How long to rest between sets for muscle and strength

For muscle growth, rest about 2 minutes between sets of big compound lifts and 60 to 90 seconds between sets of isolation exercises. For maximal strength, rest 2 to 3 minutes or more on heavy compounds, up to 5 minutes before near-maximal sets. The rule behind all of it is simple: rest long enough to repeat a quality set, and no longer than you need.

Why rest time matters at all

Rest between sets isn’t wasted time. It’s when your muscles restore the energy (mainly phosphocreatine) they need for the next hard effort, and when the fatigue in your nervous system settles down. Rest too little and your next set loses reps: you planned 3 sets of 10 and end up with 10, 7, 5.

Those lost reps are the real cost. Muscle growth is driven by enough hard sets taken close to failure, and strength by heavy, high-quality reps. Rest time is mostly a tool to protect those reps.

How long to rest between sets for hypertrophy

For years, the standard advice for building muscle was 30 to 90 seconds of rest, on the idea that short rest boosts “metabolic stress” and hormones. The research since then has mostly gone the other way.

• In a 2016 trial, Schoenfeld and colleagues had trained men follow the same program for 8 weeks, resting either 1 or 3 minutes between sets. The 3-minute group gained more squat and bench strength and more thigh muscle thickness.
• A 2017 systematic review by Grgic and colleagues concluded that both short and long rest can build muscle, with a possible advantage for longer rest in trained lifters.
• The most recent meta-analysis (Singer et al., 2024, 9 studies) found a small advantage for resting more than 60 seconds, but no appreciable difference beyond 90 seconds. The authors think the benefit mainly comes from preserving volume.

That last point is confirmed by a clever study by Longo and colleagues (2022). Each leg of the participants trained knee extensions with a different protocol. With 1 minute of rest, the leg grew about half as much as with 3 minutes, unless it did extra sets to reach the same total load: then it grew just as much. Rest time matters mostly because of how much work it lets you do.

In practice for hypertrophy:

• Big compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench, rows): about 2 minutes, up to 3 if your reps drop off a lot.
• Dumbbell, machine and cable compounds: 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
• Isolation exercises (curls, raises, extensions): 60 to 90 seconds.

Quads · BarbellBarbell SquatPlace the bar on your upper back, not on your neck, and step out of the rack. Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width, toes turned out a little.How to do the Barbell Squat →

How long to rest between sets for strength

Strength work uses heavier loads (roughly 1 to 6 reps) and puts more demand on your nervous system. Rest becomes more important.

The 2018 systematic review by Grgic and colleagues on strength (23 studies, 491 participants) concluded that you can gain strength with short rest, but that trained lifters need more than 2 minutes to maximize their gains. In beginners, 60 to 120 seconds was enough. The ACSM’s 2009 position stand recommended at least 2 to 3 minutes for main exercises with heavy loads and 1 to 2 minutes for assistance exercises.

In practice for strength:

• Main lifts in the 3 to 6 rep range: 3 minutes.
• Very heavy singles, doubles and triples: 3 to 5 minutes.
• Accessory work after the main lift: 1 to 2 minutes.

If you’re new to lifting, your loads are still light compared to what your body will handle in a year. Two minutes on your main lifts will do the job.

Compound vs isolation: why the difference

A squat or a deadlift involves a lot of muscle mass, a heavy load and a heart rate that climbs fast. You need time to catch your breath, recover your legs and your back, and get ready mentally. A lateral raise involves one small muscle at a time: it recovers fast, and your cardiovascular system barely notices.

In practice, that means short rest costs you far more reps on a heavy compound than on an isolation exercise. That’s why a good program doesn’t give every exercise the same rest.

Rest time table by exercise type

Here’s a practical guide. The last column shows the default rest Brick uses for these exercises, which you can change.

Treat these as starting points, not rules. The right rest is the one that lets you hit your target reps at the effort you planned.

Supersets and time-efficient training

Short on time? Cutting your rest to 30 seconds is the worst way to save it: you lose reps, so you lose volume. Better options:

• Antagonist supersets. Pair two exercises that don’t use the same muscles, for example bench press and barbell row, or curls and triceps pushdowns. Do a set of the first, go straight to the second, then rest 90 seconds to 2 minutes before the next round. Each muscle still gets a few minutes off.
• Keep supersets for the right exercises. Iversen and colleagues’ 2021 review estimates that supersets, drop sets and rest-pause can roughly halve session time while keeping similar volume, and that they seem better suited to muscle growth than to maximal strength. Do your heavy squats and deadlifts with full rest, then superset the accessory work.
• Expect more fatigue. Weakley and colleagues (2017) found supersets and tri-sets more time-efficient than traditional sets, but they also produced more lactate and more next-day muscle damage markers, and tri-sets felt harder. That’s fine, just plan for it.
• If you do shorten rest, add a set. That’s what the Longo study suggests: you can recover the lost volume with an extra set.

Lats · CableCable Lat PulldownAdjust the thigh pad to lock your legs in and grab the wide bar slightly wider than your shoulders. Sit with your chest up and lean back slightly.How to do the Cable Lat Pulldown →

What to do during your rest

Rest time is active in the good sense: you’re preparing the next set.

1. Log your set. Weight, reps, and if you use it, how hard it was (RPE or reps in reserve). It takes five seconds and it’s what lets you progress next week.
2. Breathe and walk a few steps. Calm, slow breathing helps your heart rate come down. Staying lightly on your feet is better than sitting slumped, especially between heavy leg sets.
3. Drink a sip of water and get your next weight ready.
4. Think about one technique cue for the next set: brace before you descend, keep your elbows tucked, control the lowering.
5. Avoid what extends your rest without you noticing. Two minutes of scrolling easily turns into five. That’s not dangerous, but it makes your session longer and your sets inconsistent.

Light mobility for a muscle you’re not training (shoulders between leg sets, for example) is fine if you enjoy it. Hard stretching or cardio between sets isn’t useful: you’d be adding fatigue during the time meant to remove it.

Why timing your rest helps you progress

Progressive overload means doing a little more over time: one more rep, a bit more weight. To compare one week with the next, the conditions need to be similar. If you rested 4 minutes last week and 90 seconds today, your numbers don’t mean much.

That’s where a rest timer helps, ideally one you don’t have to think about. In Brick, the timer starts by itself as soon as you check off a set, with a default rest for each exercise (3 minutes on a squat, 1 minute on a lateral raise), which you can change per exercise in your routines. You can add or remove 15 seconds or skip it. When the rest is over, a notification tells you, the countdown stays visible on your Lock Screen as a Live Activity, and it also runs on your Apple Watch, so you can leave your phone in your bag.

Common rest mistakes

• Same rest for everything. One minute after a heavy squat is too short; three minutes after a curl is too long.
• Cutting rest to “make it harder”. The session feels tougher, but you do less useful work. Effort should come from the sets, not from the clock.
• Rest that changes every week. It hides your real progress.
• Ignoring warning signs. Some breathlessness after a hard set is normal. Dizziness, chest pain or palpitations that don’t settle are not: stop and see a doctor. If you have a heart condition or high blood pressure, talk to a professional before doing very heavy sets or very short rest.

Shoulders · DumbbellDumbbell Lateral RaiseStand with a dumbbell in each hand at your sides and your elbows slightly bent. Raise the dumbbells out to the sides to shoulder height, leading with your elbows.How to do the Dumbbell Lateral Raise →

Example: a push session with the right rests

Here’s what this looks like in a real hypertrophy session, the push day of a push pull legs split:

About 12 hard sets in under an hour, with every set done in good condition. If you only have 40 minutes, keep the bench press as it is and superset the rest, rather than squeezing every rest down to 45 seconds.