How Long Should You Rest Between Sets for Muscle Growth?

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:18 Interset Rest & Hypertrophy
02:57 Cardiorespiratory Fatigue
04:58 Traditional vs Metabolite Training
06:41 Absolute Strength
07:42 Time Efficiency
10:01 Practical Recommendations

STUDIES

ONLINE COACHING & CONSULTING

BOOKS & TRAINING TEMPLATES

COURSES

SOCIAL MEDIA

[lgnfve]

working from home with a home gym, I started doing a set every 30 minutes. this got me out of my chair and active. In a very short amount of time I have seen great results. I cant help but think about strong men back 100 years ago who just lifted things all day and were huge.

[simos]

great video, personally i find using longer resting periods is also beneficial for resting mentally and being prepared to give everything you have on the next set

[hccdgvvfccdgn]

Compound sets 2-3 minutes single muscle groups 1 minute.

[demeroldemerolforgodheista]

I rest 2.5 minutes on compounds (2 minutes if i'm doing APS), and for isolations I always do either rest-pause or drop sets, so in those the rest can be minimal (drop set) or 30 seconds (rest-pause).

[HerculesFit]

Definitely agree with the notion of stronger lifters needing longer rest. 2-4 minutes is usually my go-to for everything 💪

[Arthur-ygfu]

resting more between sets while trying to mantain proximity to failure made my workout routine extremely easier to keep up because with longer rest periods i don't have nearly as much lactic acid muscle burns and that made me much much more inclined to actually get up and go to the gym, which resulted in more gains! in the state of constancy i am right now i can reduce my resting time (and i often do, periodicizing my routine in 8~12 week blocks) but to get to the place i am longer rests surely helped a lot.

[TTx]

Ideal for me is about 3-4 minutes for compound lifts, and 2-3 minutes for isolations

[sirmcfluffy]

discovered your channel recently and i just have to say i fucking love your vids man instantly my favorite fitness youtuber, love watching them recreationally as well you make everything interesting

[pokinacha]

To ensure I spend as little time in the gym while still getting a good workout, I superset associated muscle groups and then rest 1-2 min for pull, 2-3 for push and 3+ for legs especially with squats and leg press. For example, I’ll do lat pull down and then superset with cable pull over, face pulls and dumbbell curls. Heart rate generally sits around 120+ but when it comes to squats I’m hitting 150 after a super set of squats, weighted lunges and air squats.

[danbenz]

For 10 years I used 4 minute rests for reps of 6-9. Recently I switched to 90 seconds rest for 4 x 8; and 3:00 rests for 5 x 5 heavy weights. Both gave superior and equal hypertrophy to my old rest structure. When I extended the heavier sets to 3:00 rests, the hypertrophy response disappeared but strength gains were still decent. I needed the longer rest because I was progressing in strength fast.

[spurzo-thespiralspacewolf]

4-6 minutes for compounds and 2-3 minutes for isolations is what I do.

[adriankovacs]

9:20 If you reduce your interset rest periods, you will not increase your volume if you still workout for the same amount of time because resting shorter also means that your sets are not going to have as many reps performed inside of them as opposed to resting for longer. If you rest for a shorter period of time between sets then you will need to perform more sets to reach the same volume as if you were resting for longer. For example: you can do 3 x 10 on an exercises with 100kg let's say if you rest 3 min between your sets, but if you only choose to rest 2 mins then you may only get 10, then 8, then 7 for example hence you need another 4th set to complete 30 total reps which actually would result in the same amount of time spent resting and additional time to do a 4th set, so you would actually slow yourself down during a workout if you wanted to train that way. Remember guys, not all sets are created equal! This is also part of the reason why studies that suggest a recommended amount of sets per muscle group per week are so wrong about this, they don't take into account intensity and rest periods which determine how much a set "counts" as a set. Other than this, this information is solid.

[danielcordeiro]

Thanks a lot for the hypothesis that biger and stronger people may need a longer rest period.

[stvinney]

I think intermediate or advanced lifters can determine the time based on feeling and maybe experience
Me personally, i wanna get in and out asap, and i LOVE working out. To me it's therapy
Some exercises are heavier and really intense and a couple of minutes might be necessary but im also a huge proponent of supersets (dropping the weight with no rest)

[klausfaerevaag]

Also, do cardio. You will recover much faster, and be able to push the set more as you get in better shape.

[ubrfrnzy]

I never timed my rest periods, I just waited until I felt 'ready' and found I would be able to continue machine movements after just 60 seconds, but movements like squats took up to 3 minutes. Listen to your body.

[Not_Ciel]

Basically, we have no real idea because the small amount of studies we do have include too many variables to determine which one is more effective

[reconteam]

My workouts are bordering on 2 hours including warm ups and cool downs. I'll give drop sets a try and even watched your video on them. One quick question, in your drop set video you said it's best for isolation lifts. What about those lifts like you mentioned in this new video of yours that fall in between isolation and compound, like seated cable row or dumbell overhead press?

[reieli]

Free weight Compound 2-4min
In between 1-2min
Machine Isolation 90sec

I like these ranges, that said. I see rest as "Rest Progression" i dont rely anymore on "I have to rest x amont" I rest to be ready to lift keeping in the mind recommened Rest periods. But it changes of course like decribed depending on the lift. I find it useful to track rest, for example i would max rest 3min then test drop 2min45 all the way to 2min (Max) every week. But not set in stone if i need more ill rest.

My favoirte with isolation on dropsets as finisher i rest max 2min (on heavy weight) then drop the rest period by 5sec each time i reduce the weight.

Keep up the content 😊💪 very useful as always

[maitlandbezzina]

Back watching this video after a while, nowadays I have specific rest periods depending on the exercise I’m doing. The longest rest I take between sets is 5 minutes for squats of 10 reps because my cardio isn’t the best at this point and this is enough time to ensure I don’t gas out half way through the next set. The shortest rest I comfortably take is between dumbbell side raises for isolating lateral delts, straight arm pulldowns for isolating latissimus dorsis, or tricep rope pulldowns which are normally 1.5-2 minutes. Isolated exercises naturally are a lot less straining on the cardio so it’s easy to jump back into the next set faster without getting tired. Squats still kill me when the rep range is higher 😂 Deadlifts and bench is usually 4 minutes each, sometimes I give myself more time depending on how I feel too