Whether you rest for 1 minute or 3 minutes between sets doesn’t make a difference in muscle growth, as long as you do the same total amount of work.

If you do the same total amount of weightlifting work, it doesn’t matter much if you rest 20 seconds or 2 minutes between sets—your muscles grow and get stronger about the same either way.

The strength gains from this study are about what you’d expect from regular weight training—whether you rest a little or a lot—so rest time doesn’t seem to change how much stronger you get.

You can do more sets with shorter rests to match the total work of fewer sets with longer rests—and you’ll still get the same muscle growth and strength gains.

When lifting heavy weights, doing more total reps and sets (higher volume) makes your muscles grow bigger, even if you rest less between sets.

Taking a little longer break between sets of weightlifting (more than a minute) might help your arms and legs grow slightly bigger, but the difference is so small it might not even matter in real life.