What is the significance of holding for *exactly* 60 secs?

Dear Coach Sommer,

I've been wondering about this for quite a while, and so I decided finally to ask!

It is well known that you advocate a strict 60 seconds total time when training the various static holds, and I wanted to know what is the significance of holding for exactly that amount of time and not say... 40 seconds... or 50 seconds...?

You see, speaking strictly from my own personal training experience, I've always felt that 60 seconds total was a bit too much and too fatiguing, and have always seen pretty good results in terms of strength gains from 30-45 seconds total when I was training the various static holds (so usually I did 3x10sec/3x15sec sets).

The past 6 weeks I've been doing a steady state cycle, integrating both static and dynamic holds, and making sure to hold a total of 60 seconds on all static holds (doing 9x7sec for a combined total of ~60 seconds), and training 4 times/week. Now after starting to experience my strength diminishing from week 5 onward which doesn't seem to be getting any better (I just started week 7 and I wrote a post about it - here), I can't help but wonder if perhaps I could have avoided this and seen better results had I done only 30-40 sec total on the statics instead of 60 seconds... It seems logical, because static holds put more strain on the CNS, and this definitely feels like CNS fatigue. And so if just 30-40 sec total is still enough to see strength gains, while minimizing the CNS strain, then *theoretically* this seems like a better approach if you want to keep from overtraining, no?

Please don't misunderstand, as this is of course in no way a criticism of your methods since they've obviously worked extremely well for both your athletes and the many people who have applied them in their personal training as well; rather, I just want to know if maybe the rule of following exactly 60 seconds total when training the static holds could perhaps not be ideal to all trainees (in this case talking about myself), and perhaps modifying it to just 30-45 seconds total might produce better results for some?

Also just one more question on the side... what is the significance of maintaining short 30-60 second rest breaks between sets when doing basic strength (whether it's static holds or dynamic exercises)? I've read that with strength training 3-5 minutes is ideal between sets, while 30-90 seconds is more for bodybuilding and hypertrophy... so this seems like a contradiction! Can you please clear this up?

Thank you for your time and advice Coach!!!

This was covered a long time ago in previous posts but unfortunately I'm not sure if you are going to be able to find them easily. Use google if the search function doesn't work well.

Rest periods have been stated as 45-90s and it's because the holds were thought to not have depleted all energy per rep, basically. Perhaps as well for sake of convenience and time.

Rest periods have very little to do with bodybuilding or hypertrophy. It is the work sets that determine the type of training result you get. Rest time is dictated by the intensity of the work set. Higher intensity requires more rest, plain and simple. You can get around this a little by performing unrelated statics, like front lever and planche together, with 60 seconds between each. So FL, 45-60s breat, PL, 45-60s break, FL, etc. This gives you more rest so you get more quality work in on each position while minimizing actual time spent in the gym.

I don't really worry about building up to 60 seconds until it only takes me 4-5 work sets to build that up. That's worked for me personally, although I have to admit to not doing much static work lately. I will build up to this level before attempting to move up a progression from now on, because it seems like that ensures the joints involved are sufficiently prepared to be worked harder without being injured.