For many years short rest periods of 30-90 seconds have been touted as being superior to longer rest times (>2 minutes) for the purpose of hypertrophy. We can totally understand this line of thinking. It FEELS like you’re working harder by reducing your rest time, heart rate is likely higher, and you may even obtain a more intense pump! It makes sense that this would be better for muscle gain, right?
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However, what if we told you that resting for longer in between each set (within reason) would lead to superior results? In order to gain muscle, our main goal should be to increase strength over time within a sufficient volume range, especially for the larger compound lifts. If you’re resting for one minute or less it may be limiting your performance, particularly for set 2 onwards. Having longer, practical rest intervals of 2-5 minutes may allow you to achieve more repetitions across all sets, leading to more volume and promoting greater hypertrophy and strength adaptations. If you find yourself reducing the load or completing significantly less reps in your latter sets, try extending your inter-set rest.
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Don’t just take our word for it though. Research from 2016 compared long (3 minute) versus short (1 minute) rest times throughout an 8-week block of training. Results indicated that longer rest times were more favourable regarding maximal strength for bench press and back squat. In addition, muscle thickness was also greater in the anterior thigh for the group that rested longer. Both groups had an increase in upper body muscular endurance.
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We’re curious, how long do you usually rest for?