No rest for the wicked: keep your rest between sets short to boost your caloric burn long after the workout

it's probably safe to say that most women want one thing from weightlifting--a lean, shapely body. To reach this goal, you must maximize the amount of fat your body burns each day. The good news is that you can accomplish both goals by altering just one feature of your lifting program. What is this critical feature? Rest (or the lack of it).

Research from our laboratory shows that resting between sets for one minute or less will provide you with a metabolic burn that will last well beyond 24 hours. While this concept is nothing new, the observed increase in metabolic rate was very surprising. In fact, the metabolic rate after a workout using one-minute rest periods was almost double that of an identical workout with three-minute rest periods. In other words, both workouts burned the same amount of calories, but women who took shorter rest periods between sets had almost twice the resting metabolic rate (and calorie burn) over the next day or so as the women who rested longer.

Rest Period Reduction

So why does reducing your rest periods have such a dramatic effect on resting metabolic rate? In simple terms, it seems to have to do with a faster heart rate, faster energy turnover and greater hormone release.

So how can you take advantage of this effect? There are several ways to implement shorter rest periods into your workouts (see "Fast Forward"), but first you must realize that other factors are also important. In addition to reducing your rest periods, you need to maintain fairly heavy weights (8-10 reps) in your workouts. It's easy to drop your rest periods when you drop your weight dramatically, but this defeats the purpose. Revving up your metabolism requires both heavy weight and a fast pace.

Since you need to maintain your lifting weight, you must consider another factor--fatigue. Training with moderately heavy weights and little rest is very taxing. Listen to your body and rest longer as necessary while you slowly build up to this style of training. With such a fast training pace, lactic acid levels build rapidly and your body must develop the ability to remove this fatiguing metabolite--this should take about six to eight weeks. In the meantime, you may experience feelings of nausea and dizziness. But these symptoms mean that you have dropped your rest periods too quickly. Remember that slow progression is the key to longevity with any training program.

REFERENCES

Kraemer, W.J., et al. Changes in hormonal concentrations following different heavy resistance exercise protocols in women. Journal of Applied Physiology 75(2):594-604, 1993.

Kraemer, W.J., et al. Physiological adaptations to a weight-loss dietary regimen and exercise programs in women. Journal of Applied Physiology 83(1):270-279, 1997.

Tharion, W.J., et al. Effects of different resistance exercise protocols on mood states. Joumal of Applied Sport Science Research 5(2):60-65, 1991.

RELATED ARTICLE: High Burn

This graph represents the percent increase in resting metabolic rate after two identical workouts with different rest-period lengths. Resting metabolism is significantly greater after the one-minute rest period workout.

RELATED ARTICLE: Fast Forward

Increase your post-workout calorie burn by using these techniques in your lifting program:

* If training with a partner, rest only long enough for him/her to finish a set.

* Try supersets, compound sets or triple sets--keep moving from one exercise to the next with minimal rest.

* Try high-power circuit training (using heavy weights).

* Monitor the clock until you gain a feel for a one-minute or 30-second rest period.

* Keep socializing to a minimum. Try wearing a Walkman to curb your social butterfly tendencies.

William J. Kraemer, PhD, CSCS, is director of research and a professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and editor in chief of the National Strength and Conditioning Association's (NSCA) scientific publication, the Journal or Strength and Conditioning Research.

BY WILLIAM J. KRAEMER, PHD, CSCS

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