Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake up. It's your only breakfast with Africa. Milanis all right.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Many people have been a messaging leg of fanavestas and
asking about why rest is important. And then a gym partner,
right or someone you go to the gym.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yeah, someone that was in the gym class who are
doing a heavyweight session and asked the exact same question
to the instructor.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So the group X instructors.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
So I thought, you know what if I'm getting these
questions on the gym floor, and I'm getting these questions
from email, and I know, up until a few years ago,
I asked the exact same questions to my trainers. So
I thought, let's actually just touch on the length of
rest between sets for gaining muscle growth. Now, remember we
are not talking bodybuilders that are building for a specific
(00:46):
competition that get big. Women can kind of lift as
heavy as they want. That muscle growth is so increment
And I refer to doctor STACY'SMS if you learn to
listen to any of her podcasts, she talks about why
so difficult for women to gain those strengths quickly. But
today we are just talking about the time to rest
in between.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
So when you go to the gym.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I've watch your rest time between your sets if you're
doing weights.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So I personally would not go, oh, I'm going to
go do the weights today, So it will have to
be part of a class that is being offered, and
we generally are given thirty seconds to forty five seconds,
depending on the intensity of the weight and the movement.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And that is great.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Shorter rest periods between thirty to ninety seconds boost metabola
metabolic stress, and it's a key driver for muscle growth.
So the stress triggers an anabolic signal pathway, which means
it's time to.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, let's grow.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
And then a new study found which is where I
actually got down to the rabbit hole, which says three
minutes is now the ideal time if you are lifting
heavy weights. So that's just the heads up on the
latest research, and I'm sure we'll come back next week
and there'll be other research. Short rests keep the muscle
fatigue high, which means the muscles work harder in successive sets,
(02:03):
and that means it doesn't always have time just to
rest and grow. But now we're just talking. We're not
talking between cardiosets. We're actually just talking between weightlifting sets,
and what you're looking for is hypertrophy. That's the process
of muscle growth where muscles increase in cell in cell size,
and it occurs when muscle fibers. It sounds terrible the
way we say it now, but damaged and repaired through exercise,
(02:26):
leading to thicker, stronger, leaner muscles. And it's a key
concept in fitness and body building focusing on increasing muscle
mass and also filming great muscle.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Does that mean then if you are spending an hour
at the gym and it's a weight day, that you'll
spend more time actually sitting and resting that actually lifting.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Out the way that does sound like that because I'm
going three minutes and I'm doing five different sets, that
means three minutes in between.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
That's fifteen minutes of rest.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
No, it also depends on the exercise and if you're
training with your personal train and I spend some time
with the trainers asking them different exercises do different things,
So things like biceps and triceps, your recovery time is.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
A lot less than that.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Squats and deadlifts, bench pressures require longer rest two to
three minutes for strength gains and to fully recover from
those energy systems, and then compound movements need one to
two minutes rest to balance metabolic stress and recovery. And
then things like bicep curls just isolation exercises. We're just
isolating the one muscle that needs shorter time for rest.
(03:30):
So that's quite quite easy to think. So we're just
doing using one muscle when we're doing our biceps. But
if you're doing things like squats and lunges and burpies,
that's a full body movement, so that requires longer. So
the bigger the muscle group that you're training, or the
more muscles you're training, the longer the rest. And then
for isolation movements to strength, the rest is sufficient between
one and two sessions, and then tailoring your exercise. So
(03:53):
looking if you're designing your own workout plan, which many
people do, look at what it is and see how
hen city is surf, it's the bench press, the squat's
the deadlifts.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
What is your rest time in between?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
And then the small isolated muscles that you're doing separately,
what is your rest in between?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So that's an easier way to look at it.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I wonder if your research told you the answer to
this question, does rest mean you are doing absolutely nothing,
you're lying on the floor in the fetal position to recover,
or as a trainer once suggested that you keep slight, easy,
non distressing movements, but I actual keep moving a little bit.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Now that's a great question because I had the same
thing where you just move slightly. But now I haven't
researched what the lates because remember that research we were
talking about could be two, three, four years old, so
I haven't researched the latest on that. So if there's
any trainers that have got the latest research on that
that are on their way to the gym this morning,
let us know. Is active recovery a good session through
(04:55):
this or is it lying on that. I do love
the lion on the floor in the corpse pose trying
to recover as opposed to the active recovery, but it
also depends, I'm sure, on the exercise. So well, that's
another rabbit hole I'm gonna have to go down for us.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And I imagine if you are doing a whole body
day where you're working both the upper body as well
as your legs, you can't dem it rest. If I've
just done you know whatever with my upper body and
now I'm resting, so that if I'm gonna go to my legs, yes, no.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
No, that's not rest, right, that's that's not rest.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So rest is that time where you're either doing an
active recovery or you're actually just standing for a moment still.
Also remember you were trying to get your heart rate
down as well, So those are really, really, really important,
those rest moments. And I wish to say to my trainer,
why we're resting, same thing, We're resting too much. I
need to get all my training into my forty five
hour session and keep saying minutes five minute session, not
(05:53):
second hours, No forty five minutes two an hour session,
and I'm going no, no, come, come come. We need
to get as much done as possible. But that is
also not the great concept to have doing trying to
do as much as possible, try and do the best
to the right form, to the right recovery. So there's
a lot that goes in when you go into a
training session, whether it's on the weights floor, whether it's
(06:17):
in a weights class. But everyone's different. Your rest time
will be different to my rest time Africa. So it's
also about listening to your body. Listen to your trainer.
Don't argue with them and go oh no, no, I
don't need to rest anymore. If they say rest rest,
if they say drink drinkers, I'm the first to go, no,
I don't need to drink my hydration drink.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I don't need to do anything. And they know. So
you've got to learn to listen to them.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
You and I are so different. I'm more likely trying
to negotiate more time to rest, and I did more
water is and all of that. What are the risks
of resting too little or too much?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
So the sign shows us that resting less than sixty
seconds can cause excessive fatigue, so reducing your ability to
maintain the intensity as well as the proper technique, especially
in strength training, and we know a technique is the
most important. And then too little rest impairs your maximum effort.
Resting more than three minutes between sets can reduce metabolic
(07:11):
stress and lower the muscle growth stimulus. So it's quite
a fine line we're really getting technically here between our
minutes and our seconds. And then overly long rests may
decrease workout in the density and overall training volume, which
is key to building muscle, So you've got to strike
that right balance to ensure that you both work out
intensively get the metabolic stress for those gains. So really
(07:34):
important to know that what you're doing, how you're doing,
how are you feeling In terms of fatigue, Advanced lifters
tend to handle heavier loads and it takes a little
while longer to recover. Beginners who are just heading into
the gym lifting weight for the first time can recover
quicker if they're doing lighter sets and manage shorter sets
(07:55):
while safely progressing. So if you're stuck on any of
the gyms that I've be into, any of the fitness studios,
there's always some on the floor that you can ask.
There's always someone that works at the gym that you
can ask, And nine out of ten times I've really
had great experiences just asking a general question, how does
this cardio machine work, how does this weight lifting machine work?
How does that? Where do I put this? Where do
(08:17):
I get that? So don't be scared to ask or
ask the person next to you, because most of the
times people are really helpful and really keen.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
To absolutely except for the people next to your part though,
because I was it a meme or was it a
viral video one of those where somebody was going around
the gym and correcting everybody's form while not doing any work.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
No, No, I've had that done. I've even had that. I
was resting and someone come out to me. They're like, wow,
you're resting too much. I mean, but I'm working on
the program in front of me. I'm trying to defend
my program. I was like, why am I finding?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Why are you?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And then I said, are you a trainer?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
No? And I was busy training for the Doozy Canoe
Marathon at the time, and he goes, are you are
you training for Doozy? Are you sure what you should
be doing? I said, are you a canoe coach? A
pattering coach?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:05):
And had no nothing good to say. So there are
those people that have good things to say, and if
you have nothing to say, rather just say sorry, I
don't know and get someone else to help.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
There, exactly as Leslie invited you to do. So, if
you have the latest research on active recovery versus sitting still,
please do email her. I'm not here tomorrow, but you are.
Do you know what you're doing tomorrow morning?
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Not yet?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So it will be something that you're going to be
sad to miss out on, you know, to test it
out Tuesday and then on Friday. It's all about the
events in and around Hot teen and the Western Cape,
So please start sending your events through to me. Liesel
V at seven o two dot Coda and liesel.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
V at Cape talk dot have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
next couple of days. Little I'll see you on Monday morning.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
On Monday