are you beginner who has just started strength training or you're looking to
start a body recomposition journey you've got your body recomposition workout plan
all designed and you're ready to go but you want to make sure that you're using the best
reps sets and rest time in order to get the best results in your body recomposition in this video
i'm going to explain what are sets and what are the best number of sets per exercise to do to make
sure you're getting the most out of your strength training sessions and same for reps what are reps
and what are the optimal amount of reps that you should be doing per exercise in order to build
lean muscle and decrease body fat and then i'm going to talk about the importance of rest times
between sets and what an optimal rest time looks like based on your specific goals and make sure
you watch all the way to the end because i'm going to give you a sample beginner body recomposition
workout plan including recommended sets reps and rest times if you are looking to get started on
your body recomposition journey let's get right into it but of course if you're new here make sure
you subscribe to my channel and hit that bell so you get a notification when i release a new video
every single week my name is michelle roots kinesiologist personal trainer nutrition coach
and fitness and fat loss motivation specialist i have over 16 years experience in the industry
helping people blast body fat get stronger get leaner and become the best versions of themselves
and i want to help you next and by creating this channel i'm hoping to help even more people reach
their fitness and fat loss goals okay let's get right into it but i just want to touch base
i am not going to be specific about what body recomposition is if you are looking to learn more
about what a body recomposition even is check out this video already on my channel i'll link that
in the description below i also have a few other videos talking about if you can body recomposition
at home or how long a body weight composition will take in order to decrease your body fat and build
lean muscle you can check out those videos as well i'll link that in the description below too but
we're going to focus more here on the sets and the reps and the rest time in order to get the most
out of your strength training workout so let's start by talking about reps
what is a rep anyway a rep can also be known as a repetition and is pretty much one complete
exercise so for example let's talk about a squat one squat equals going down going back up that is
one repetition going up and down five times equals five reps or five repetitions so now
we know what reps are what is a set a set is described of a group of repetitions performed
continuously without stopping so now we've got reps we've got sets how many reps and how many
sets should we be doing of each exercise to really increase lean muscle mass and decrease body fat in
a body recomposition there's a lot of different research out there and a lot of different beliefs
into set numbers rep numbers but in the end i'm going to give you the most basic sets and reps
because again i'm talking to you as if you were a beginner and you're just really starting to
focus on your progressive overload and getting into a progressive training plan so these are
the sets and reps that you should be looking at starting so let's talk about reps first
basically there are a few different ways to determine how many reps you should be doing
based on your goal so if you were looking to build muscular endurance you're probably going to go
in the 12 plus rep range of specific exercise if you're looking to build muscular size and strength
which most likely you're looking to do in a body recomposition you want to stay around the 6 to 12
or 6 to 10 rep range and then if you're looking to build more muscular strength and power either
you're a power lifter or you're an elite athlete you might stay in the one to five rep range if
you were a beginner and you were looking to start a body recomposition you're just looking to build
muscular strength and build more lean muscle in order to decrease your body fat a great rep range
to start would be in six to ten six to eight rep range and just for the sake of keeping this video
nice and short i'm not going to talk about sets and reps and rest time for muscular endurance
or muscular power we're gonna stay focused on the muscular size and muscular strength which again is
the main focus for a body recomposition so there you go we're looking to do about six to ten reps
of each exercise but how many sets should we be doing the best recommended number of sets for
beginners starting a body recomposition would be between three to five sets of each exercise there
are also a lot of factors that will come into this such as how much time you have available
for your workout how many times a week you are strength training if you're only going to the gym
three days a week and you only have 40 minutes or 45 minutes to get your workout in doing five
sets of every exercise might not be realistic for you because you're gonna be limited as to
how many exercises you can actually get into your workout now i'll talk about this a little bit more
when we touch base a little bit later on the body recomposition workout plan but there are so many
ways to look at this so now we know each exercise we should be doing about six to ten reps for three
to five sets now this can be built into a workout plan in so many different ways a lot of people use
supersets i talk all about supersets in this video right here i'll link that in the description below
it's a great way to be more time efficient in your workouts and really hit more muscle groups or
really challenge your muscles in a different way and we're talking about the rep ranges of
six to twelve the way i like to explain this to my clients we talk a lot about progressive overload
so when you're looking at that six to ten rep range i talk all about progressive overload in
this video i'll link that in the description below if you want to know more about it and you want to
make sure that you're challenging yourself enough in the workouts but i'll just quickly touch base
6 to 10 reps is the recommended rep range so for example if i have a client who's doing a
barbell bench press they go to the gym say they put 15 pounds on each side of the bar that's
75 pounds and they're able to do three sets of eight reps of a barbell bench press that's great
they're right in that recommended rep range and they're maxing out on that last rep on the eighth
rep they are unable to push to a nine they might have to compensate their form to get to those last
ninth or tenth rep then we're in a good range the following week they come back they put 75 back on
the bar and they're able to do three sets of 10 reps solid 10 reps that's where i would come in
and be like okay that's great next week when you do this barbell bench press i want you to add
five pounds either two and a half pounds on each side to bring them from 75 to 80 pounds usually
on a bench press you don't want to go up too much because it five pounds can feel like a lot
um or if they feel comfortable they can add five pounds on each side go from 75 to 85 and
then maybe they're able to do three sets of six at that higher weight that's perfect then we're
challenging them and then the next week they're able to do three sets of eight at that higher
weight and this is how you continue to challenge yourself and get stronger and that's why we put
the rep range in there so you're not gonna stop at six if you can do eight you're gonna keep going
and that's how you really know if you're lifting the right amount of weight and that's how you're
gonna continue to get stronger and build lean muscle in turn decrease body fat yadda yadda so
when we're looking at sets if you are a beginner three sets of an exercise is more than enough
to get the benefits as you get to get more advanced and you start to get stronger we
can start to challenge you more we can start to add five sets of squats at the beginning of your
leg day five sets of deadlifts at the beginning of your leg day with ample rest time in between
each and then you can go into some accessory work after that with three sets of those exercises but
starting out with the five sets of the bigger lifts again this all comes down to the way your
workout is structured but for the basic beginner starting with three sets is totally fine in that
six to ten rep range you will still get benefits for sure okay now let's talk about rest time so
this is definitely something that's often overlooked so i'm specifically referring
to rest time between exercises so what are the benefits of resting between exercises i think
it's pretty straightforward and understanding after i do a really heavy set of a barbell bench
press my muscles are going to be really tired and maxed out and i need to let them rest and recover
in order to be able to go back in and push again for another set so allowing your muscles to rest
for a specific amount of time between exercises will help with force production in the next set
and allow you to get the most out of your workout so you'll really be able to push that strength in
your second set again rest push that strength again in your third set to help with building
muscle getting stronger so how long should we be resting between sets again we are talking to the
beginner who is looking for a body recomposition you are a beginner to strength training and you're
just looking to get stronger and build muscle 60 to 90 seconds between sets we do our barbell bench
press we bang out our eight reps we're gonna rest for 60 to 90 seconds you're just gonna sit there
don't do anything go back into your next set after 60 to 90 seconds you're gonna bang out your second
set rest for 60 to 90 seconds for three to five sets a lot of people just want to blow through
their workouts and rush them and these rest times are very important but again i will say
it it depends on the structure of your workout let's talk about supersets again if you are
doing maybe an upper and lower superset that's where we use the supersets to be beneficial in
order to get through more exercises in your workout in a less amount of time so you would
do your bench press exercise and then during your rest time for your bench press you could
work on a barbell deadlift and then during your barbell deadlift rest time you could go back to
your bench press so you're working opposing muscle groups so your chest muscles are actually resting
a little bit while you're doing your deadlifts so that's how we intertwine supersets for people who
don't have a lot of time at the gym or to just be more effective you're also going to get a little
bit more cardiovascular out of that again i don't want to go too much into supersets because i have
a whole video talking about the benefits of it but that's where you want to be more aware of
your rest times so these rest times are in your strength workouts if you're doing more of a hit
workout or a metabolic workout that's going to be more of your muscular endurance and you're
probably going to take way less breaks because you're really looking to challenge yourself
but in your strength focused workouts these rest times are very very important as much as the sets
and the reps and the progressive overload and all the things let's talk about a body recomposition
workout plan for a beginner of what a week of your workouts might look like so if you're a beginner
let's say you're gonna do a four day split meaning you're gonna do two upper body workouts and two
lower body workouts throughout the week so let's look at monday would be an upper body strength day
and then maybe after your upper body strength day you would do some low impact steady-state cardio
meaning i have a video all about zone two cardio i'll link that in the description below but that's
just going to help you get a little bit extra calorie burn and get some more movement in 20 to
30 minutes with your upper body strength workout you're gonna pick about eight exercises you're
gonna do three to four sets of each exercise again based on the time you have available and
you're going to stay in that 6 to 10 or 6 to 12 rep range so you're going to do three to four
sets of each of those exercises in that 6 to 12 or 6 to 10 rep range and then between each set you're
going to do 60 to 90 second rest so now we look at tuesday is going to be your lower body strength
day you're going to do pretty much the same you're going to pick eight lower body strength exercises
if you want to know more about how to pick your exercises i have a video about how to build your
strength training program for the gym i'll link that in the description below i also have a video
talking about the top seven compound exercises you should be doing which should be included into
your upper body and lower body workouts as well i'll also link that in the description below too
so you've got your lower body exercises you pick your eight you're gonna do three to four sets of
each exercise that's six to ten or six to twelve rep range with 60 to 90 second rest between sets
wednesday you're going to take a break from your strength you're going to do a short hit workout
with some core exercises maybe pick three to four core exercises do a little circuit you can
stay in that six to twelve rep range and your hip workout is gonna be about 20 to 25 minutes
short but very intense intervals that could be a bodyweight session i've got lots of great follow
along hit workouts already on my channel that requires zero equipment you can go check those out
it can also be done on a piece of cardio equipment then thursday you're gonna go
back to your upper body workout you're gonna do some lower impact steady state cardio again
friday is your lower body day saturday is another hit and core workout but if you find you're really
sore from the week that could also just be a long walk totally fine hit up some zone 2 cardio
and some core workout if you want and then sunday would be a complete rest day so that is a beginner
strength training workout plan that's what it can look like if you're only doing three days of
strength you can do an upper body workout a lower body workout and a full body strength workout
where you take maybe four upper body exercises and four lower body exercises and combine those
and then just add an extra rest day into your plan so instead of having one rest day you're
gonna have two rest days if you're just a beginner so there you go guys i hope this was helpful a lot
of you been asking my comments or in my instagram dms about sets and reps and rest time and if you
are doing it correctly i hope this answered your questions and helped you out if you're looking
for a full eight-week follow-along workout plan you can find out more about that in the
description below it's a full eight-week program it's got a three-day split or a four day split
dumbbells or gym whichever you have available you can pick the option that works best for you and it
will take you through a full eight weeks so two four week phases of strength training workouts
to really get you started and understand what it's like to follow a specific training plan
to make the most out of your workouts or if you're looking for personalized one-on-one
fitness and nutrition coaching you can also learn more about how to work with me
one-on-one so thanks so much for watching guys if you found this video helpful don't forget to
give it a like share it with anyone you think might benefit from this information and leave
any questions in the comments below i'm always happy to help and i'll see you guys next week
you