Short or Long Breaks? Same Muscle Gains!
Comparison between 20-s and 2-min inter-set rest intervals on changes in muscle cross-sectional area and maximum strength under volume-load-equated resistance training
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
20-second rest intervals produced nearly identical strength gains (42.4% vs. 41.5%) as 2-minute rests, despite less recovery time.
Conventional wisdom says longer rests are needed for maximal strength—especially with heavy lifts. This study shows that when volume is matched, your nervous system adapts just fine with minimal rest.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re short on time, cut rest intervals to 20–30 seconds and add 1–2 extra sets per exercise to keep total volume the same—you’ll get the same gains.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
20-second rest intervals produced nearly identical strength gains (42.4% vs. 41.5%) as 2-minute rests, despite less recovery time.
Conventional wisdom says longer rests are needed for maximal strength—especially with heavy lifts. This study shows that when volume is matched, your nervous system adapts just fine with minimal rest.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re short on time, cut rest intervals to 20–30 seconds and add 1–2 extra sets per exercise to keep total volume the same—you’ll get the same gains.
Publication
Journal
Sport Sciences for Health
Year
2026
Authors
Parsa Attarieh, J. P. Nunes, Saman Negahdar, Saeed Khani, Amirali Goli, Mohammad H. Fallah, Hamed Nazarirad, Shahriar Nazarirad, S. Mojtahedi, R. Soori
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Claims (10)
By training both legs of the same person—one with short breaks, one with long breaks—the study made sure differences weren’t due to people being naturally different, making the results more reliable.
Whether you take short or long breaks between leg exercises, as long as you do the same total number of reps, your inner and outer thigh muscles grow about the same.
If you lift heavy weights with either short or long breaks between sets—while doing the same total work—you’ll get about the same stronger in your leg muscles after 10 weeks.
If you take only 20 seconds between sets, you can still lift the same total weight as someone taking 2 minutes—you just have to do more sets to make up for the shorter breaks.
If you push yourself to the limit every set, whether you rest 20 seconds or 2 minutes, you’ll end up doing about the same total amount of work.