How Do You Spend Your Time Between Sets?
Spend an hour in the gym and you are likely to encounter at least one type of thrust during your workout. Some jerks don’t change weight, others don’t rub equipment, and the worst kind of jerk takes up the only squat rack in your gym to bend for an hour.
In one of our recent posts, one commenter also pointed out what he considers to be a different type of push in the gym: the athlete sits on the machine and “lounges” on the phone. While it’s easy to assume they are assholes, the simple explanation is that they are resting and trying to kill some time. (I hope they let you work; if not, then yes, they are a complete jerk.)
But what exactly do you do to spend time in between sets? Well, there is no definite right answer, and it depends on how long you take a break. If it is a short break, it may be sufficient to add water to a bottle or write down information about the lift in a diary . Or you could just stare into space, but chances are, if you’ve come here, you want your vacation to be a little more productive or interesting.
For longer breaks, I personally rely on Reddit. The r / Fitness column , the weekly topics Moronic Monday , Rant Environment , and Gym Story Saturday , have a slew of complaints and questions from Reddit users about weight lifting programs and general gym etiquette. (There’s also a daily thread of simple questions at the top of the subreddit every day.) Even if you don’t find any applicable or valuable advice, at least you’ll find funny stories that won’t be distracting. when you focus on the next approach.
If you are worried or otherwise interested in your form, it can kill time recording your exercises and use your rest time to watch videos (and try correcting your form for the next set if necessary). Our health editor Beth usually spends time editing videos of her exercise during her rest. “Nobody wants to see 30 seconds of tuning, not my coach or friends, and it’s annoying if each sketch is just a blank strip and / or my thumb,” she said. This, combined with writing your exercises in a diary or phone, is likely to help pass the time.
As some Reddit users suggest, you can also use this time to reach out, find the playlist you want, or even pick up a new hobby or skill, like learning a new language through an app. Or you can train in a circular pattern to minimize the amount of rest between sets in general. (On the other hand, both Beth and I seem to agree that responding to work emails or doing anything work-related is generally a bad idea.)
And if you’re going to be on the phone, just don’t let it distract you to the point where you end up hanging around the squat rack for ten minutes just to watch memes. Stay focused, and if someone asks, let him do the work.
What do you do during the rest between sets?