Sets: Working Sets, Warm-Up Sets & Rest Periods
A set is simply a group of repetitions performed consecutively before you stop and rest.
For example:
3 sets × 10 reps with 60 seconds rest
would look like:
10 reps → rest 60 seconds
10 reps → rest 60 seconds
10 reps → finished
Simple.
How many sets you perform, how hard they are and how much rest you take between them will depend on what you're trying to achieve.
WORKING SETS
Your working sets are the sets that make up the main prescribed training for an exercise.
For example:
Squat — 3 × 6 @ 100kg
means three working sets of six repetitions using 100kg.
These are the sets we're particularly interested in recording because they allow us to monitor performance and progression over time.
Depending on the programme, you might record:
Weight
Repetitions
RIR or RPE
Time or distance
You don't need to record absolutely everything.
Record the information that's useful.
RESTING BETWEEN SETS
As soon as you finish a set, your rest period begins.
The purpose of resting is to allow enough recovery to perform the next set at the level required by your programme.
And this is important:
Longer rest isn't cheating.
The appropriate rest period depends on what you're doing.
Heavy strength work generally benefits from longer rest periods, because the aim is to recover sufficiently to produce high levels of force again.
Accessory or hypertrophy work can often use shorter rests.
Conditioning deliberately uses incomplete recovery in many situations.
So there isn't one perfect rest period for everything.
HOW LONG SHOULD YOU REST?
As a very rough practical guide:
Heavy strength work: often around 2–5+ minutes.
Moderate resistance/hypertrophy work: often around 1–3 minutes.
Isolation/accessory exercises: often around 1–2 minutes.
Conditioning: completely dependent on the workout.
These aren't laws.
If your programme specifies a rest period, there's usually a reason for it.
But if you're supposed to perform a heavy set of five and you're still seeing stars when the timer reaches two minutes, taking another minute isn't a moral failure.
The goal is to produce the intended training effect.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WHILE RESTING?
Mostly:
Rest.
Get your breathing under control.
Set up any equipment you need.
Think about what you're trying to achieve on the next set.
Review any useful technique cues.
Have some water.
Record your previous set.
Your phone isn't going to destroy your gains either.
If you're using it to log your training, time your rest or choose music, brilliant.
Just don't accidentally turn a three-minute rest into fifteen because you've become emotionally invested in an argument between strangers on Instagram.
WARM-UP SETS
Warm-up sets prepare you for your working sets.
They allow you to practise the movement and gradually expose yourself to the loads you're about to use without creating unnecessary fatigue.
For heavier exercises, this normally means gradually increasing the weight while reducing or keeping the repetitions relatively low.
For example, if your first working set is:
100kg × 5
you might perform something like:
Empty bar × 10
40kg × 5
60kg × 5
80kg × 3
90kg × 1–2
100kg × 5 — working set
That's just an example.
Someone experienced with the movement might need less.
Someone lifting considerably heavier weights might need more intermediate jumps.
Someone performing their third similar exercise of the session may already be thoroughly prepared and need very little.
WARM UP WITHOUT TIRING YOURSELF OUT
A warm-up isn't supposed to become another workout.
As the weight approaches your working load, you generally don't need loads of repetitions.
You want to reach your working set feeling:
Prepared.
Confident.
Familiar with the movement.
Ready to produce effort.
Not knackered because you performed four unnecessary sets of ten beforehand.
DO WARM-UP SETS PREVENT INJURY?
I wouldn't make that guarantee.
Warming up can improve readiness and performance, and progressively exposing yourself to the movement and load you're about to use makes practical sense.
But we can't say that performing a particular number of warm-up sets will prevent an injury.
Injury risk is more complicated than that.
Warm up because it prepares you for what you're about to do, rather than treating it like a protective ritual that makes you invincible.
DO YOU NEED TO LOG WARM-UP SETS?
Not necessarily.
For most everyday training, your working sets are the important numbers to record.
But there are situations where recording warm-up sets can be useful—particularly for heavy strength training where you develop a consistent approach to bigger lifts.
If knowing that:
180 → 210 → 230 → working weight
helps you reproduce a successful warm-up next time, write it down.
Again, record what's useful.
NOT ALL SETS ARE THE SAME
You'll see plenty of different types of sets throughout training:
Working sets — the primary prescribed work.
Warm-up sets — preparation for heavier work.
Drop sets — reduce the load and continue.
Rest-pause sets — briefly rest and continue with the same load.
Supersets — pair exercises together.
Back-off sets — perform additional work at a lighter load after heavier sets.
The word set simply describes a block of work.
How that set is performed determines what you're trying to achieve with it.
IN CLOSING
Sets are one of the basic building blocks of a training programme.
Perform your repetitions.
Rest.
Recover enough for what you're trying to accomplish.
Then go again.
Use warm-up sets to prepare for your heavier work and working sets to provide the main training stimulus.
And don't become so obsessed with a stopwatch that you forget why you're resting in the first place.
The rest period serves the training.
The training doesn't serve the timer.