I’m finding that the 3-5 minute restriction works pretty well for squat and DL, in that it doesn’t feel like I’m losing a lot of strength between sets.
But for press and bench I find that if I’m supposed to be working up to 7/8/9, I can usually just repeat the @8 weight and get @9, and my backoff sets will start @9 which I think is not intended, and usually with stay @9 if I take off even more weight.
What I’m really wondering is if I should just take longer rest times. I have noticed some other esteemed coaches asked similar questions, and they seem to believe that if you can afford the time, you should just take the longer rest.
OTOH if it is possible to adapt at some point and start recovering better between sets that would be quite desirable.
If you focusing on strength I think you should rest long enough to recover. Lets say you are doing sets of 4. You would not be doing sets of 4 in a hypertrophy phase so you are obviously focusing on strength at this point. Thus you want to focus on developing neural efficiency. Not taking the longer break time and taking off 10 pounds may get you a similar hypertrophy effect, but it won’t give you the same neural training.
By contrast if you are in a clear hypertrophy phase doing sets of 10 and 12, I would save the same time and lower the weight by 5 or 10 pounds.
For what its worth the Iron Culture podcast with Omar and Eric Helms did a 90 minute episode on rest time between sets a couple weeks or so ago… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJpkVHBbBMo
Thanks for the link, I will watch it a little later.
What you say seems correct with regard to strength training. But for hypertrophy don’t we still have the problem that metabolic fatigue (i.e. lack of energy) is preventing us from getting as much muscle fatigue as we could if we rested longer?
It depends on what you are training for. For 1RM strength or power if you perform better after resting longer then the rest is beneficial. For hypertrophy I’m not really sure, I know there are few studies looking at hypertrophy with different rest periods, but I’m not up to date, I think the results are mixed. Reducing rest and therefore reducing weight on the bar reduces tension on the muscle which is bad for hypertrophy, however some people think that metabolite buildup may stimulate hypertrophy. Personally I go with the rest to maximize performance approach (normally 3-10minutes). However I expect that if you cut the rest short it’s not that big a deal.
I can imagine scenarios where limiting rest may increase muscular fatigue in a way that may be beneficial for hypertrophy, but it’s not how I would normally program.
You probably adapt to shorter rests. I would imagine it is an endurance adaptation, which means short rests have value but also drawbacks (muscular endurance adaptations are probably bad for power and maybe even strength and hypertrophy). I guess you could argue that if in the long run having better endurance means you can do more high quality sets then it may pay off.
Training for power, strength or hypertrophy I agree that it’s bad if your sets are limited by your cardio.
Regarding the last paragraph, it doesn’t feel like cardio. I’m not huffing and puffing, my subsequent sets after my top set just get weaker fast. I think the correct term is rather “central fatigue” as opposed to metabolic fatigue.
It’s possible longer rests would not actually help? Not sure.