Optimal Rest Time For Strength & Hypertrophy

Often the overlooked part when building out a training plan is your rest time.

You can be on either side of the scale here, you could be in the category where you superset everything, perhaps your in the category where you sit on your phone between every set or maybe your a good guy and are just somewhere in between.

Perhaps check your watch if you don’t usually and track your intra-set rest times, you may be surprised as to how long your resting.

However this is an important aspect and the optimal time differs whether your goal is strength or hypertrophy, compound or isolation and can be different between muscle groups.

We also have a recent systematic review published just this year analysing 9 different studies to draw evidence from.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

• 🤓 Why We Need Intra-Set Rest

• 🏋️ The Optimal Rest Time For Strength

• 💪 The Optimal Rest Time For Hypertrophy

• 🤓 Other Recommendations Regarding Intra-Set Rest Time

• ✍️ TLDR: Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

GETTING STARTED
Why We Need Intra-Set Rest

Intra set (between sets) rest, allows for neuromuscular recovery to maximize workout performance. We want to rest sufficiently enough in order to ensure that the next set is as productive to our goal of strength or hypertrophy (or both) as possible.

Ask yourself these next 3 general guideline questions when determining this:

1. Has your cardiorespiratory system recovered sufficiently so your breathing is not a limiting factor on your next set?

2. Has your target muscle recovered enough to perform the lift within your desired rep range?

3. Have synergist muscles recovered enough as to not be a limiting factor in your next set? (ie. Triceps when performing a bench press)

Aside from the above quick reference questions you can ask yourself, we do have evidence based research we can draw information from to help us program our training optimally.

STRENGTH
The Optimal Rest Time For Strength

Strength and hypertrophy training can go hand in hand, however their execution can differ. Rest periods is one such variable that should be adapted based on your goals.

Trying to push 80% and upwards of your 1RM while breathing heavy just isn’t optimal and we don’t need a study to tell us that, but we have studies anyways…

A review by (de Salles et al., 2009) examined 35 studies, with the aim to compare rest intervals and how it affects the results on strength, muscular power, endurance and hypertrophy. Their findings? When training with loads between 50-90% of your 1 RM, a rest period of 3-5 minutes allowed for more repetitions to be performed over multiple sets therefore producing greater increases in strength due to more training intensity and volume. Muscular power was also shown to be greater in the 3-5 minute rest period compared to a 1 minute rest period. However, the study does state that some tests suggest that 1 minute may be enough between repeated 1 Rep Max attempts.

A systematic review by (Grgic et al., 2017) compared 23 studies with a total of 491 participants (413 male and 78 female) to assess which rest period was optimal for muscular strength adaptations. Conclusion? Good quality muscle strength gains can be made even with rest periods between sets under 60 seconds, however longer duration rest intervals of 2 minutes or more were needed to maximise strength gains in trained individuals. It notes that in untrained individuals rest periods of 1-2 minutes were sufficient at maximising strength gains.

A study by (Schoenfeld et al., 2016) published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning, carried out an 8 week trial on 21 resistance trained men, training 3x full body sessions per week, to compare the difference between shorter rest periods of 1 minute and longer rest periods of 3 minutes. They test the 1 rep max bench press, 1 rep max squat, muscle thickness in the biceps, triceps and quadriceps femoris. The Results? 1 RM in both the bench and squat were significantly higher in the 3 minute rest period group and muscle thickness growth was much greater in the quads for the longer rest period also. They state that the triceps had a “trend” for greater muscle thickness in the long rest period group also.

GROWTH
The Optimal Rest Time For Hypertrophy

With regards to hypertrophy, we have a recent systematic review looking at this.

Before we dive into that, you will notice one of the studies above (Schoenfeld et al., 2016) touched on this. With their findings specifically showing that quad growth was greater in the longer rest period group and that triceps also had a “trend” for greater growth in the longer rest period group.

The recent systematic review and meta-analysis by (Singer et al., 2024) included 9 total studies which all equated volume load, ensuring both longer and shorter rest time groups performed the same total amount of work.

Total Volume Load = Sets x Reps x Weight

The studies authors split the groups into:

• Short - Under 60 seconds

• Intermediate - 1-2 minutes

• Long - 2-3 minutes

• Very Long - Over 3 minutes

As you can see from the results, regarding hypertrophy, all rest times resulted in muscle growth.

The intermediate rest time group (1-2 minutes) provided the best returns on hypertrophy. Followed by the long (2-3 minutes) group.

This also highlights that for hypertrophy, resting for under 1 minute or over 3 minutes was suboptimal for hypertrophy returns.

SOLUTIONS
Other Recommendations Regarding Intra-Set Rest Time

Below I’ll outline some recommendations regarding some variables that may help you. If not already in a previous issue, these will be discussed in depth in the future.

Differing rest times between muscle groups:

We have seen with the information above that quads specifically benefited from longer rest times upto 3 minutes. But what about smaller muscle groups?

Well your calves and forearms for example are very well vascularised, with plenty of blood supply, they are also smaller and as a result recover quicker.

On top of this, due to them (calves and forearms) requiring less weight and trained through single joint isolation movements, they have a minimal effect on your cardiorespiratory system (breathing) meaning you don’t require as long to rest in order for your breathing to return to normal. If you are out of breath from a set of wrist curls, stop doing them and start doing some aerobic conditioning work!

Strength & Hypertrophy (Powerbuilding) recommendations:

Most of us want to get strong and jacked. My recommendation based on the evidence would be to rest generally between the 2-3 minute mark for your compound movements and 1-2 minutes for your isolation movements.

Short on time?

Stick to the lower end of the optimal rest range’s discussed above. 2 minutes may not be optimal to maximise strength gains according to the scientific literature, however you CAN still make really good strength progress with 2 minutes rest between sets.

Perhaps utilise agonist / antagonist supersets where you can. (We have discussed this in a previous Strength Framework issue)

TLDR
Key Takeaways & Practical Applications

As we can see, optimal rest times can be dependant on several factors, whether your goal is strength or hypertrophy, which muscle group you are training, multi vs single joint isolation movements and your overall fitness.

For Strength:

• 3-5 minutes rest between sets seems to be optimal for most.

• Solid strength gains can still be made with 2 minutes intra-set rest.

For Hypertrophy:

• 1-2 minutes rest between sets seems to be optimal for most.

• 2-3 minutes still provides great returns.

• Under 1 minute or over 3 delivers sub optimal hypertrophy returns

• Rest times should change based on muscle group or movement being performed.

• Compound Lower - 2-3 minutes / Isolation Lower 1-2 minutes

• Compound Upper - 2 minutes / Isolation Upper - 1-2 minutes

Till next time,
Keep Training & Keep Pushing.

Mark ✌️