For a lot of people, a rest period means endlessly doom scrolling on their phones, but it really shouldn't. In fact, research suggests that what you do during your rest periods could be almost as important as your reps and sets. By cutting rest short, you could be leaving gains on the table.
Sports scientists refer to this period as inter-set recovery, when your muscles clear metabolic byproducts and replenish energy stores between sets. Rest too little and your next set may suffer. Rest too long and your workouts may simply become less time efficient.
But how long should you rest between sets? Below we break down the latest research so you can decide exactly how long your recoveries should be for muscle gain, strength and endurance.
How Long Should I Rest Between Sets: For Hypertrophy (Muscle Gain)
The general consensus is that for hypertrophy we should be resting at least two minutes. Now, a new meta-analysis suggests that we may not need to take quite so long for muscle growth, and that the current guidelines regarding rest times warrant reconsideration. The study suggests that rest periods of 1.5 minutes may maximise gains, which is also supported by a previous review.
The study also noted that resting for less than one minute between sets reduces the total possible muscle growth obtained from a set, while resting for two to three minutes or longer did not substantially increase hypertrophy.
While more studies are necessary, this meta-analysis mentioned that when it comes to saving time during workouts, the trade-off between greater time efficiency versus reducing hypertrophy slightly could make shorter rest periods beneficial for those with limited training time. Time is often reported as a significant barrier to exercise participation and adherence, so this could potentially be an attractive option for time-poor lifters.
However, many variables will impact rest times needed for muscle growth. Therefore it's important to individualise your rest periods to suit your needs. As a general rule, resting for longer than one minute between sets is most beneficial for muscle growth.
Researcher Dr Milo Wolf claims that if you're not resting for long enough between two sets and the performance of that next set takes a big hit, there is a chance that set becomes less effective for muscle growth.
'Rest long enough to get a solid performance on your next set,' says Wolf. 'Generally if you only see a drop of one or a few reps on the next set, it's a good sign you've rested for long enough.'
For beginners, two minutes would likely be sufficient, although more may be needed depending on the exercise. From the current evidence we have available for muscle gains, it's hard to give a definitive answer. However, you can aim for:
For muscle gain: 1-2 minutes rest is beneficial. However, tailor this advice to suit your needs and performance during sets.
How Long Should I Rest Between Sets: For Strength & Power
It seems that for strength improvements we could all be resting a little longer, especially for our big compound lifts. A review published by Sports Medicine revealed how multiple studies have supported 3-5 minutes rest as being superior to shorter rest times.
Longer rest periods allow your muscles and nervous system to recover more fully between sets, helping you generate maximal force on each effort. This is particularly important for heavy compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts and bench presses.
Beginners may not necessarily be lifting the heavier weights that require longer rests, although longer rest periods would not necessarily hurt progress if strength and power are the goal.
For strength gains: 3-5 minutes is most beneficial.
How Long Should I Rest Between Sets: For Muscular Endurance?
For muscular endurance the research is a little less clear. However, from the evidence we have available it seems that rest times can be shorter. Research has concluded that training with short-rest intervals (e.g. 20 seconds to one minute) resulted in better performance during a cycle test.
These findings support the use of shorter rest intervals for improvements in muscular endurance. This makes sense if you are using circuit-style training with lighter weights and higher reps, where maintaining work under fatigue is part of the stimulus.
