Hacker News Reader

Comment by deagle50 | Hacker News Reader

Their blog post says not to rest for more than 90 seconds between sets. I can see why the app would work better with tight groupings but 90s is not enough max gains and recovery, especially for beginners.

View on HN

Beginners in the first month or two are mostly just learning the motions. 90s rest is fine. Once you're a few months in, and you've progressed all the weights significantly from your untrained starting point, then 90s seems like a crazy short amount of time.

"The men who took longer rest periods experienced a 152% increase in MPS in the early part of recovery compared to the men who took short-rest intervals who only saw a 76% increase. That’s a two-fold difference."

https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/perfect-amount-re...

Why would you deprive a beginner of these benefits?

One study. 1 minute vs 5 minute rest periods. One dimension of the study (MPS), over 28 hours post exercise. No idea if this is relevant after the first workout, or the second, or the first week. This is pop science. The actual study might be fine, but the extrapolation out to practical applications is pretty silly at this point.

So, I would deprive them of these benefits because I suspect that they are mild to irrelevant, and because an adult male benching 75lbs 15 times is likely to be bored out of their mind resting 10 minutes between those three sets (for example), for what is probably a trivial-or-non-existent 'edge'.

Beginners will be enjoying the "novice effect" and will benefit from handling as much weight as possible after learning the movements, which should happen in the first one or two workouts. Extending the rest periods as long as needed to finish the next set will benefit the novice more than the experienced lifter.

Shortened rest periods are good for prioritizing growth over strength, i.e. body-building. One can only begin "body-building" after establishing a sufficient base of strength from which to start.

90s Jesus fuck I'd die. 2:30 minimum for me, usually more like 3:00.

If you're doing heavy compound lifts like squat and deadlift, and you care about developing strength, then take as much time as you need to succeed on the next set.

on higher weights sometimes i wait a full 5 minutes. from my experience resting more ensures you complete all your sets and reps which are the most important things based on my experience.

at a minimum i wait until my heart rate slows down. i haven't noticed any additional gains for shorter weight times.

Consistency trumps all! (according to the data)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com