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Rest is essential for muscle growth.

When you are lifting heavy weights your muscles get torn apart and breaks down. When you rest they recuperate and grow back bigger and stronger.

Now if you lift heavy and then only rest one day and then lift heavy again, your muscles will never get a chance to repair themselves and grow. You will get no results.

Well, if you've just begun lifting, I suppose you start out pretty easy with weights that you can easily handle. And if your workouts aren't very intense, you obviously don't need very much rest. But you should take a few days rest for each muscle anyway.

Now if you lift heavy weights with high intensity, you'll need a lot more rest.
I lift heavy weights and I take a whole week rest for each muscle.
I workout 4 days a week and work 2 muscle groups at each session. (Tuesday: Chest, stomach -- Thursday: Back, shoulders -- Friday: Biceps, triceps -- Sunday: Legs).
In most cases, a whole week isn't necessary for rest, but it sure won't hurt.
Of course the optimal rest time varies from individual to individual. I get great results from much rest.

IMO, working each muscle to total fatigue once a week or every five days is the best way to go, at least for me. If you want to build giant muscles, that is.

Good luck!

Norti