Resting Between Reps

Training Bodybuilding
21

SENTO- Great explaination.

BILL- My own approach to training has always involved non-lockout benches, avoiding the upper few degrees ROM of BB curls, essentially everything I could do to really keep my target muscle ‘working’ as hard as I could, for as long as I could. When I first read Carlon Colker’s book, and it discussed avoiding the deloading of a muscle, it made sense.

A few years later, I read a copy of CT’s HTH book, and it speaks about this as well. These two sources bolstered my own reasoning in continuing to train this way. Anyone who has been ‘educated’ in the TUT school of muscle building is going to interpret long pauses between reps as somewhat counterproductive.

Obviously there’s more than one way to Rome, and everyone will respond differently to the same training protocol. I’m certainly not one to come on here screaming and yelling about how everyone else is wrong, in fact I love that we’ve had such great responses that intelligently go against my own thoughts, but when I look at how I initially trained (chasing numbers, pausing between reps to grab huge puffs of breath so I could knock out a few more), when I was really strong, but not as built, vs how I train in recent years (non-resting, more TUT focused with explosive concentric contractions), where I’m definitely sporting a much more developed physique,… well, I tend to side with the second approach :slight_smile:

S

22

What always seems interesting to me is when people say ’ I used to do X, but now I do Y and am much more developed’.

Makes me wonder if X is in some way required for Y.

23

Stu, I think you may be missing that the OP is asking about, and I was also talking about, doing as many reps as possible in the way you describe and THEN accomplishing a few more with the method he described.

So it’s not “instead of” what you say: it is “on top of.”

24

I do alternate curls, pinwheels and dead stop extensions, which are adding some serious girth so I doubt pausing in any exercise is going to be a problem. Also find with pressing, especially overhead a pause will be needed at some point do keep repping. Might have something to do with long arms though. I think doing 1 or 2 less reps just to keep constant tension would be counterproductive.

25

Good observation.

[quote]Amonero wrote:
What always seems interesting to me is when people say ’ I used to do X, but now I do Y and am much more developed’.

Makes me wonder if X is in some way required for Y.[/quote]

26

This is the exact idea I’m talking about.
You also mentioned Arnold talking about having to push yourself through that pain period and that pushing (like how austin described it) is what separates winners from losers. In my mind, doing something like this isn’t rest-pause in the normal sense. You’re not racking the weight (even though in the case of curls, hanging in the relaxed position unloads the biceps).

It seems logical that you SHOULD take those few breathes to knock out another rep for intensities sake. But then, at how many breathes does it stop being part of the set and start being too long of a break? I personally have always trained with straight sets and I’ll grind hard but I leave a rep in the tank, unless I’m doing something special to extend the set intentionally, and have never trained in this fashion. Now however, it’s starting to seem that maybe that should be how I train.

Does anyone use the training method that austin described below on all their working sets?

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
So I hit 8 reps on curls and I know I can get one more, so I take two extra breaths and hit 9 reps and now I think I can get 10, so I do the same thing and hit 10…those two extra reps are counterproductive? That just doesn’t seem right. The person that only does 8 reps and doesn’t push himself will have a better workout? Arnold talked about a pain period we must endore where we seperate champions from gym rats. This pain period obvioulsy means squeezing out a couple extra reps even if it means takeing a few extra breaths between sets…Idk I’ll do me and I think that stuff is fine. [/quote]

27

After snowboarding season, I think I’m going to try adding in a set at the end of every exercise where I employ this idea. CT pointed out something that seems along these lines. For example, say I’m doing bench, the progression would be like this:
Pick a desired number of reps, and work up to a top set by just using straight sets of the desired reps until reaching a weight that you can only just barely get that number of reps in a straight fashion. Then, for the final set, pick a weight that’s about 80% of your top set, and do a set where you hit reps continuously until you start to struggle, at which point you maybe pause for a few breathes at the top, and then keep pumping out reps as long as you can.

The only thing that I’m worried about is that doing that last set will impede my progress on exercises later in the workout. Then again, it is only one set. I’ll just have to try it and see what happens!

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[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
Stu, I think you may be missing that the OP is asking about, and I was also talking about, doing as many reps as possible in the way you describe and THEN accomplishing a few more with the method he described.

So it’s not “instead of” what you say: it is “on top of.”[/quote]

Very well put! Time under tension+

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Sorry,… first day new brain :slight_smile:

S

30

[quote]BlakedaMan wrote:
Stu-
Can you elaborate on the argument that it’s counterproductive? I can see that for people with a low work capacity, that would be pretty nasty on their recovery, but I’m talking about using it as an extended set technique. I’m basically wondering if anyone that does high volume has ever tried using this regularly, and how has it helped/hurt them as compared to straight sets, or even to failure sets.

Bill-
Thanks for chiming in. That’s the kind of notation I used when I did a low volume style regimen a few months back and it worked great for keeping track of things. Do you use an extended set like that on all sets?

Maybe I should clarify what I’m asking. I’ve done extended sets before while using low volume, but even then, then extension was done only as long as I could continuously pump out reps. SO, has anyone used widowmaker-type sets on other exercises regularly while on a high volume? It seems like doing it every set would be counterproductive for a typical training phase, but maybe at a time when you’re looking to kick your ass and hope for some supercompensation effects.

I think I might try doing something where my last set only is a widowmaker, see if that is in balance between crazy and typical.[/quote]

You Sound like u got the right idea going on, it seems that you have found the “artist” in you, In the respect that I think bodybuilding Is more of an art than a science. If you would like my experienced input, Yes I have done WM type methods on other exercises. What id recommend you do’em on would be movements that you either have to use a high amount of intra abdominal pressure (breath holding) like variations of squats, deads,cleans, push presses, bent rows, hell anything that raises your blood pressure very high very quickly,
Id also recommend em on extended sets, goin beyond failure, very Heavy lifts in that you want to get a lot of volume out of. Lifts that require a lot of central neural activity (basically all the BIG compound lifts I named earlier) Use when you want to break a REP RECORD, etc.
I want to point out that i am talking about; usually doing a set of as much reps as possible in a straight set fashion then extending with a rest pause type of method. Do whatevr you need to keep that intensity up. If I missed any points here do let me know, I am very tired right now and need some recovery sleep-peace.

P.S, id probally also recommend a str8 up widowmaker type method on anything that your training with around 90+ or -% for relatively high reps as a good experiment, Ive done it from time to time.

31

Good tips thanks a lot man I plan on experimenting with some of this stuff after snowboarding season when I start trying to gain weight again.

[quote]HypertroPHd wrote:
BlakedaMan wrote:
Stu-
Can you elaborate on the argument that it’s counterproductive? I can see that for people with a low work capacity, that would be pretty nasty on their recovery, but I’m talking about using it as an extended set technique. I’m basically wondering if anyone that does high volume has ever tried using this regularly, and how has it helped/hurt them as compared to straight sets, or even to failure sets.

Bill-
Thanks for chiming in. That’s the kind of notation I used when I did a low volume style regimen a few months back and it worked great for keeping track of things. Do you use an extended set like that on all sets?

Maybe I should clarify what I’m asking. I’ve done extended sets before while using low volume, but even then, then extension was done only as long as I could continuously pump out reps. SO, has anyone used widowmaker-type sets on other exercises regularly while on a high volume? It seems like doing it every set would be counterproductive for a typical training phase, but maybe at a time when you’re looking to kick your ass and hope for some supercompensation effects.

I think I might try doing something where my last set only is a widowmaker, see if that is in balance between crazy and typical.

You Sound like u got the right idea going on, it seems that you have found the “artist” in you, In the respect that I think bodybuilding Is more of an art than a science. If you would like my experienced input, Yes I have done WM type methods on other exercises. What id recommend you do’em on would be movements that you either have to use a high amount of intra abdominal pressure (breath holding) like variations of squats, deads,cleans, push presses, bent rows, hell anything that raises your blood pressure very high very quickly,
Id also recommend em on extended sets, goin beyond failure, very Heavy lifts in that you want to get a lot of volume out of. Lifts that require a lot of central neural activity (basically all the BIG compound lifts I named earlier) Use when you want to break a REP RECORD, etc.
I want to point out that i am talking about; usually doing a set of as much reps as possible in a straight set fashion then extending with a rest pause type of method. Do whatevr you need to keep that intensity up. If I missed any points here do let me know, I am very tired right now and need some recovery sleep-peace.

P.S, id probally also recommend a str8 up widowmaker type method on anything that your training with around 90+ or -% for relatively high reps as a good experiment, Ive done it from time to time.
[/quote]

32

[quote]BlakedaMan wrote:

Bill-
Thanks for chiming in. That’s the kind of notation I used when I did a low volume style regimen a few months back and it worked great for keeping track of things. Do you use an extended set like that on all sets?[/quote]

No, I only do it on some exercises, and usually only on the last set only.

But some exercises that on that occasion were for 2 planned worksets and at higher reps, it might be done on both work sets.

For me it is something to do sometimes, rather than something to do usually.

33

More often than not, I"ll do “breathing squats” style reps on larger compound lifts, rows or quad exercises. When I decide to do them is fairly arbitrary, some exercises I’ll always do breathing style, others I’ll do it if I underperform, fail to hit a PR. Just some more input.

34

This is how I how do a lot of my leg stuff - you reach a point in every set of Legs where you can either stop the set, pass out from lack of oxygen, or take 3-5 seconds rest before doing the next rep. Its not counterproductive - if anything its character building and the epitomy of pushing yourself.