Pause Reps
What is a pause rep?
A Pause rep is exactly what you are probably thinking in your head right now. Simply put you pause at some point during the exercise. There are a few ways to implement pause reps and they can be done during the concentric or eccentric portion of your lift.
Form
Pausing mid rep can help you to focus on your body, and the muscles being used a little more closely. For instance let’s look at the squat. Performing a pause at the bottom can help to increase strength but we will get to that later. You will also be able to assess common faults such as knees caving in, pitching forward, hip tilts etc. Pause squats are a great way to expose faults that you may not have been aware of while executing the exercise without the pause.
Sometimes I also recommend pause sets during warm up to help get your mind and body ready for your work-in sets.
True Strength
Let’s take a closer look at the bench press. How many times in the gym do you see someone or maybe this is you. When the weight gets heavier you compensate by bouncing the barbell off your chest to get a little more momentum when lifting. Yes you will be able to lift a little more with the added momentum, but are you really stronger? If we add a pause at your chest this will make the exercise much harder but will force you to properly engage all the muscles as it slows down the momentum of the lift and in-turn you will get stronger. Additionally, using the bouncing method can also create imbalances because you are not properly going through the full range of motion for the lift. Over time that can help to develop your weak points.
Deadlift Mid Pause
If you want to get stronger I would highly recommend incorporating a pause at mid shin when you are deadlifting! This will increase the time under tension during the lift. Expose weak areas which we touched on earlier. More specifically to deadlifting not staying tight throughout the whole lift, shoulders starting to slump forward and rounding at your back. If you can condition your body to handle more weight while pausing and slowing the momentum. When you go back to lifting without the pause the movement will feel much easier.
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