Resting & Recovery between MetCon sets – seated, walking, or lying down (*study)

Boxers sit on stools between rounds. As do UFC fighters. Sprinters continue walking after the finish line. Some put their hands on their heads. Football players often get to sit in the locker rooms at half-time.. And we’ve all seen someone collapse into a sweat angel after a tough MetCon. But coaches frequently warn their athletes not to appear fatigued while still on the field (perhaps with their heads down or with their hands on their knees), because of the psychological advantage it may confer to the opposition.

Lactate removal seems to occur most rapidly with active rest modalities (walking, etc…) while lowering the heart rate occurs more rapidly with passive rest (sitting, etc…). But which actually improves performance the most?

A group of scientists set out to answer that question, using MetCon couplets and a group of CrossFit athletes as their test subjects. (Full Study here). Here’s the training session they used:

Here’s how the authors describe the training sessions:

During part 1 of the training session, subjects used 80% of the 3RM thruster value to
perform 10 repetitions of the thruster exercise. The thruster exercise was followed with
2 minutes of all-out effort rowing at a resistance level of 6. to rowing output during all tests. Subjects then rested for 2 minutes, during which HR [heart rate], RR [respiratory rate] and VO2 [maximal oxygen consumption] data were continuously collected… After the third set of the above mentioned exercise combination, 5 minutes of rest was taken….Heart rate, RR and VO2 data were again continuously collected during the rest period.

Part 2 of the training session included 8 repetitions of the deadlift (at 80% of 3RM), followed by 2 minutes of all-out cycling at a resistance level consistent with 5% of the subject’s body weight. A rest period of 2 minutes was taken after each of the first two sets of exercise and a 5 minute rest period was taken after the third set. Data collection was the same as during part 1 of the training session.

For each of the three different rest modalities (the 2 minute breaks between couplets and the 5 minute break between the two parts of the session), the subjects either laid on a yoga mat on the floor, sat on a bench, or took a slow walk. This is where the study really shines, because they used realistic resting protocols, of the type you would naturally do (and can replicate) in virtually any gym or box.

What they found was that a significantly higher work rate (greater joules of work•second-1) was achieved when the test subjects assumed a supine posture (the yoga mat) or sat quietly (on the bench) during their inter-set rest periods, as compared to slowly walking (the active rest). And in fact, the seated position was also found to be more effective than lying down (although it was statistically insignificant):

The take-away here is that if you are striving for maximum performance, stake out a quiet bench to sit on between your MetCon sets, leave the yoga mats to the yogis and forget about walking.