Rest time between sets: how much to build muscle?

How long to rest between strength training sets? For muscle growth, beyond a minute and a half, it doesn't change much anymore; for strength, if you are trained, two to three minutes or more work better than one minute. Long rest helps mostly because it lets you do more repetitions. And the old rule of 30 to 60 seconds "for hormones" doesn't hold up. Here is what twenty-one studies measure.

This article talks about rest between sets of the same exercise. For the number of repetitions and tempo, there is Sets, repetitions or time under tension; for rest between two sessions, how many sessions per week.

What the reviews say

The most recent meta-analysis, in 2024, looks at the muscle question: it finds a slight advantage to resting more than 60 seconds, probably because too short a rest lowers the total load lifted. But beyond 90 seconds, it no longer sees an appreciable difference, and the effects of different durations overlap largely.

A 2017 review, across six trials of at least four weeks, concludes that short rests (60 seconds or less) and long rests can both make muscle grow, with a possible advantage for long rest in people already trained. For strength, the 2018 review brings together 23 studies and 491 participants: you clearly gain strength even with less than 60 seconds of rest, but to gain the most, the trained person needs more than 2 minutes; the beginner, meanwhile, gets by with 60 to 120 seconds.

Why long rest helps: the repetitions

The simplest mechanism is seen in a single session. In 28 men who performed two sets of bench press to muscular failure, the total work done increased with rest: 1,389 with 1 minute, 1,495 with 3 minutes, 1,711 with 5 minutes. No rest was enough to recover completely, but 3 minutes allowed them to stay within 8 to 12 repetitions.

The need depends on the exercise. In 15 trained men, with near-maximal loads, 2 minutes were enough to maintain performance on the pec-deck (an exercise working only one joint), whereas 3 to 5 were needed on the bench press. In a 2024 trial, 5 minutes of rest rather than 2 kept more strength in the final sets and increased the total volume by about 15%.

Over weeks: strength above all

In 36 trained men followed for 16 weeks, those who rested 5 minutes finished stronger on the bench press than those who rested 1 minute (98.2 kg vs 92.5 kg). On the leg press, the 3-minute and 5-minute groups outperformed the 1-minute group. In 21 young trained men, eight weeks with 3 minutes of rest rather than one yielded more strength in the squat and bench press, and a thicker front thigh muscle.

Other trials see no difference. In 13 trained men, 2 or 5 minutes of rest, each for three months, gave the same gains: about +4% in muscle cross-sectional area and +16% on the one-repetition maximum. In 21 already trained older women, 1 or 3 minutes for eight weeks changed nothing for strength. And with light loads taken to muscular failure, 30 seconds or 150 seconds gave the same muscle gain (from +5.7 to +10.6% depending on the muscle and the group).

Stopwatch or feeling?

In 33 trained men, resting "when feeling ready" allowed for more repetitions than a fixed 75 seconds across four upper body exercises. But after eight weeks, strength gains were the same (+6.8% and +7.4% on the bench press), and fixed resting saved 37% of time. The 2014 review also finds no argument for imposing timed rather than chosen rest.

A caveat: in 16 strength athletes who chose their own rest during heavy squats, the rest time lengthened across sets, but power still dropped in the final ones. Listening to one's feelings is not always enough to go again at full capacity.

When short rest does well

Short rest also has its positive trials. In 22 older men, eight weeks with 60 seconds of rest yielded more lean mass, strength, and power than with 4 minutes. A trial comparing 30 seconds with light loads to 3 minutes with heavy loads saw the arm grow in both groups (+9.9% and +4.7%), but the load changed at the same time as the rest, preventing any attribution of the difference to rest alone.

Two other results reassure those who are short on time. In 28 sedentary men, 1 minute of rest instead of 3 resulted in less volume, but no more soreness or markers of muscle damage. And by doing fewer reps per set (2 instead of 6, on a weightlifting exercise), 45 seconds of rest yielded a higher bar velocity and power than 3 minutes with longer sets.

In short

Rest matters less than the load you lift and the number of sets you perform week after week. The workout generator offers you a routine according to your level, and the 1RM calculator helps you choose your loads and track your strength.

Every figure in this article comes from a study you can open: the underlined mentions lead to the summary of the work it is drawn from, written from the abstract alone. Informative content, which does not replace the advice of a healthcare professional.