Ask-A-Coach: What's the Importance of Rest Periods?

Here at Fitness Together, we focus on comprehensive, full-body workouts that fit within 45 minutes. While we might be tempted to cram as much exercise as possible into that time period, that doesn’t mean we want to rush from one exercise to the next! What’s the right balance, and benefit, of resting between exercises? Let’s talk about it!

During any amount of exercise, the body is balancing between three different energy systems; the anaerobic, glycolytic and aerobic system. The anaerobic system is mainly used for short burst exercise, like heavy weight-training or sprints and will sustain effort for roughly ten seconds. The glycolytic system takes over after that, creating energy to supply for up to two to three minutes of exercise. A perfect example would be completing a series of sprint intervals on the Echo Bike. Once we get past three minutes, we switch over to the aerobic system, dealing with any low-effort long period exercise like jogging.

Now that we have an understanding of what’s going on under the hood, let’s talk about rest periods, specifically, during our workouts. We generally advise at least 10-15 seconds between each exercise, and one to two minutes between each set of exercises completed. This accomplishes two goals; first, the short rest between each exercise allows you to set up correctly without having to rush; second, the rest period between each set is the perfect cross section of recovery for each energy system, allowing you to perform at your best! It’s also important to consider the difference between the ‘ideal’ and what works for you. If you find that you need less rest between a trio of exercises, or more rest after something particularly difficult, feel free to listen to what your body is telling you!