When measuring overall body muscle growth with scales that can’t tell muscle from water or bone, resting longer between sets doesn’t seem to help — and might even look worse than resting shorter, but that’s probably because the measurement isn’t accurate.

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 found that taking longer breaks between sets doesn’t really help you build more total muscle when measuring your whole body, and might even help a tiny bit less — which matches the claim that whole-body measurements aren’t good enough to show real muscle gains from longer rests.

Contradicting (0)

0

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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

When measuring overall body muscle growth by weight (not direct scans), shorter rest periods don’t seem worse — and might even be slightly better — because the tools used aren’t precise enough to see real muscle changes.

55

0

100%

When measuring overall body muscle growth by weight (like with DXA scans), longer breaks between sets don’t help — and might even seem to hurt a little — probably because these scans can’t tell the difference between muscle and water or other tissues.

55

0

98%

When measuring overall body muscle growth using common scans like DXA, resting longer or shorter between sets doesn’t seem to make any real difference — and shorter rest might even look a tiny bit better, but it’s probably just noise.

55

0

76%

Resting for 1 to 3 minutes between sets doesn’t seem to build more muscle than resting for 1 to 1.5 minutes — the difference is too small to matter in practice.

55

0

70%