it that way.

[BizzyIzzy]

Just to throw it out there, a good way to cut down on total gym time is to do fewer sets with more reps. It's the rest that takes the time, not the sets. Cut down on sets but make the sets longer and you can get a great workout in less time.

I ought to know, I am in the late stages of medical training and my time is SHORT, but even I have time to work out because I do it that way.

Well what I was getting at is that I am cramming the same volume I used to do. Is it beneficial in anyway, especially during a cut? How is it fair that when going to an online calorie calculate the dude who spends 10 minutes doing 1 exercise of biceps and spends half of his time at the gym browsing the web, checking emails and ******** gets to put "1 hour at the gym" getting the benefit of more calories burned. While someone who sweats like a pig in the end of their workout and is breathing more heavily has crammed the same volume in 30 minutes is treated like a "moderate" level.

My point was am I wasting my time with trying to cram the same volume in a shorter time thus increasing over all volume per minute. If the weight remains the same or doesn't go lower than 90% of the original what is the added bonus of shorter rest periods.

[SuffolkPunch]

If you are resting 2 minutes you are probably fine. There is scant evidence for any benefit of shortened rest periods. Most experts seem to be advising that you should take as long as you need between sets. If shorter rests reduce what you are capable of doing, you are probably leaving some gainz in the gym

[BizzyIzzy]

If you are resting 2 minutes you are probably fine. There is scant evidence for any benefit of shortened rest periods. Most experts seem to be advising that you should take as long as you need between sets. If shorter rests reduce what you are capable of doing, you are probably leaving some gainz in the gym

OK this is what I was looking for.

I know there is a gray area and its hard to pin point a sweat spot, but what would your advice between rest periods and weight done? I just don't believe sitting at a bench for 10 minutes is productive unless you are doing something like a 5x5 or 3x5 focusing mainly on strength. Where do I draw the line between too fast and not fast enough, if I am interested more in the body building aspect.

I am giving myself a head ache here because for instance If I take the 2 minute rest advice and add on another 15 seconds for each set, at 7 exercises (4 chest, 3 triceps) at 3 sets each that would be 21 (sets) x 2.25 (minutes), that would mean 47 minutes spent at the gym. I am just curious as to what kind of work out people are doing at the gym when they spend over an hour there unless it is strength training.

[SuffolkPunch]

It does sound like you are trying to do too much volume. By the time you get to your 3rd and 4th chest exercise, you probably are way short of peak performance anyway.

But to answer you question, I don't think you need to overthink it, just take as long as you need without being lazy. Most people gain nothing from taking more than about 3 minutes unless it's something really exhausting like maxing out on high rep back squats.

[BizzyIzzy]

Thanks dude. One last question though. What about in regards to going on a cut and calories burned? Are the calories burned not all that significant between 1 vs. 2 minutes rest times? Or should weight lifting not even be my go to source of calorie burn, as opposed to calorie deficit and maybe cardio?

[NZninja101]

Thanks dude. One last question though. What about in regards to going on a cut and calories burned? Are the calories burned not all that significant between 1 vs. 2 minutes rest times? Or should weight lifting not even be my go to source of calorie burn, as opposed to calorie deficit and maybe cardio?

The latter. You're doing more work with longer rest, (more weight for more reps), but your heart rate is elevated slightly higher with shorter rest. So each option has benefits to the point of them both probably being similarly useful. So it then comes down to weight lifting for the focus on muscle preservation and doing the diet and cardio for the weight loss.

[dmacdonal9]

Thanks dude. One last question though. What about in regards to going on a cut and calories burned? Are the calories burned not all that significant between 1 vs. 2 minutes rest times?

The research I've seen is fairly clear that calories burned during lifting relates most directly to total work done (weight X sets X reps). The amount of times it takes isn't much of a factor.

Or should weight lifting not even be my go to source of calorie burn, as opposed to calorie deficit and maybe cardio?

Exactly.

[tastan]

As a bodybuilder my leg and back days tend to go over an hour, but not by a lot. I don't like taking short rest breaks with squats or deadlifts and I believe that it can lead to injury, so I would not recommend rushing through those two exercises. Everything else I go pretty fast through.