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The Pause That Invigorates

Sometimes, the best way to train smarter is to take a break!

Many years ago I taught two Canadian national team gymnasts how to bench press. These young men each weighed about 175 pounds and had never performed the exercise before – seriously, they didn’t even know how to load the weights on the bar! Anyway, after just four workouts they both could bench 350 pounds. One of the reasons these gymnasts were so strong is that their sport-specific training is characterized by pauses.

What we can learn from the example of gymnastics is that pausing during reps is one of the best ways to increase the effectiveness of your training. I was 17 when I was introduced to intrarep pauses by my mentor, Pierre Roy. At that time I was observing a training session of his star weightlifter, Jacques Demers, an Olympic silver medalist and multiple Commonwealth and Pan American record holder. Since then I have used this training method intensively with all my athletes, which is one of the reasons I am the only strength coach to have trained medalists in 17 different sports.

Pauses during a repetition are called intrarep pauses. Here are four principles that will help you use these types of pauses in the training process.

Principle 1: Where you pause during the repetition cycle modulates the training effect
You can pause at four different places during a repetition cycle. First, you can pause anywhere during the concentric range of an exercise. This type of pause increases intramuscular tension and the percentage of muscle fiber recruitment. When performing arm curls, for example, pausing at 30 to 90 degrees of elbow flexion increases the percentage of the work performed by the brachialis muscle.

Next, you can pause at the end of the concentric range. Depending upon the exercise performed, that may occur at an advantageous or disadvantageous leverage position. It would be in a favorable angle during presses, squats and deadlifts; pausing in that range will allow you to recruit more motor units. It would be an unfavorable angle during flexion exercises, such as arm curls and leg curls; pausing in that range would increase intramuscular tension.

You can also pause anywhere during the eccentric range, which will also increase intramuscular tension. This type of pause is used mainly at the end of a rep to prolong the time under tension; this way the IGF-1 molecule can exert a greater anabolic effect. For example, in novices who need to improve their chin-up scores rapidly, up to three pauses of eight seconds could be inserted in the eccentric range to increase the time under tension.

Finally, you can pause at the end of the eccentric range. Again, depending on the exercise, that may be an advantageous or disadvantageous leverage position. During presses, squats and deadlifts, this is an unfavorable angle and will increase the intramuscular tension. I often prescribe this type of pause in the bench press, as it negates the elastic energy potential of the stretch-shortening cycle. As a result, the trainee has to overcome inertia to complete the concentric range, thus creating more intramuscular tension. In contrast, during chin-ups or arm curls, pausing would allow the muscles to rest, which, according to Australian strength and biomechanics expert Dr. Greg Wilson, will facilitate recruitment of the higher-threshold fibers.

Principle 2: Pausing during reps should be periodized
Pausing is a loading parameter that is underused by strength coaches, especially those who are struggling with success. However, as with any training method it can be overdone. On average, for optimal effectiveness a given intrarep pause method should not be used for six workouts in a row for a given body part.

Principle 3: Pause training performance must be consistent
For a given training cycle, make certain that the pause is always the same duration and the joint angle during the pause is always the same. Further, aim at increasing the load every workout for that given repetition tempo pattern. For example, if you choose a 42X0 tempo on the incline press, do not modify the tempo or where you take the pause. If you are not consistent with how you perform pause training, you won’t know the real effects of the overload.

Principle 4: Pausing is more important on extensor chain exercises such as presses, deadlifts and squats
Due to the effects of the force curve, I have found that pausing is more beneficial for strength building adaptations in squats and presses than in chin-ups or curls. Pausing in the bottom position is great to train the ability to overcome inertia, such as an offensive tackle would need – particularly the offensive line from the Patriots who failed to protect Tom Brady during the last Super Bowl!

One of the most common questions I’m asked is whether to pause the bar at the bottom or to bounce the bar between reps during power cleans or power snatches. Those athletes who like the bouncing approach, using the elastic quality inherent in bumper plates to gain momentum from the bottom, usually do so to compensate for a weak lower back. It is also extremely stressful on the spinal column – every single athlete I’ve seen who used this approach always turned out to have a lower back that limited their performance.

I prefer pausing at the start position because it more effectively overloads the posterior chain. It also more effectively recruits the higher-threshold motor units, which leads to better strength gains in terms of rate and magnitude. It also develops the ability to overcome inertia, which is a vital skill in most sports.

Even though the bouncing approach allows you to use more weight, pausing between reps provides a better-quality strength and power stimulus because it forces you to overcome inertia on every rep. Increasing strength and power in that range is what has the most carryover to improving power for the first two steps of any expression of sprinting speed, whether it be for soccer, rugby or bobsleigh.

The topic of intrarep pauses is of such importance that it is addressed at length in both the Level 1 and Level 2 technical portions of the Poliquin International Certification Program. Gymnasts have learned the importance of pausing during their training; and to get the most out of your workouts, and the workouts of your athletes, you should too!