Effects of shorter recovery between sets?

blaze918 · Nov 18, 2011

Hey guys,

I'm currently training without juice (did a test e cycle about 4 months ago) and I've recently switched from taking around 3 - 4 minutes of recovery between sets to around 1 minute.
I've been kind of horrified, the amount of weight I can lift is so much lower since shortening time between sets. Has anyone else experienced this?

For example the first workout I completed in the manner I went from squatting around 245 for reps of 7 or 8 to struggling with 225 for 8 reps.

The reason for the change is that I would like to put on more size and am under the impression that training with shorter recovery times at higher reps (8-12) lead to more size.

I'm 6' 185, typically do a mon/wed/fri spit. 3 sets of 4 exercises for big body parts, 3 sets of 3 exercises for smaller parts.

Thanks for the responses.

waynaferd · Nov 18, 2011

Since I've been doing FST-7 I've had the same issue...less rest=less weight....but so what, I'm after size, not brute force!!

It can be a tough mental block to get over, but it's also easier on the joints I find, too, plus 45 minutes or so and I'm donesky.

SmallTownIron · Nov 19, 2011

Whatever time it takes to re-rack and get new weights for warm up sets/ between warm up sets and work sets.
75-90 seconds between work sets when doing isolation/semi-iso exercises. (curls, tricep extensions, db presses of all kinds)
2 minutes between squat sets, unless doing extremely heavy sets, then 4-5 minutes
When training calves I wait till the burning sensation goes away and then hit them again.