Rest-Pause Training

Hello everyone!  Looking to add a little intensity to your workouts?  There’s a lot of different options you can choose to approach switching up your intensities, but there’s a method that I’ve started using with my new routine that definitely gets my intensity up and is a way to ensure that I don’t plateau during this routine.  It’s called the Rest-Pause training method.  Some of you may have heard of it and tried it and some of you may not have.  For those of you that have tried it, I think you and I both can attest to the effectiveness it delivers.  For those of you who haven’t heard of it and looking to break through your plateau, I would highly recommend it.

As I stated above, this method is something that I’ve incorporated into my plan that I’m following now and I love it!  Here’s how it works:

1.  Perform your set as you would normally do (ex. 8-10 reps).  Set the weight down.

2.  Take 15 seconds of deep breathing, then pick the weight back up and continue to do reps until failure.

3.  Repeat step two as many times as you would like to (typical is twice).

Try doing this on your last set of each exercise (or last two sets of each exercise), which is what I do with my routine.  Don’t do this on every set of every exercise.  You’ll notice that when you perform these extra sets of reps after picking the weights back up and going to failure (which you may only be able to get 3 more reps done) it will be a grind and you’ll feel a different feeling in your muscles then with just the typical 8-10 reps and walking away.  In gym lingo, you’ll get more of a “pump”.  This is because you really get a mind to muscle connection because of the short bouts on concentrated effort.

So if you’re looking to add some intensity to your workouts or burst through your plateaus I highly recommend using the Rest-Pause method of training to spur that hypertrophy.  Have a great day everyone and keep up the good work!  :)