More Lifts, Bigger Muscles — Rest Time Doesn't Matter
Volume Load Rather Than Resting Interval Influences Muscle Hypertrophy During High-Intensity Resistance Training
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
People lifted weights with the same effort but different rest times between sets. Some did more total lifts (volume), some did fewer. Muscles grew more when people did more total lifts, no matter how long they rested.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 539 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
People lifted weights with the same effort but different rest times between sets. Some did more total lifts (volume), some did fewer. Muscles grew more when people did more total lifts, no matter how long they rested.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 539 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Publication
Authors
Longo AR, Silva-Batista C, Pedroso K, de Salles Painelli V, Lasevicius T, Schoenfeld BJ, Aihara AY, de Almeida Peres B, Tricoli V, Teixeira EL
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Claims (5)
Higher weekly resistance training volume leads to greater muscle hypertrophy in trained individuals.
Total training volume, training intensity, and consistency are more significant determinants of muscle hypertrophy than the specific muscle length at which training occurs.
Lifting heavy weights for 10 weeks makes you stronger, no matter how long you rest between sets or how many reps you do, as long as you’re lifting around 80% of your max.
When lifting heavy weights, doing more total reps and sets (higher volume) makes your muscles grow bigger, even if you rest less between sets.
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.