Recommender
How Long Should I Rest?
Answer four quick questions and get a rest range matched to what you are actually doing, with the reasoning behind it. Then start the timer on the matching preset.
Rest this long
1 min – 2 min
Muscle growth
Why
Muscle growth sets start at 1 min to 2 min.
Read the evidence by goal behind these ranges.
Check your ATP-PC recovery for any rest time.
Not sure of your RPE? Convert weight and reps into it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should I rest between sets?
It depends on your goal, the lift, and how hard the set was. Strength work needs 3 to 5 minutes, muscle growth needs 60 to 120 seconds, and endurance work needs 30 to 60 seconds. Big compound lifts and sets taken close to failure need more than the baseline, which is what this tool calculates for you.
Why does rest change between the first and last set?
Fatigue accumulates. Your ATP-PC stores, which power heavy efforts, recover a little less completely each time, and your nervous system needs more time to produce the same force. Adding roughly 30 seconds per set after the first keeps performance from falling away late in the exercise.
Should compound lifts get longer rest than isolation work?
Yes. A squat or deadlift recruits far more muscle mass and taxes the nervous system systemically, so it needs longer to recover than a curl or a lateral raise that fatigues one small muscle locally. This tool scales the recommendation up for compound movements.
Ranges follow the rest-period evidence summarized across this site, including Schoenfeld's 2016 review in Sports Medicine for the strength and hypertrophy split and phosphocreatine recovery kinetics measured by Bogdanis and colleagues in 1995. Treat the result as a starting point and adjust on how you actually feel.