3 Alternatives to Rest between Sets
Written by Nate Palin
War fighting demands an extremely diverse set of physical attributes.
Building and maintaining a physical profile that includes sufficient multi-directionally applied strength, power, and capacity (continuous & intermittent) to serve as a platform for cognitive and fine motor performance takes consistency over time.
If there is one thing that military professionals are often short on, it’s the time needed to be consistent with an extensive approach to the development of their physical fitness. An effective way to offset a shortage of time is to increase session density. Adding more exercises in the same amount of time, particularly in place of true rest, inherently risks some degree of cannibalization; however, wise replacement of rest between sets can both enhance execution of the primary exercise and capitalize on it, achieving a mutual benefit.
3 of My Favorite Alternatives to Rest
Movement - Mobilize and stabilize to enhance movement pattern integrity
Power - Develop explosiveness by biasing speed of movement
Technique - Finetune the details that support the primary exercise
Movement
Movement competency is a common shortcoming among military professionals. I’ve often stated, “The military can beat the athleticism out of anyone.” Restoring quality movement by targeting components of major patterns with mobilization and stabilization exercises can increase both range of motion and integrity (strength) through that range of motion.
Complimentary movement exercises can focus on a subset of joints or muscles involved in a primary pattern or they can include the pattern in its entirety (and beyond).
Let’s say we want to enhance your squat pattern and we identify limited ankle mobility as an obstacle. Here are some ways we could increase relevant movement at the ankle:
Mobilize
Stabilize
Pattern
Mobilize
Goal is to increase range of motion
Examples
Massage the Soleus (passive)
½ Kneeling Ankle Mobilization (active-ish but also passive)
Be careful about creating new range of motion without reinforcing it with strength.
“More range of motion means more range of responsibility.”
If your body can get into positions that it can’t control then it becomes vulnerable in those positions.
Stabilize
Goal is to reinforce strength within your range of motion
Examples
Seated Resistance Band Dorsiflexion (active dynamic)
1-Leg Slant Board Med Ball Chest Pass (active isometric)
If your stability exercise involves the same muscle groups that are involved in your primary exercise, be careful not to fatigue them - especially before heavier sets.
“Activate but don’t annihilate”
Pattern
Goal is to train coordination of multi-joint movement(s)
Examples
Counterweight Deep Squat
Barefoot Squat w/ Balls of Feet Elevated (& Heels Off the Ground)
Notice how we now plug ankle mobility and stability into the more global squatting pattern? Keep in mind that you’ll ultimately want to reinforce these patterns with legitimate load within your strength training. Sometimes your heavy lift might have to be performed within a limited range of motion or a similar but different exercise (lunging instead of squatting) but your “pattern” focused exercise can be performed through a closer to complete range of motion.
Power
Many warfighters are underpowered and unathletic, lacking both explosiveness and the ability to apply explosiveness in a multidirectional fashion.
Developing power requires:
Strength (force)
Speed (velocity)
Consistency (frequency)
Movement Competency (coordination)
Heavy + Fast
Exercises that entail coordinated movements performed at a high rate of speed pair well with strength sets because they can:
BEFORE - Prime your central nervous system and type 2 muscle fibers FOR executing a subsequent heavy lift
AFTER - Benefit FROM the priming caused by the heavy lift and, therefore, be executed even more explosively (nerds call this post activation potentiation -Imagine throwing a baseball after throwing a grenade. The baseball would feel extremely light and you’d feel like you could throw it a mile).
Here are some of my favorite basic pairings:
Bench Press + Medicine Ball Chest Pass
RDL + Broad Jump
Lunge + Forward Bound
Pull-Up + Medicine Ball Slam
You can certainly get as creative as you want to. The above examples are fairly straightforward and linear so let’s get a little more creative with the explosive movement:
Bench Press + Rotational Medicine Ball 1-Arm Chest Pass
RDL + 1-Leg Resistance Band Broad Jump w/ 2-Leg Landing
Lunge + 10-yard Acceleration
Pull-Up + Explosive Sit-Up to Overhead Medicine Ball Throw
Powerful (sweet spot of both heavy and fast enough)
You can also pair lighter / faster explosive exercises with heavier power centric exercises like:
Weightlifting - Clean, Jerk, Snatch, & their variations
Heavier Loaded Plyometrics - Trap Bar Deadlift Jump, Weighted Explosive Pushup, Dumbbell Split Squat Jump, Goblet Squat Jump, etc.
Speed Lifts - Traditional strength exercises like Back Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, etc. performed for max velocity around 40 to 60% of 1-rep max resistance but without leaving the floor or letting go of the implement
Here’s how the heavier power exercises above would pair with the lighter power exercises we included earlier:
Speed Bench Press (40 to 60% of 1RM) + Medicine Ball Chest Pass
Hang Power Clean + Broad Jump
Dumbbell Split Squat Jump + Forward Bound
Power Pulldown or Pull-up (40 to 60% of 1RM) + Medicine Ball Slam
Another benefit of adding power exercises is entertainment.
I enjoy athletic movements and loathe true rest. Purists might get upset about the work to rest ratios but most of us are not far enough along in our strength and power journeys that “ideal” rest periods are needed to achieve significant progress.
Technique
Skill work that is specific to supporting physical training prowess can be a tough sell with warfighters who are not trying to be the best at working out. They also already possess an absurd amount of technical demands more specific to their profession. Therefore, instead of dedicating an entire block of a training session to technical development, use time between sets to target technique.
I often emphasize three physicality specific areas for technical advancement.
Pelvic Awareness
Speed & Agility
Weightlifting
Pelvic Awareness
I’m leading off with pelvic awareness because it’s an underlying contributor to pretty much all components of physical training and, honestly, it’s something that many warfighters lack.
While a lot of coaches like to start with isometrics (holds) for teaching pelvic positions, I prefer using movement first, plugging that awareness into static positions second, and then, third, maintaining those positions throughout exercises that require limb movement.
A simple progression might look something like this:
Quadruped Cat / Cow
Experience the extremes of anterior and posterior pelvic tilt before settling somewhere in the middle near a more neutral position. From there, try achieving the same pelvic movement in supine, high plank, and vertical (standing) positions.
Static Holds
Perform static holds where you need to resist a variety of force vectors and maintain a fairly neutral pelvis while fighting extension, flexion, rotation, and lateral flexion. Popular examples include Planks, Bridges, and Carries that use varied bases of support and means of resistance.
Movement Patterns*
I do not consider “bracing” a movement pattern but I think the ability to maintain pelvic neutral while performing other patterns such as BREATHING, hinging, squatting, lunging/stepping, pushing, pulling, locomoting, and even rotating is an essential technical capability that should be possessed by warfighters (and humans in general).
*Maintaining a neutral pelvis while performing more global movement patterns is considerably easier if you’ve taken the time to find and reinforce neutral through steps 1 and 2 above.
Speed & Agility
The opportunities to prioritize focused sessions on speed and agility are few, far between, and likely not worth the squeeze. However, sneaking some technical work in place of rest between sets can accumulate small doses of savvy that add up over time.
Technique work for speed and agility can look like a lot of things that are mostly dependent on the experience, knowledge, and abilities of the coach - if there is a coach involved at all. As a coach, I tend to focus on technique before drills and those techniques progressively emphasize a continuum that the folks at EXOS refer to as Position > Pattern > Power (I’ve got a funny story related to this that you should ask me about sometime):
Position
Continuous Speed - upright figure 4 posture
Acceleration - aggressive forward lean
Lateral Shuffle - athletic stance (feet wide w/ hips back & knees forward)
Specific exercises for training these positions is beyond the scope of this article but Wall Drills, Planks, Bridges, Athletic Base Stance stuff, and other Isometric exercises typically work well for teaching and reinforcing positional awareness and integrity.
Pattern
Continuous Speed - cyclical w/ foot strike more below center of mass
Acceleration - piston action w/ foot strike behind center of mass
Lateral Shuffle - lead leg like a hovercraft while trail leg pushes the ground away and the body stays low
Specific exercises for training these patterns is beyond the scope of this already overextended article but Wall Drills and resisted exercises where you can control the speed (with a Partner, Wall, Sled, Band, etc.) work well because you can move through the ideal pattern without momentum or intensity interfering with movement quality.
Power
Continuous Speed - minimal ground contact time and rapid, highly elastic turnover that generate more vertical force
Acceleration - longer ground contact times and more powerful strides that generate more horizontal force
Lateral Shuffle - aggressive triple extension (ankle, knee, hip) of trail leg to the side of the body (behind center of mass) to accelerate and travel; Contrarily, deceleration into a flexed lead leg that stays ahead of the body’s center of mass
The most straightforward way to develop power for speed and agility is to perform the movements at full speed (Sprint and Shuffle!). You can also add resistance to the movements but keep in mind the potential to interfere with the primary exercise(s) that provided a reason for this “rest” period. I’m a huge fan of lightly resisted explosive exercises that smell a lot like Continuous Speed, Acceleration, and Shuffling, performed for low repetitions (1 to maybe 5 reps).
Weightlifting
Weightlifting is a SPORT but competition lifts (Snatch, Clean & Jerk) and their alternatives serve as useful and attractive exercises to include in developing the warfighter’s physicality.
The biggest barrier to weightlifting proficiency is lack of time. Using rest periods for technical development of weightlifting movements helps offset the problem of insufficient time (and keep weightlifting exercises as a means and not a goal).
Revisit the Movement section that started this article to see my preferred approach to achieving mobility and stability of the movement(s) needed to perform weightlifting exercises. The options below focus more on the Pattern (timing) and Power (intensity) portion of weightlifting.
Snatch
Positional Holds (Power Position, Hang - above & below knee, Floor, 1” off Floor, and Full Extension - ankle, knee, hip, + shoulder shrug)
Overhead Squat and Snatch Grip Overhead Press from Squatted Position
Drop Snatch and Snatch Balance
Hang Snatch from Power Position
Snatch Low Pull (from various start positions)
Muscle Snatch (from various start positions)
Clean
Positional Holds (Power Position, Hang - above & below knee, Floor, 1” off Floor, and Full Extension - ankle, knee, hip, + shoulder shrug)
Front Squat
Hang Clean from Power Position
Clean Low Pull (from various start positions)
Muscle Clean (from various start positions)
Jerk
Dip & “Catch” (Squat-ish or Split) Positional Hold
Jerk Dip Squat
Jerk from Pause (in the Dip position)
Press from Receiving Position (in front or behind the neck)
Push Press
Using the above exercises with a technical focus of high quality execution has helped a TON with making operators more proficient in the ways of weightlifting. Sometimes these exercises are used for technical assistance during rest between sets and sometimes they are the main exercise. Be sure to weigh pros, cons, and bang for the buck.
Note - I realize the above is an extremely extensive list with very little context. If you want to dive deep into the world of weightlifting technique, I highly suggest all things Greg Everett and Catalyst Athletics. He has countless free and inexpensive resources that have served me extremely well in coaching the lifts.
Replace Your Rest between Sets
Writing blogs is difficult because, much like this one thoroughly demonstrates, I tend to dive too deep and not deep enough at the same time. In an effort to bring you back to the reason I started writing this…
REPLACE REST BETWEEN SETS WITH MORE PRODUCTIVE ALTERNATIVES THAT TARGET MOVEMENT, POWER, AND TECHNIQUE.
Another great use of rest time is cognitive performance enhancement. Rather than serving as an underqualified author, I’ll likely outsource that article to a specialist… Time will tell. In the meantime, make your training sessions more dense and, in the words of friend, “Train it all because it’s all connected.”
