IPF Powerlifting 52kg Women's World Champion Marisa Inda (314 squat, 209 bench, and 402 pull at 114 pounds) has often stated that her workouts are typically 45-60 minutes long.Д¬ontrast that with the workout durations of Marisa's coach, super heavyweight powerlifter Chad Wesley Smith, who weighs over 300 pounds and who has the 10th highest super heavyweight total of all time, which are between an hour and 45 minutes and 2.5 hours. When you have more tissue to recover, you'll need longer time periods for that recovery to occur, and vice versa. Obvious, right? 6 Bigger, stronger people need more rest between sets than smaller, weaker people.

If you're doing sets at a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of 7 (that's 3 reps from failure), you'll need less rest than you'd need for sets taken to 10 RPE (failure). 5 Sets taken closer to failure should be followed with a longer rest period. You'll need more rest between hard sets of hack squats than you will between hard sets of hammer curls, for example. This recommendation has implications for your exercise menu as well. Add to that all the rest time between your warm-ups of 135, 225, 315, 405, 495, 585, 675, and (perhaps) 730, and by the time you're done squatting, you're 90 minutes into your workout already. Imagine you're so strong that a tough squat workout is along the lines of 765 for 3 sets of 3.ДЄn optimal rest interval for each work set is in the neighborhood of 10 minutes.

Incidentally, this is one practical reason why the training of elite-level powerlifters is so specific to the 'big 3' lifts with minimal time allotted for assistance work. If, on the other hand, a 'hard' 3x3 for you is 495 pounds, your optimal rest intervals would be longer, perhaps between 6-8 minutes or even more. In the previous example, I suggested hypothetical rest intervals for a lifter who does a hard 3x3 with 365.

4 The more weight on the bar, the more rest you should take. Then maybe 4 minutes after your first triple with 365 and 5 minutes after your second triple. If your next deadlift workout calls for 3 sets of 3 with 365 pounds, and your typical warm-up looks like 135x8, 185ењ†, 225x4, 275x2, and 315x1, your rest intervals might be along the lines of 45 seconds after the lift of 135, 60 seconds after the lift of 185, 90 seconds after 225, 2 minutes after 275, and 3 minutes after 315. 3 As you work through your warm-up sets, rest periods should gradually lengthen. The only exception is that your warm-up sets for each new exercise will require less rest than the work sets that follow. That being the case, in an idealized situation, you'd rest slightly longer during each subsequent set of each workout. This falls squarely into the 'common sense' category, but it bears repeating that fatigue accumulates over the course of a training session. 2 Rest less between earlier sets and longer between later sets. After all, if you rested for 2 minutes between your first set and your second set and you failed to hit 5 reps, you didn't rest long enough.ДЄs you progress through your work sets, pay attention to accumulated fatigue, and if you barely made your last work set after a reasonably short rest, take a longer break before your next work set, and repeat the process with each subsequent set. So even though it might be difficult to determine how long you should rest after your first set of 5 when you're squatting for 5x5, you at least can determine if you rested long enough after you do your second set of 5. And, as it turns out, the term 'recovery' is defined as a return to a desired or at least expected level of performance. There's only one reason to rest after performing a set in the first place, and that's to facilitate adequate recovery for a good performance on the next set. After reading them, you'll understand why no one should ever say something as simple as, 'Rest 3 minutes between sets.' 1 Your performance on your next set indicates whether or not you rested long enough after your previous set. When one of my athletes inevitably asks, 'Coach, how long should I rest between sets?', I provide him with a list he can use to help him decide.

Good rest time between sets