The Importance Of Resting Between Sets

The Importance Of Resting Between Sets

We can all agree, resting 5 minutes between sets or longer is not the best way to burn fat. So too, does not resting at all, which explains why high intensity interval training where rest periods or active rest recovery intervals are known to be considerably more effective at burning fat than steady state cardio where there is no rest.

When it comes to resistance training, intensity is once again a key factor. Hypertrophy also matters greatly.

When approaching your weight training sessions, you should not be deciding between muscle growth or fat burning, rather you should be seeking hypertrophy as a means of maximizing fat loss.

Muscle tissue is highly metabolic, so the more of it that you have, the more fat you will burn. Decreasing the amount of rest between sets is great, but if that diminishes the amount of weight you are able to use, then you are not going to build muscle and therefore your metabolic rate is not going to increase as much.

You want to have enough rest in between sets to be able to lift maximum weight, but not so much that your heart rate comes back down close to resting. Full rest periods for someone training in the 8-15 rep range depending on the weight would likely fall between one and three minutes depending on the intensity. To emphasize fat burning, however the goal would be to slash those rest periods while not having to drop weight considerably. Also a rep range depending on intensity with 12-20 reps I would rest between 20-90 seconds.

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