Rest times

[Theseahawk]

Hello. I mentioned on another thread that I’m going to push my rest times up to see how long I can keep the LP programming up. Today took me 2 and a half hours to get through 3x5 squat and 3x5 deadlift and three sets of chins.

Soon it will get quite silly as rest keeps going up, but I don’t watch Netflix, so lockdown is a good opportunity to carry out this experiment.

What are the longest sessions have you yourself done, have witnessed the lifters back in your powerlifting career days do, and the longest sessions you have coached someone through?

I imagine coaching the general population, you need time efficiency in programming, but what about when you train athletes? Is there ever a good reason to just keep increasing rest times beyond say 20 minutes and have 3+ hour sessions?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I am no longer "training" in the sense that you are. I train in my own gym while I'm working in the office, so I don't matter. We'll ask the board.

[Mainstream]

Page not found - PubMed - NCBI they are defining a long rest period as 5 minutes between sets

[Robert Santana]

I used to rest longer when I was hitting a new PR every workout or every week. I typically rested for 5-8 minutes when it got to be an all out grinder but as I advanced through training and PRs became less frequent, I shortened my rest breaks to 3-5 minutes. As a coach I rarely have to assign anyone >5 minutes unless the load is Actually Heavy in relation to bodyweight. That said, some days I’ve been more like Rip working and lifting intermittently and that seems to work okay too. How I don’t get “cold” with this approach, I have no idea.

[Theseahawk]

I was interested in your historic numbers just out of curiosity. Not to read anything in to them. But other SS/PP follows’ can serve that purpose I guess. Also that should be 3x5 bench in my original post and not 3x5 deadlift. I didn’t deadlift today.

[BrooklynJerry]

I'm no expert and never was a great lifter, but I did train at Dr.Kens Iron Island Gym in the mid 90s with some top class lifters.Dr Ken always pushed for short rest periods,he felt this built strength.For parts of the year the lifters did this.But when peaking for a meet,usually on Sunday mornings training would start around 10am and last until 2pm.

[JimB]

Hello. I mentioned on another thread that I’m going to push my rest times up to see how long I can keep the LP programming up. Today took me 2 and a half hours to get through 3x5 squat and 3x5 deadlift and three sets of chins.

Soon it will get quite silly as rest keeps going up, but I don’t watch Netflix, so lockdown is a good opportunity to carry out this experiment.

What are the longest sessions have you yourself done, have witnessed the lifters back in your powerlifting career days do, and the longest sessions you have coached someone through?

I imagine coaching the general population, you need time efficiency in programming, but what about when you train athletes? Is there ever a good reason to just keep increasing rest times beyond say 20 minutes and have 3+ hour sessions?

Been a while since I reviewed the LP - 3x5 Deads?

Rest periods have been discussed at length on this board and in the books. When doing heavy squat 5s I might be 8-10 mins of rest. Texas method with a squat 5x5, bench or press 5x5 and a deadlift set (1) would take me over 3 hours before I switched to a 4 day split. Even with a four day split if you’re squatting heavy enough the warmups alone take a decent amount of time.

[Theseahawk]

I used to rest longer when I was hitting a new PR every workout or every week. I typically rested for 5-8 minutes when it got to be an all out grinder but as I advanced through training and PRs became less frequent, I shortened my rest breaks to 3-5 minutes. As a coach I rarely have to assign anyone >5 minutes unless the load is Actually Heavy in relation to bodyweight. That said, some days I’ve been more like Rip working and lifting intermittently and that seems to work okay too. How I don’t get “cold” with this approach, I have no idea.

So in the past I’ve used 5-8 minutes and then when it has stopped working I have reprogrammed. Today I was taking rests of 15-17 mins on my squats 466x5x3 (bodyweight 260). Like I said, it’s making silly long sessions, but I keep PRing so just want to see for myself what happens if I keep extending the rests. There’s no way I’d have made 466 without that rest. 15 minutes after the first set and I only just made the second set. Took 17 minutes and had a much easier third set.

[Theseahawk]

Thanks. Four hours. I imagine top class lifters were probably doing a lot more, both intensity and volume in those 4 hours.

[Theseahawk]

Been a while since I reviewed the LP - 3x5 Deads?

Rest periods have been discussed at length on this board and in the books. When doing heavy squat 5s I might be 8-10 mins of rest. Texas method with a squat 5x5, bench or press 5x5 and a deadlift set (1) would take me over 3 hours before I switched to a 4 day split. Even with a four day split if you’re squatting heavy enough the warmups alone take a decent amount of time.

I meant bench, sorry. I did squat, bench and chins today. I appreciate that I can go and read many posts on rest times. I understand that 5-8 minutes is in the books with more if needed and Mark has written about it either the clarification article or the three questions one. I forget off the top of my head. Andy Baker has said over 15 minutes and you’re just starting to loaf (again off the top of my head, could be wrong). I was really just after anecdotes of what Mark has done, seen done etc. Or anyone really.

8–10 was about what I took on TM too for squats. Occasionally 12. I think 2 and half hours on volume day was about as long as sessions got.

I’m going to push on with trying to PR on this revisit to LP and see how long it goes. No reason not to, I don’t think.