Do short breaks between lifts make muscles grow more?
Cluster sets and traditional sets elicit similar muscular hypertrophy: a volume and effort-matched study in resistance-trained individuals
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Cluster sets did NOT allow for greater total volume accumulation despite the intra-set rests.
The theory was that short breaks let you lift heavier or more reps overall—but when RIR was matched, total volume and load progression were identical to traditional sets.
Practical Takeaways
If you're short on time, skip cluster sets—do traditional sets with RIR 0–1 and you’ll get the same muscle growth.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Cluster sets did NOT allow for greater total volume accumulation despite the intra-set rests.
The theory was that short breaks let you lift heavier or more reps overall—but when RIR was matched, total volume and load progression were identical to traditional sets.
Practical Takeaways
If you're short on time, skip cluster sets—do traditional sets with RIR 0–1 and you’ll get the same muscle growth.
Publication
Journal
European Journal of Applied Physiology
Year
2025
Authors
S. Vargas-Molina, Manuel García-Sillero, Sergio Maroto-Izquierdo, Eneko Baz-Valle, Borja Bautista-Mayorga, Mora Murri, Brad J Schoenfeld, Javier Benítez-Porres
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Claims (10)
Compound exercises involving greater total muscle mass do not produce superior hypertrophy in target muscles compared to isolation exercises when training volume and effort are equated.
Even though both muscle thickness and total lean mass went up after training, they didn’t change together in a predictable way—meaning one might not be a perfect stand-in for the other.
When people who already lift weights do either short breaks between reps (cluster sets) or long continuous sets (traditional sets), both ways make their muscles grow about the same amount if they work just as hard and do the same total number of reps.
If you’re already experienced with weightlifting and train your legs twice a week for 8 weeks with hard sets, your muscles will grow whether you take short breaks between reps or not.
By adjusting the weight based on how close you are to failure (RIR), both types of sets end up using about the same weight—even though cluster sets seem like they should let you lift heavier.