The common advice to rest 30–90 seconds between sets to build muscle might need updating — resting a bit longer (over a minute) might help a little, but not enough to be sure it’s worth changing your routine.

55

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

55

Community contributions welcome

55

Give it a rest: a systematic review with Bayesian meta-analysis on the effect of inter-set rest interval duration on muscle hypertrophy

Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis

Human

2024

This study looked at whether taking longer breaks between weightlifting sets helps muscles grow more, and it found that resting more than a minute might help a little, especially for arms and thighs — but resting longer than 90 seconds doesn’t help any more. This supports the idea that current rest time recommendations might need a tweak.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Give it a rest: a systematic review with Bayesian meta-analysis on the effect of inter-set rest interval duration on muscle hypertrophy

Score: 55

DOI: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1429789

Similar Assertions

The common advice to rest only 30–90 seconds between sets to build muscle might need updating — longer breaks (over a minute) seem to help a little, but not enough to be sure it’s worth changing your routine.

55

0

98%

The official advice to rest 30–90 seconds between sets might be outdated — newer data suggest resting a bit longer (over a minute) could help your arms and legs grow a little better.

55

0

89%

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.

1

0

83%

If you lift weights with either light weights and short breaks, or heavy weights and long breaks—but keep the total work the same—you’ll still build muscle in about 8 weeks. So, there’s more than one way to get stronger and bigger muscles.

38

0

82%

Taking a bit more than a minute between sets when lifting weights might help your arms and legs grow slightly bigger, but the difference is so small it might not matter much in real life.

55

0

82%