Pause Reps - Do they actually help for size?

[ineedprotein]

Evening everyone,

A friend's been constantly telling me that I should try out pause reps, in the sense of pausing at the bottom of a lift for a few seconds and then come back up. He says that for the weight I'm lifting, I should be bigger and that these pause reps would help to grow..in size.

I've looked around and only found pause reps to help more with strength rather than size specifically. Is there any point in actually doing them? ..Pausing even up to a minute, and then go back up? Seems like it would help my 1 rep max, rather than size.

Any tips would be really appreciated.

Cheers

 

[fuseven]

Pause squats were a great way for me to learn to stay tight in the hole, and i had some strength gains while doing them weekly for about six months. Not much growth though, but the rest of my training wasnt focusing on hypertrophy so im sure that factored in.

In either case, its always fun to try some new things. Give it three months, whats the worst that could happen?

 

[kisaj]

They will absolutely help with size. You are essentially taking sets/reps to a point that you would normally fail at and pushing through that, which is going to not only build strength, but size as well. Read up on it because I don't think you are quite understanding the options you have for R/P. It is by far my favorite method of training.

 

[bolt10]

Pausing will increase time under tension in which ever area you pause at. If it's a weak area for you then that pause may help increase size in the muscles being used.

 

[kisaj]

I believe he is actually talking R/P or DC style training, not actually pausing in the movement.

OP, a great method for using R/P for hypertrophy/size is in your working set, do your first set to almost failure (the point where you might be able to squeeze out one more), rack the bar, rest 15 -20 sec, do another set to almost failure, rack the bar, rest 15-20 sec, squeeze out a last few, rack, etc..

Instead of doing a working set, waiting a couple minutes, do a working set, etc... you are essentially doing several mini sets in that same period of time that you would have done one and pushing through more reps. This helps with conditioning, building strength, and in turn, size.

There are numerous ways to do it, but make no question, it is a routine all about gains and it is not easy.

 

[ineedprotein]

Thanks for all the quick replies. Yeah, hadn't thought about it through time under tension. I'll do some more reading then. Cheers

 

[Jakethaniel]

Well on different movements it allows you to hit different muscles harder, like chest on bench press.
Also it takes out the stretch reflex, so it hits all of the muscles involved differently.

Honestly I cannot say whether it will help you add extra size or not, but you are not going to lose size trying it and should definitely add strength.

 

[amarula]

Thanks for all the quick replies. Yeah, hadn't thought about it through time under tension. I'll do some more reading then. Cheers

Rest-pause and pause in the bottom of the exercise are different things.
Rest-pause is a great method to increase size and strength and there are several ways to do it as posted above by kisaj
Pausing in the bottom is different because you are contracting isometrically the muscles involved hence increasing time under tension and exercise difficulty. It's more a intensity technique IMO.

 

[R1balla]

The way he explained it, he isn't referring to rest pause like with DC . He's talking about pausing during the middle of the lift. I do these when I warm up but that's about it.

 

[kisaj]

Yeah, you're right. I misread the original comment.

 

[evanss1]

Putting the physiology aside, I think what pausing at any portion in the lift does is make us more conscious of our form. Better form translates into better lifts translates into strength.

At least its always been that way for me.