Taking less rest between sets of weightlifting makes your body work harder, raises your heart rate, makes your muscles burn more lactic acid, and feels much more exhausting.

You can make your workout feel harder and your muscles burn more by resting less between sets—but you can still lift the same total weight without getting weaker.

If you wear tight bands around your arms or legs only when you're resting between weightlifting sets, your muscles will produce more lactic acid afterward than if you wear them while lifting or not at all—but that extra burn doesn’t make your muscles grow bigger or stronger.

If young men lift light weights with very short breaks between sets for 8 weeks, their upper arms grow more than if they lift heavy weights with long breaks—even if they do the same total amount of lifting—because the short breaks create more muscle-burning stress that helps muscles grow bigger.

When young men do intense leg workouts, their body releases more lactate and cortisol—stress and energy chemicals—but that doesn’t mean they’ll grow bigger muscles or get stronger faster than if those chemicals stayed low.

Whether you rest 1 minute or 2 minutes between sets, or train at real high altitude or with a mask, you can still lift the same total amount of weight without losing strength.