Introduction
In between weightlifting sets, beginners to advanced practitioners will typically rest somewhere between 15 seconds to upwards of five minutes, depending on the training style and what strength activity the individual is performing.
For activities that do not require moving a significant amount of external weight, rest times can be shorter; the muscles need less time to prepare to generate force to complete the movement, and there is a lower risk of injury. Movements like pushups or other calisthenics. Even if you’re exhausted, you can earn a few more pushups by just taking a few seconds of rest.
For movements that require moving a significant amount of external weight, you need longer rests. The chest muscles would not be prepared for another 1-rep max after performing a 1-rep max on the bench press a few seconds before. If you were able to do this, it means you aren’t lifting heavy enough. The same goes for say, moving a heavy object like a refrigerator or a bed frame; you need longer rest, as opposed to carrying a lamp to the moving truck.
In the past, before smartphones and other portable technology, rest meant resting. A person would rest for around 15 seconds to five minutes, focusing on the task or movement, or perhaps socializing in person with others nearby.
The modern, unfocused, undisciplined weightlifter uses the weightlifting rest period to scroll social media. This is not socializing, but opening the door of the mind domain to let in messages from other individuals and organizations, including their propaganda.
This usually isn’t good; social media is not made to make us better individuals or stronger members of a community. Social media is aimed at engagement, and the most engaging content is that which makes you emotional, so posters frequently use negative or provocative pleasure-seeking, anger-inducing, or fear-inducing content because they want attention at the cost of all else.
We want to be focused and disciplined when we are at the gym in pursuit of body domain mastery.
If you go to the gym, you’re going for a reason–something related to the pursuit of mastery in the body domain, even if that pursuit isn’t realized yet.
Deciding to lose 20 pounds puts an individual on the path to bodily mastery, even if they only walk to the 20-pound-lost milestone and stop there. Most don’t. Most who make any progress down a path to mastery continue to pursue it because they understand that mastery is fulfilling, unlike the pursuit of pleasure.
Modern technology tries to condition the individual to pursue pleasure, to give their attention to a corporation in small breaks of time, like resting between sets. When you give your focus to Instagram, you give Instagram more power. You give control of your focus to Mark Zuckerberg and his associates; are Zuckerberg and his associates more worthy of chaperoning your attention than you are? Do you want to give them your attention instead of giving your attention to something that serves you?
Unethical social media optimizes for immediate pleasure which simultaneously blocks mind activation. This is why when you open Instagram, the most engaging piece of content is at the top, and why YouTube/TikTok opens with a short video.
Scrolling social media is the pursuit of pleasure; it can never be fulfilled.
If technology encourages the individual to pursue pleasure, the technology isn’t virtuous.
When you rest and give your focus to your own thoughts or meditation, you give yourself more power.
Keep your power.
Below are two activities you should do between weightlifting sets, or any kind of set that requires a rest period.
Stretching non-target muscle groups
If you’re doing chest day or a push day, back day or a pull day, stretch your legs during rest periods between sets. Stretch the quads, hamstrings, and every other muscle in the legs.
If you’re doing leg day, stretch every muscle in the upper body.
Stretch the muscles you are not actively training. Stretching the muscles you are actively training after a set reduces the ability of muscle fibers to fire and reduces muscle stiffness, which is important for strength training.
When lifting heavy loads, you want thick, stiff, and strong muscles to be doing the pushing, not relaxed, untensed muscles.
When you’re resting, stretch whatever half of your body you are not working. Give focus to your body instead of giving your focus to a corporation that doesn’t care about you so they can use you for profit.
Body anchoring & meditation
The other activity you can do for rest in between sets that is good for you is body anchoring. Body anchoring is an Andreia code body domain tenet part of the free, forever Andreia Philosophy code.
To body anchor, be still while holding no tension in the body. Use Perfect Posture. Release all the tension in your face, your hands, your shoulders, your neck, and the rest of your body.
Holding tension is holding stress. Good voluntarily, not so good involuntarily. An involuntarily stressed body will overflow to domains of mind and spirit.
Still all body parts. Do not move. Do not fidget. Maintain perfect posture while resting between sets. Be in complete control of your body. As a path to mastery, we want to gather body awareness so we can continue to tame our bodies for purposes we decide. We want to cultivate bodily discipline.
While doing this, clear your mind. Bring your mind to the Mushin state described by the Zen Monk, Takuan Soho in the book The Unfettered Mind. Since we are training in the body domain, we want to put our mind away like we would any other tool.
Empty your mind. Still your body. Do not move. Do not let your eyes dart around you searching for something to focus on. Keep the water of your mind pure. This allows you to strengthen your mind while in pursuit of strengthening your body.
Investing in yourself is the best investment you can make. Investing in yourself is the pursuit of mastery, which leads to a fulfilled life for the wanderer, while strengthening civilization.
