Thread: Pause in reps

When talking about reps, sometimes it is recommended to pause at the peak of the movement to maximize the contraction of the muscle being worked on, and it is generally understood that there is no pause from one rep to the next. But my experience is different, because many times I find a need to pause 1-2 secs before continuing to the next rep. I usually need this pause to exhale and inhale, because at times after doing several reps I kind of lost of breath. Another reason is because I feel not strong enough to continue without a pause, but after that pause I can continue (that's why I believe I haven't reached failure yet, or have I?). Questions: Is pausing between reps okay? Does this reduce the intensity of the training so that it is actually not recomended, and I should simply consider I have reached failure and end the set? If pause between reps is okay, then how long is the maximum length of this pause to be considered still a part of a set?

- Josh

Well there is such a thing a (rest/pause) while doing reps in a set but that is basically so you can squeeze out a few more reps after you're almost spent.

As far as doing it all the time, I'm not sure if it would be bad or not but I wouldn't.

You should contract at the top and stretch fully (when necessary) when doing any exercise and that shouldn't take more than a second. You should breath through the movement, not at the end.

Going to failure is pretty straight forward, if you're benching and you're on your 10th rep and you barely get it up without your head exploding, then you go for another and you only get it up 1/2 way b4 it starts coming back down then you've achieved failure in that set.