The Study
Acute bench press performance responses to two inter-set rest periods in recreationally trained men and women.
This study watched how men and women did bench presses with different rest times and found that women didn’t get as tired as fast. But it doesn’t mean women are stronger overall — just that in this one workout, they kept going better under these exact conditions.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
In a workout where people do bench presses with little rest between sets, women kept pushing with more power than men, even when tired.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 542 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — this means women may be better at sustaining effort in high-rep, short-rest training like hypertrophy workouts.
- 2Women did more reps and kept more power than men, especially when resting only 1 minute between sets (p=0.000056).
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness
Year
2026
Authors
Attila Gáspár, Balázs Húth, Bence Kopper, Z. Murlasits
Related Content
Claims (6)
Different people experience different levels of fatigue during a single resistance training session and recover at different rates between sessions.
During four consecutive bench press sets, average power output decreases significantly in both men and women, whether they rest for one minute or two minutes between sets.
In young adults doing bench presses at 75% of their maximum strength, women maintain their power output better than men across multiple sets, regardless of whether they rest one or two minutes between sets.
When performing bench presses, men and women show a larger difference in how well they maintain power when resting one minute between sets compared to resting two minutes.
During bench press sets with one-minute rests, men and women show different rates of decline in the amount of mechanical work they perform, reflecting distinct fatigue patterns in upper-body resistance exercise.
In bench press exercises performed at 75% of maximum strength with one-minute breaks between sets, women perform more total repetitions than men across four sets.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.