what exactly is rest pause?

1517

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Ive heard two different variations of rest pause. Ive heard (lets use bench as an example) that you unrack the weight, do it as many times as you can, rerack it, rest for 30 seconds and shake out the muscle, then repeat. Ive also heard that once you do as many as you can, you rest at the bottom of the lift. Which i tried and completely failed to lift the weight back up again. So what is the 'official' rest pause? And is it beneficial for weight gain and strength gains? or does it rest too much on just size gains??
 

SRS2000

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If you go to failure and then sit there and hold the weight, you're probably not going to get another rep. Rack it and wait the alloted time.
Rest-pause can have it's place, but if you're a relative beginner I think straight sets are better. It's certainly not required to increase size or strength. I would exhaust the "normal" training options before going into rest-pause. I would save it for something to pull out in a few years when you have a good base of training and need something to get the gains started again.
 

1517

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ok cuz for the past two years ive been doin pyramid training or whatever its called. a set of 10, set of 8, set of 6 on all exercises and ive hit a wall. just like before i stopped and started up again. any advice there?
 
carpee

carpee

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yea dont do the same routine for 2 years straight.
 
carpee

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you wanna grow heres the basics...

squat, deadlift, and compound movements + FOOD + Rest = Growth.

at your age your test and metabolism are high, so eat clean and eat ALOT.
 

1517

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ive been playing around with 5x5, 3x8 and rest pause for about 20 reps.
 
carpee

carpee

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a rest pause by the way is...for example if you were curling...12 reps, 12 breath break, 6 reps, 12 breath break, 3 reps.

you rack the weight...you dont hold it at the bottom of the movement or whatever.
 

1517

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yeah i squat, love it, and deadlift, love it, and eat, love it, and sleep, love it.
 
carpee

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how much are you eating...dont just estimate it or go by how you feel.
Eat every 3 hours, a meal based around protein with carbs and healthy fats.
eat lots of veggies too
 

1517

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breakfast isnt the best but a bottle of water and 4 pieces of toast with nutella.
Lunch consists of some meat or pasta based entree or two ( anything like a chicken patty, cheeseburger, cheese steak, pizza, spaghetti w meat sauce) a pint of milk and two bowls of fruit and maybe some choco pudding
Dinner, usually some sort of pasta or noodle vegetable compilation. sometimes a ham and cheese sandwich or stomboli, which i eat about 1/4 to half of.
snacks: before dinner (after school) maybe ramen noodles with beef flavor, or rice krispie treats, or leftover dinners.
post workout- quart of skim milk

some of these things i eat because its what my family buys and eats, i would buy some high protein and carb meals but i just try to make what i can with what i have
 
carpee

carpee

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definitely need some more protein in there
 
brk_nemesis

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If you go to failure and then sit there and hold the weight, you're probably not going to get another rep. Rack it and wait the alloted time.
Rest-pause can have it's place, but if you're a relative beginner I think straight sets are better. It's certainly not required to increase size or strength. I would exhaust the "normal" training options before going into rest-pause. I would save it for something to pull out in a few years when you have a good base of training and need something to get the gains started again.
Agreed. I have been doing DC since January and it is definitely for advanced or experienced lifters. I have tried getting quite a few people to take up DC and many of them simply don't have the experience or drive to do the training. Creating a solid base of lifting experience/technique, along with the experience in having a solid diet and understanding your own body's recovery, are very important.

On a side note about rest pausing, it is simply dropping the weight, allowing yourself to catch a breath, in order to continue. Squats you don't have to be re-racked, just lock your legs out. I use the hammers strength machines for 1 of my presses( besides DB's) so there is no re-racking, just drop the weight. Flat BB bench is the only thing I can think of( incline too) you'll need a spotter for to re-rack. Also, rests need to be shorter, around 10 secs, 15 at most. At 30 seconds, the rest for rest pauses, and the theory of obtaining 20 reps off a weight you should fail at 6-8 reps with, is void. At that point you should just do straight sets. That is the point of rest pausing: doing a high rep set, with a weight you can only do about 6-8 times. Rest pausing allows you to hit 20 reps with that weight, and its still considered one set b/c the rest after each failure is very short.

I do a 5x5 for warmup, then the 20 rep set rest paused, so the potential for strength gains, and the muscles gains are both there. If you are interested search DC Training as there are many threads here on the topic. Though I do agree with SRS in creating a solid base first. DC has a lot to do with recording #'s and having the mental aspect for breaking your previous week's record. In fact, breaking all of your "records" is on your mind days before the actual lift, if you are recording everything properly. Its surely has opened my eyes in terms of dedication, and intensity.
 

hardknock

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Ahhh, why not just go over to dante's site and ask him. He basically perfected the technique. I still have the original 'cycle for pennies' thread where the concept really caught fire. I have no idea where it is but I copied the whole thread. I think 20 pages...been awhile so I don't recall exactly....
 
brk_nemesis

brk_nemesis

yea!!!!!
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Ahhh, why not just go over to dante's site and ask him. He basically perfected the technique. I still have the original 'cycle for pennies' thread where the concept really caught fire. I have no idea where it is but I copied the whole thread. I think 20 pages...been awhile so I don't recall exactly....
yup i got the cycles for pennies too.... saved right to my desktop :cheers:
 

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