Shorter rest between sets works just as well for small muscles like biceps as it does for big muscles like legs.
Scientific Claim
The hypertrophic benefit of longer inter-set rest intervals (>60s) is attenuated or absent in exercises involving smaller muscle groups compared to multi-joint, large-muscle-group movements.
Original Statement
“It is possible that with exercises that involve smaller amounts of muscle mass, shorter rest between sets are fine. And we know that some of the evidence we have on drop sets, such as the papers by Frink and Okazzi, just used arm isolation movements.”
Context Details
Domain
exercise
Population
human
Subject
Exercises involving smaller muscle groups
Action
exhibit
Target
attenuated or absent hypertrophic benefit from longer inter-set rest intervals (>60s) compared to large-muscle-group movements
Intervention Details
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
The effect of Between-Set Rest Intervals on the Oxygen Uptake During and After Resistance Exercise Sessions Performed with Large- and Small-Muscle Mass
Longer breaks between sets help you work harder and burn more energy when doing big exercises like leg presses, but not much when doing small ones like chest flies — so the benefit of resting longer is much bigger for big muscle moves.
Contradicting (1)
The study only looked at squats, not smaller muscle exercises, so we can't tell if longer rest periods help bigger muscles more than smaller ones.