Taking longer breaks between sets of weightlifting doesn't hurt your muscle growth—you might even grow more muscle with longer breaks than with very short ones.

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Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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The Effect of Inter-Set Rest Intervals on Resistance Exercise-Induced Muscle Hypertrophy

Narrative Review

2014 Dec

This study looked at whether resting longer between sets helps you build more muscle than resting briefly — and found that longer rests work just as well, and sometimes even better. So, you don’t need to rush your breaks to grow muscles.

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Source Study

The Effect of Inter-Set Rest Intervals on Resistance Exercise-Induced Muscle Hypertrophy

Score: 1

DOI: 10.1007/s40279-014-0228-0

Similar Assertions

Even if you rest only 20 seconds between sets instead of 2 minutes, as long as you do the same total number of reps and weight, your muscles still grow and get just as strong.

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Inter-set rest intervals exceeding 60 seconds promote greater skeletal muscle hypertrophy compared to rest intervals of 60 seconds or less, when training volume and intensity are matched.

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Resting more than a minute and a half between sets doesn’t seem to help you build more muscle than resting for about a minute — it’s not worth the extra time.

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Whether you push your muscles to complete exhaustion or stop a few reps short doesn’t change how much rest time between sets affects muscle growth.

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84%

You don’t need to take shorter breaks to build muscle than you do to get stronger—both can be done with the same rest times if you lift the same amount of weight and do the same number of reps.

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84%