Rest-Pause Recomp: 20-Minute Workouts That Build Muscle in a Cut

Losing weight or, more specifically, fat, is pretty simple—eat less and move more to create a caloric deficit. Faced with this energy shortfall, your body has no choice but to start burning fat for fuel.

Sure, things like macronutrient balance and sleep all affect how well your body burns fat, but what’s commonly known as your energy balance is the key to getting lean (1). After all, fat is just stored energy, and your body won’t dip into those reserves if it doesn’t need to.

Unfortunately, faced with a caloric deficit, such as during a cut, your body doesn’t just burn fat—it also sheds muscle tissue. That’s because muscle is metabolically expensive to maintain. So, in an effort to make your fat stores last longer, your body drops some muscle, too.

This is good news if you are stranded on a desert island with no food, as it’ll help you live longer. However, it’s bad news if you’ve just spent the last few months building mass and now want to shed the additional fat weight you gained so you look your best on the beach!

Strength training can help preserve muscle mass during a diet (2), but there’s a problem—eating less, as you must during a cut, can leave you feeling tired and weak. Plus, too much training could lead to even faster muscle loss.

The good news is that there are ways to maintain or even build muscle during a cut. The trick is to turn up the intensity of your workouts while dialing down the volume.

I’m a 35-year veteran personal trainer, and, in this article, I share a tried and tested program for building muscle during a cut.

Rest-Pause Training—Making Every Rep Count

Strength training is a must for preserving or building muscle. When you lift weights, you expose your muscles to several signals that tell your body to strengthen, repair, and build the body part you’ve been working. This includes mechanical stress, metabolic stress, and neurological stress.

Unfortunately, most of these triggers only occur at the end of your set, as your muscles become fatigued. In general, it’s only the last 2-3 reps of a set that are effective, which is why most hypertrophy research suggests training very close to failure for best results (3).

That means that, when you do a set of, e.g., 12 reps, the first nine really don’t offer many benefits. They’re just stepping stones that take you to the most productive part of your set. Do four sets per muscle, and those ineffective reps add up to a lot of wasted energy.

The good news is that there are several training methods that are designed to make getting close to failure easier and more time-efficient. Drop sets are one, and the lesser-known myo-reps system is another.

While both of these methods can be effective, my favorite time-saving, intensity-boosting, junk-rep saving method is rest-pause. It’s simple, time-efficient, and brutally effective.

More Muscle in Less Time with Rest-Pause Training

Rest-pause training eliminates most of the wasted reps from your workout. It keeps your muscles in a fatigued state, so every rep you perform is more productive. Plus, by eliminating all those stepping-stone reps, it also saves you a whole lot of time.

Here’s how to perform a set of rest-pause training:

1. Load the bar or machine with a weight that takes you to failure within your preferred rep range, e.g., 10-12.
2. After a warm-up, rep out to failure.
3. Rest 15-20 seconds and then grab your weights and rep out to failure again.
4. Expect to perform 20-30% of your original rep count.
5. Repeat this process 2-3 more times. It’s normal for your rep count to decrease during subsequent mini-sets as fatigue levels rise.
6. And you are done!

While this might look easy on paper, the truth is you’re going to be doing 3-4 maximal effort sets in short succession—it’s gonna burn!

Not convinced that so few sets and reps can be effective? I get it—this is a very unconventional style of training. However, research suggests that rest-pause is just as effective as regular sets and reps, despite requiring much shorter workouts (4).

That’s especially good news during a cut, when you a) probably won’t have the energy for longer workouts and b) want to avoid muscle loss.

In the next section, I share a low-volume, high-intensity program designed to preserve or even build muscle during your next cutting diet.

20-Minute Rest-Pause Workouts For Your Next Recomp

Now that you understand the ins and outs of rest-pause training, it’s time to put what you’ve learned into practice.

This routine will get you in and out of the gym in 20 minutes or less—plus a little extra time for warm-ups. Each workout comprises just two exercises, so it’s both minimalistic and energy-efficient. Don’t let that brevity fool you; you’re going to be training at near maximum intensity, which ensures your muscles will receive all the stimulation they need to grow.

Here’s your training schedule for the week:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Chest	Back	Rest	Shoulders	Legs	Arms	Rest

But, before you even think about touching any weights, make sure you spend 5-10 minutes warming up and preparing your muscles and joints for what you are about to do. Begin with some light cardio and follow that with dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for the muscles and joints you are about to use.

Workout 1 – Chest

As most bodybuilders tend to do, we’re starting your training week with a chest workout. However, while most of the bros are standing in the queue for the bench press station, your workout will be over and done in minutes rather than hours.

As you’ll be staying so close to failure, make sure you do this workout with a trusted spotter. The last thing I want you to do is drop a weight on your head. We want pain AND gains, not just pain!

	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1	Incline dumbbell bench press	1 set to failure + 2/3 rest-pause “mini-sets”
2	Pec deck or cable crossover

Workout 2 – Back

A thick, broad back is a bodybuilding must-have. A lot of lifters focus too much on lat pulldowns, which mainly build width. This workout combines vertical and horizontal pulls to ensure your back is thick and wide.

As you’ll be staying close to failure during both exercises, feel free to use lifting straps so that none of your sets end prematurely just because your hands are tired.

	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1	Pull-up or chin-up	1 set to failure + 2/3 rest-pause “mini-sets”
2	Single-arm dumbbell row

Workout 3 – Shoulders 

Yesterday was a rest day, so you should be firing on all cylinders for today’s workout. The good news is that you’ve already trained your anterior (front) deltoids during your chest workout. So today is all about building those 3D shoulders you’ve always wanted, with some extra attention to the medial or side delts, which give your upper body most of its width.

	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1	Arnold press	1 set to failure + 2/3 rest-pause “mini-sets”
2	Cable lateral raise

Workout 4 – Legs

Friends don’t let friends skip leg day—or at least that’s what the meme says! Leg training is crucial as your lower body contains about 40% of your total mass. Not training your legs will severely unbalance your physique and limit your muscular potential. Plus, you’ll look kinda silly in shorts.

Today’s workout will probably be the hardest of the week, but the good news is that you’ll be finished in less than 20 minutes. There are three exercises in today’s workout because you’ve got a lot of muscle groups to cover, and you can’t afford to neglect any of them.

	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1	Leg press or hack squat	1 set to failure + 2/3 rest-pause “mini-sets”
2	Seated leg curl
3	Standing calf raise

Workout 5 – Arms

You’ve already trained your biceps and triceps indirectly, but, given their importance to bodybuilders, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy this stand-alone arm workout. Think of it as a great way to round out your week of training!

With just one biceps and one triceps exercise, make sure you give both movements your best effort and remember that tomorrow is a rest day, so there is no need to save any energy.

	Exercise	Sets/Reps
1	Incline dumbbell curl	1 set to failure + 2/3 rest-pause “mini-sets”
2	Overhead cable triceps extension

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have a question about this workout plan? No problem, because I’ve got the answers. Alternatively, if you need more information, please drop me a line in the comments section below, and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

Is one set per exercise really enough to build muscle?

A single set, especially when taken to failure, is enough to produce significant muscle growth (5). In fact, single-set training is known as HIT – short for High Intensity Training. That said, you aren’t really doing just one set. Rather, you’re doing 3-4 minus all those stepping-stone reps that take so much time and effort.

So, don’t worry—one set, plus those mini sets, will definitely build muscle if you push them close to failure.

Can I change the exercises?

Depending on you, your circumstances, and your gym, you may not want or be able to do some of the exercises listed in this program. So, by all means, make any changes you deem necessary. However, try to use similar movements so as not to unbalance the workouts.

Also, remember you’ll be training to failure, so think about safety. For example, squats probably aren’t a good choice, as getting stuck under a heavy barbell at the bottom of a rep could cause serious injury.

Which diet should I follow with this program?

Cutting diets are usually low in calories but high in protein. This creates the ideal environment for fat loss and muscle preservation. It’s beyond the scope of this article to tell you what to eat during a cut, but you’ll find all the information you need in these articles and guides:

• 6 Week Cutting Diet For Less Fat And More Gains
• Cutting Diet Plan To Shred Fat Fast
• 15 Best Foods to Eat on a Cut: Unveiling Fat Loss Secrets

Closing Thoughts

Rest-pause training lets you get maximum results in minimum time—perfect for when energy and recovery are limited during a cut. By making every rep count, you’ll preserve hard-earned muscle while still leaning out. Give this program an honest try for a few weeks and see how your body responds. And if you do, let me know how it goes in the comments; I’d love to hear about your results.

References:

1 – Kim JY. Optimal Diet Strategies for Weight Loss and Weight Loss Maintenance. J Obes Metab Syndr. 2021 Mar 30;30(1):20-31. doi: 10.7570/jomes20065. PMID: 33107442; PMCID: PMC8017325.

2 – Sardeli AV, Komatsu TR, Mori MA, Gáspari AF, Chacon-Mikahil MPT. Resistance Training Prevents Muscle Loss Induced by Caloric Restriction in Obese Elderly Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2018 Mar 29;10(4):423. doi: 10.3390/nu10040423. PMID: 29596307; PMCID: PMC5946208.

3 – Lovegrove S, Hughes LJ, Mansfield SK, Read PJ, Price P, Patterson SD. Repetitions in Reserve Is a Reliable Tool for Prescribing Resistance Training Load. J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Oct 1;36(10):2696-2700. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003952. Epub 2021 Feb 22. PMID: 36135029.

4 – Prestes J, A Tibana R, de Araujo Sousa E, da Cunha Nascimento D, de Oliveira Rocha P, F Camarço N, Frade de Sousa NM, Willardson JM. Strength and Muscular Adaptations After 6 Weeks of Rest-Pause vs. Traditional Multiple-Sets Resistance Training in Trained Subjects. J Strength Cond Res. 2019 Jul;33 Suppl 1:S113-S121. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001923. PMID: 28617715.

5 – Krieger JW. Single vs. multiple sets of resistance exercise for muscle hypertrophy: a meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Apr;24(4):1150-9. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181d4d436. PMID: 20300012.

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