When to Rest During Exercise

By David Jenkin

This column focuses on something that people tend to either do too much of, or too little of, during exercise. Rest. Striking that balance between work and recovery is not easy, take too much and we begin to procrastinate, take too little and we overdo it and become unwell. So what is the answer?

Essentially, you take the decision into your own hands – but set a realistic time frame and stick to it. You will probably find, especially if you are fairly new to exercise that you need to rest as much as you work, and you might also find that you do not want to do too much work in one go. As such something simple like a 30sec work/30sec rest balance might suit you well. The only way that you will know for sure is to try it out and ask yourself honestly if you need more or less rest, and whether you are capable of undertaking more work, or need to reduce it.

Another quite nifty way of resting when exercise is to split the areas of work. In other words you might perform an upper body exercise such as a wall press up, and then progress immediately onto a lower body exercise such as a squat. While you were completing your press-ups, your lower body was resting. The same is true of the upper body while you were completing your squats. This allows you to do twice the work and still give the exercised muscles sufficient rest. Naturally if you feel you need complete rest after an exercise then revert to plan A – work/rest.

For those of you who are a bit more advanced in exercise, you might consider an exercise training system called 'supersetting'. This is where you exercise opposing muscles in two different exercises. For example, a wall press-up will work the chest and the tricep muscles, you would then follow that with an exercise that works the back and the bicep muscles – for instance a seated row. You are splitting the work between the muscles that work and the muscles that rest, while still working the whole of the upper body. You could then perform a leg extension and a hamstring curl to work opposing muscles in the thigh, which would essentially give the chest and triceps even more rest as 3 exercises would be completed afterwards that do not use those same muscles.

So be inventive, don't procrastinate but look after yourselves. Be disciplined but not over-zealous, and as ever when resting – phones/tablets away, or 30secs can soon become 30mins!!

Martin Westby (your magazine editor) and I have recently co-authored a Self-Help Exercise Guide that includes a whole section on how to do establish this consistency effectively. You can order an exercise guide here.

Or alternatively you can email the magazine at office@UKFibromyalgia.com or myself on   davidjenkin@hotmail.com and we can assist you in purchasing your copy. Maybe somebody could order you a copy for Christmas! To contact me directly, or enquire about 1:1 training prices please check out my website www.davidjenkinfitness.co.uk or email me directly on davidjenkin@hotmail.com.