Bodybuilding.net - Bodybuilding Forum - View Single Post - Guide to Novice Barbell Training, aka the Official Rippetoe-Starting Strength FAQ

_Wolf_ · 01-14-2007, 09:30 PM

VI. Routine-Specific Questions, Part 3

Question - How long should i rest between sets, exercises, and during warmups?

This is a strength program first, and a "mass and conditioning program" second. As such, you rest as long as necessary between sets.

During the warmup, rest between sets will be minimal. You want to get blood into the area, raise the temperature of the associated musculature and connective tissue, take some time to practice the exercise with lighter weights, and increase tissue elasticity. With the useage of light(er) weights during your warmups, you can use a shortened rest period. You may only need to to rest long enough to change the plates between warmup sets. However, once you get to the "meat and potatoes" of your workout (i.e. the "3x5 work sets"), you rest as long as necessary.

If you are poorly conditioned, you may require several minutes between sets, especially on the squat, deadlift and power clean, as these are particularly taxing exercises. Once you are "in shape", you can probably get by with no more than 2-3 minutes between sets. However, once the weights start getting heavier, you may take upward of 5 minutes between sets, especially when you are setting PRs (personal records) in the squat, deadlift, row and/or power clean.

Resting between exercises is not something you really need to worry about. You will need to change weights, change stations, get a bench set up (or a power rack set up) or whatever. The exercises are chosen so that you are alternating primary areas of work, so that you don't really need to overthink this aspect of resting.

For example, you are trashed from your squats, and you have bench presses next. Well glory be to God, you get to lie your happy ass down on a bench and do some light warmup benches with an empty bar! While your legs (and possibly breathing and overall body) recover from the squats, you are lying down on the bench, happy as a pea in a pod.

Again, don't overthink rest periods between sets or exercises. Move between exercises as quickly as you can, however, DO NOT compromise your performance. If you can get 5 reps after resting 2 minutes, but only 4 reps if you rest 90 seconds, then rest 2 minutes. If you need to rest 3 minutes in order to get that 5 rep set, then rest 3 minutes. If you need 5 minutes of rest before you can reasonably get the 5th rep, then take all 5 minutes. Strength and weight-on-the-bar increases are more important than your heart rate while lifting weights.

NOTE - the next portion is NOT ADDRESSED BY MARK RIPPETOE. As such, it is coming from me, Kethnaab, the oaf behind the keyboard. Take such advice for what it is, the words coming from an ornery old staff sergeant who has spent too much time training young soldiers and not enough time at home sleeping.

Rest between accessory exercises is thoroughly up to you. You can do your accessory exercises as part of a circuit, resting only long enough to move one station to the next. i.e. do your set of dips, then immediately walk over to the chinup bar and have at it, then immediately walk over to the slant bench and do your situps, etc.
Or you can do all your sets normally, i.e. do a set of dips, rest, do another set of dips, rest, do your last set of dips, move on to chinups, lather, rinse, repeat.

Don't overthink this part either. You can use the accessory exercises for conditioning purposes if you like, which circuit training lends itself to nicely. You can use the accessory exercises for the purposes of strength improvement, which means you are going to hang some weight from you and do some heavier sets. This will require longer rest periods, just as with the main exercises. If you are trying to do some "bodybuilding" style work here, you will want to keep your rest periods relatively short, between 60 and 90 seconds. It is up to you.

ACCESSORY WORK IS JUST THAT...."ACCESSORY WORK". IT IS NOT A PART OF THE MAIN WORKOUT, AND SHOULD BE USED ONLY BY EXPERIENCED TRAINEES. AS SUCH, YOU SHOULD HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. If you have a ton of questions to ask about accessory work, chances are pretty good, you probably don't have the experience necessary (and as a result, the conditioning necessary) to really need to do the accessory work. Accessory work is for people who NEED accessory work. If you are new, you don't need accessory work (yet).

Question - When I'm done, I don't feel tired and I don't have a pump. Is something wrong?

Not at all. This routine is not about "getting the pump". It is about adding weight to benchmark exercises so that you get stronger. The pump is not a part of this program. Strength and muscular development is. Although Arnold thinks the pump is as good as cumming, many of us beg to differ. The pump has SOME type of correlation/relationship to growth...maybe...or maybe not. It certainly isn't a necessity, and it certainly isn't worthless, but it is far from being important enough to worry about.

In many a typical "bodybuilding" workout, especially a bodybuilding workout that is augmented with anabolics, the pump can be a pretty interesting experience. Although it CAN be indicative of potential muscle growth, it is not, in any way, shape or form, DIRECTLY tied to muscle growth.

In other words, muscle growth and "the pump" are not directly related. You can have one without the other. You can build tremendously large, thick muscles without getting much of a pump.

You'll notice that some of the leaner powerlifters and strongmen out there are incredibly well-developed and powerful. I'm willing to bet they don't conduct their training with "the pump" as a goal. it might be a side affect, depending upon the phase of training and the specific exercise, but it certainly isn't their target.

You want a pump? Grab a Campbell's soup can (I like Chunky Steak'n'Potatoes, myself) and start curling it. Curl it for 10 minutes. Bet your biceps feel tired! Bet you have a helluva pump! Bet you didn't do a damn thing to make your biceps bigger or stronger!

Get it? Pump != Growth

Bottom line - don't worry about the lack of the pump. If you really need to get a pump because it is just like cumming, find a pretty lady who is willing and able, or get some vaseline and spend some quality personal time with yourself.

Question - How long should I rest between accessory exercises and sets?

Accessory exercises can be done separately, i.e. do all your pullups, followed by all your abs, followed by all your back work. Or, it can be done as a circuit, i.e. do a set of pullups followed by a set of abs, followed by a set of GHRs, then repeat this triple-exercise for 2 or 3 circuits. If you do your sets separately, you should rest no more than 90-120 seconds between sets and exercises.

The first few workouts have been incredibly easy, am I doing enough? I thought this program was supposed to be hard?

Remember, in order to grow bigger and stronger, you merely need to disrupt metabolic and physiological homeostasis. If you have been sitting around playing Nintendo for your whole life, you don't need to do much of anything to disrupt said homeostasis, since the only exercise you've gotten, aside from great thumb action, has been walking to the refrigerator.

As such, the first workouts are going to be submaximal (For safety reasons as well as conditioning/growth reasons), and they will end up relatively short. As you progress in strength, your workouts will become increasingly difficult, simply due to the added weight being used. By starting off relatively easy, this also reduces the incidence of crippling DOMS, and tends to result in less injuries and better exercise technique being learned by the trainee.

Question - I don't get a burn in my muscles, just an ache. Am I doing something wrong? Shouldn't I feel a burn?

This program is not a "burn in the muscles" type of program. Jane Fonda wanted to feel the burn when she did her aerobic tapes. If you take a 12-oz can of Chunky Soup (The soup that eats like a meal), and curl it for 20 minutes straight, you will feel a burn. If you flap your arms like a dodo bird trying to fly, you will feel a burn. None of those things will provide any type of growth.

Although "feeling the burn" in a variety of exercises can be beneficial, it is unnecessary at this stage of training, and as such, is not going to be a result of this type of training. No, you aren't missing out on anything, other than a burn. If you want to feel a burn, light yourself on fire.