Rest Pause Question

[lvtrojan]

I've been trying to incorporate some rest-pause sets, as described by Dennis Weis in his arm training article, into my routine.

However, I am having a lot of problems (mainly on barbell curls) making it all the way to 10 reps (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 reps with rests) before basically failing.

On the other hand if i go the opposite way (i.e 10 reps then 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1) i have a better chance to finish the sequence. Anything wrong with taking this approach? Does it defeat the purpose?

Thanks for the replies.

[iron addict]

While there is no carved in stone way of doing rest-pause, here is an example of perhaps the most popular, and result producing way to do it (rep ranges vary).

Lets say you are doing barbell curls (easy example). You take a weight that you beleive you will fail at rep 8 with. If you only get 7, so be it, if you get 9 or 10 before hitting failure, thats ok too. For our example, after failing at rep 8, you simply put down the weight, and rest/breath JUST long enough to allow yourself to get about 2-3 more reps, do the same, and repeat until you hit 16 reps, and you are finished--cooked is a better word actually.

Different muscles require different rest periods for most people, but as long as the range is 15-45 seconds, AND IS DONE CONSISTENTLY from week to week, you are OK.

Iron Addict

[lvtrojan]

Thanks for the reply.

I am going to give that a try.

It sounds a lot more reasonable than trying to get to 55 reps, using the other method.

lvt

[iron addict]

I think the other method was created by "theorists" without very much practicle knowledge. A word of the wise; be careful too much rest-pause will burn you out fast. See the "cycles on pennies" thread for more rest-pause info from one of the masters, DC.

Iron Addict

[lvtrojan]

thanks, ill check that out. Is that on page 3,556 or 3,557 ?

[SCORPIO]

IA, what rep ranges do you suggest for different body parts? What I do is for 'bigger' body parts I go 15 reps R-P (8,4,3) and for 'smaller' body parts I go 10 reps R-P (5,3,2).

[SUPAJAwS1]

Originally posted by SCORPIO
IA, what rep ranges do you suggest for different body parts? What I do is for 'bigger' body parts I go 15 reps R-P (8,4,3) and for 'smaller' body parts I go 10 reps R-P (5,3,2).

The Rep under a Looking Glass

[SCORPIO]

Thanks SUPAJAwS1.

[iron addict]

SCORPIO,

It depends on the person, and upper body Vs. lower body. For legs, higher reps work better for most people for a good combo of size and strengh. For upper body, people with lots of fast twitch muscle (the naturally VERY strong guys) usually do better with lower reps, and the slow twitch guys tend to do better with high reps. I have had many people get EXTREMELY good results with stuborn upper bodyparts by doing a 15/30 (fail at 15 RP to 30) sets. A good middle ground is 8/16 or 10/18, and will deliver good results for most people if rest-pause will work for them.

Iron Addict

[SCORPIO]

Thanks IA, that helps me out alot. My current rep ranges along with R-P seems to be working fine, for now.