The rest-pause method has become very popular for men trying to add extra muscle after years of training.
As a beginner you’re going to see gains faster, this is just what happens when your body does something new. However after weeks or months of training your body needs a new shock.
The rest-pause method is perfect for achieving results when you find yourself in a plateau, since it’s easy to perform.
How Is It Performed?
Using 80-85% of your one rep max weight, perform a single rep, then rest for around 15 seconds.
Repeat this process for around 8-12 reps until close to failure – until you know that another rep isn’t possible.
Why This Works
This entire method works around the ATP-PC system. This system is used to performed explosive and large muscle movements such as sprinting, or instant bouts of exercises.
ATP stores last for around 20 seconds and take around 3 minutes to fully replenish depending on your fitness level.
By resting for 15 seconds after a single explosive and strength based lift, your ATP-PC stores take longer to run out. This means that you can put your muscles under heavy and explosive strain multiple times which is essential to building muscle.
If you tried to do as many reps as possible on the same weight without a break, you could probably reach 3-4 reps. By taking a 15 second break between reps you can reach 10-15 reps.
The higher number of reps also doesn’t mean that the training will become counter-intuitive. The break between reps keeps things away from muscular endurance style training.
This focuses on strength/mass building, the only difference is that in theory you’re working those muscles more by doing more.
The method works best for compound lifts, which are the foundation for overall size and strength training.
Therefore, use this for your bench-press, squats, weighted pull-ups and weighted dips for the best results.
Strength Building
The rest-pause method is a very effective way to build strength, which is key to building muscle mass.
However many think that the larger your muscles become the stronger you are.
That has been disputed in many studies by now, but changing over to a 1-rep max in order to build your strength will shock your system and allow you to increase your lifts faster than ever.
Why does this work? Our body and brain adapts really well into a repeating routine, making the effort almost futile in promoting muscle growth.
Changing your workout regime is quite important (I was guilty of it in the past too). You’ll see a lot faster and meaningful progress, than repeating the same technique and exercises over again.
