You can build muscle just fine whether you rest for 30 seconds or 4 minutes between sets — the exact rest time isn’t a make-or-break factor.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The official advice to rest 30–90 seconds between sets might be outdated — newer data suggest resting a bit longer (over a minute) could help your arms and legs grow a little better.