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.

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.

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.

Even if you rest only 20 seconds between sets instead of 2 minutes, as long as you do the same total number of reps and weight, your muscles still grow and get just as strong.

We don’t know if resting longer between sets helps people who already lift weights, older adults, or muscles in the chest and back — there just isn’t enough research yet.

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.