Powerlifter here! While it’s true that powerlifters will take more rest time, there’s no reason to take an hour on a specific exercise. Too many times powerlifters get lazy and will chat too long or scroll on their phone in between sets. If they actually trained with intent, they’d finish everything at a reasonable time

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TLDR: Certain systems (nervous and energy) within the body take a while to recover. Powerlifting focuses on performing every set at your 100% best so that you can maximize muscular strength progression. Pushing heavy weight for low reps is going to create a lot of systemic fatigue when doing compound lifts. They wait so long to make sure that everything is recharged and replenished. You might even see powerlifters eating high carb snacks between sets to replenish muscle glycogen stores!

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Oly lifter here. I’m in the gym for about 3 hours a day and I do 3-5 lifts. Maximal effort requires significant rest.

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