Reps & Rest Periods
A Rep (repetition) is one complete motion of an exercise. A set is a group of consecutive repetitions. For example, you can say, “I did two sets of ten reps on the chest press for a total of 20 reps.” This means that you did ten consecutive chest presses (10 reps), rested, and then did another ten chest presses (10 more reps).
There is a huge misconception in the fitness industry when it comes to finding the ideal number of repetitions that are ideal for strength, hypertrophy, and fat loss and how long we should be resting for in between sets.
When it comes to training, most people focus on performing a certain amount of reps, or for resting a short amount of time to increase muscle building potential and strength. It’s much more than that. It comes down to EFFORT. If you’re giving every working set everything you got, then you’re going to burn enough energy to burn body fat, as long as you’re eating in a caloric deficit.
You can burn fat by performing “strength-specific” workouts utilizing a ‘5 sets of 5 reps’ training scheme and resting 3-5 minutes in between sets. You can also build strength by performing “fat burning-specific” workouts utilizing a ‘3 sets of 15-20 reps’ training scheme and resting 30 seconds in between sets.
For this program, we are going to utilize a wide range of reps and rest periods and adjust your cardio accordingly as you progress throughout your training phases.
Where most people fail is by completely ignoring rest periods. They either take too long or too little in between each set, essentially wasting valuable time in the gym. It’s important to bust your ass during each set but it is equally as important to monitor your rest periods, especially when the goal is to burn body fat and preserve or even build muscle strength.
With that said, reps and rest periods do not make up the full picture. Your training must be strategically paired with proper nutrition, cardio, proper progression, and effort to be the most effective.
Compound Exercises:
Compound movements hit numerous muscle groups as you perform multi-joint movements through a range of motion to increase endurance and power.
Drop sets:
This is essentially a technique where you perform an exercise and then reduce the weight and continue for more reps until you reach failure.
Rest/Pause Set:
This technique can add some serious intensity to your training! Basically, perform a set until failure! Right afterwards, rest for only 15-20 seconds, then pick the weight backup and do more reps until failure! This will have your muscles screaming!
Super Set:
Super sets are when you perform two different sets of exercises (targeting opposing muscle groups) back to back without resting in between. For example, you do 10 barbell bicep curls, put the weights down and immediately pick up another bar to do 10 skull-crushers. That would complete one superset and you can rest in between sets for whatever time is alloted for rest periods.