Group: General Fitness & Exercise

Created: 2011/12/31, Members: 379, Messages: 54577

Various general exercise related discussions. Find out what it takes to reach your fitness goals through daily effective exercise. With so many options we try to find out what works best.

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Time between reps and sets

Ed_Young
Ed_Young
Posts: 13
Joined: 2009/05/19
United States
2011/02/16, 01:21 PM
Is there an optimal time gap between a) reps and b) sets? Or does it vary by exercise? For example, I find that when I'm doing squats, simply because I'm using heavier weights than when exercising other muscles, it's just more difficult and my heart rate goes up. If I continue with the second rep without too much of a break I can do that and so on, but at the end I'm sweating like a pig. :) Am I building muscle here (which is what I want) or doing heavy cardio?

Conversely, if I'm doing, say, flyes or presses, even though they are more difficult (lesser upper body strength) I don't sweat but I have to wait a little longer (and the more so as the exercise session lasts) before doing the next rep.

And is there a time to pause between sets (not reps this time)? I do maybe five minutes of stretching. Good? Bad? Who cares?

Any advice appreciated.