Raúl Carrasco, our IFBB Pro shows us how to develop a training with the rest-pause technique (pause-rest).
The Rest-Pause technique divides a heavy series into several short series, which can be used in a variety of exercises, being specific to recruit those muscle fibers that are essential to keep the muscles in the definition stage or grow during the bulking stage.
For example, in a training with the Rest-Pause technique, you rest 15-30 seconds, then continue doing smaller series until you effectively double the number of repetitions in the series or reach muscle failure (technical).
How to develop the Rest-Pause
Warm up by doing 3 sets, gaining weight with 3-5 reps per set to fire up your central nervous system, and then move to the Rest-Pause set.
Your rest-pause set will use approximately 85% of your 1RM or a weight that allows you to develop 5-7 reps, depending on your strength levels and muscle fiber composition.
But, you can work heavier if you are focused exclusively on strength rather than hypertrophy, so it seems ideal to consider 85% of the 1RM as the ideal point for a combination of both.
The warm-up would be:
- 65% x 5 = 93 kg.
- 70% x 5 = 100 kg.
- 80% x 3 = 250 – 115 kg.
- 85% = 123 kg.
Effective string Rest-Pause
- 123 kg x 6 reps, rest 15-30 seconds, then …
- Do 1-3 reps, rest 15-30 seconds.
- Then do 1-2 reps, rest 15-30 seconds.
- Finish with 1-2 reps, or as many reps as necessary until you double your reps goal.
At all times you should feel inside during these series and cut your training before if your range of repetitions is compromised or you reach a technical failure or muscle failure.
Why Rest-Pause works “
Lifting a heavier weight for more reps will provide the ideal stimulus to build strength and size.
This is precisely what training with the Rest-Pause technique allows, since you will lift heavy enough to train high-threshold muscle fibers and create a progressive overload to increase your size and strength.
In addition, you will have enough rest to partially recover the energy systems of adenosine triphosphate and phosphocreatine (ATP-PC) used to provide you with the immediate energy you need.
On the other hand, you’ll have enough rest to increase the growth-inducing metabolic stress in later sets.
The differential of the Rest-Pause
The Rest-Pause is a high intensity technique, which with short breaks within the series, ATP helps to regenerate much faster.
Thanks to phosphorous phosphorous, ATP can create a greater amount of ATP and this happens quickly … in thousandths of seconds …
In a common series, the ATP has been spent, you will enter directly into an anaerobic energy system (in which you will begin to consume the internal glycogen based on the lactic acid you have). Now, with these little breaks in the Rest-Pause technique you are going to prevent this process.
Therefore, you are going to be able to lengthen that series, recruit a more internal type of fiber (type II fiber) which is the one that interests us, without having the problem of stopping the production of lactic acid.
Imagine, if we are in definition and we have empty glycogen stores, therefore the appearance of lactic acid will be greater and stronger.
This will make us stop the series before the greatest type of fiber available is recruited, consequently, within the same series, these short breaks allow us to recover foocreatine in thousandths of a second, in this case, seconds that now we will talk.
The Rest-Pause in volume stage
In volume systems you will have a hypercaloric diet, therefore, you will want to gain muscle mass taking advantage of the positive caloric level.
Therefore, the Rest-Pause technique will be useful as a high intensity technique to be able to reach and recruit these type II fibers and for them to develop.
You should also remember that by keeping those short breaks, one of the key points that is metabolic stress is much higher. In this scenario, you have that great congestion, you sweat more and a more COPD effect is created, where the oxygen level in the blood is higher.
One of the important points of hypertrophy is also carried out with the Rest-Pause technique:
- You increase the time under tension and the metabolic stress is higher; This is how you promote sarcomeric hypertrophy, because by recovering phosphoric, you can introduce yourself more to the power fibers.
- On the other hand, metabolic stress is also going to cause that huge congestion, which helps you create sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
The Rest-Pause in the definition stage
At the time of definition, you are going to have a hypocaloric diet, with a negative caloric level, but it is also interesting to recruit power fibers, for what?
So that these fibers are maintained, not so that they grow, because if the diet is hypocaloric, you will not have a great sarcomeric hypertrophy.
In any case, you will always reach sarcoplasmic hypertrophy; It is a non-functional sarcoplasmic hypertrophy that occurs whenever you train, both hypercalorically and hypocalorically.
In the case of a hypocaloric diet, a bodybuilder loads himself with a drink with a lot of carbohydrates, which is an intra-workout drink with cyclodextrin, amylopectin.
When he starts training, he starts to drink, of course, practically that insulin spike that is created at that moment, and that momentary excess glycogen, will fill my muscles and that will happen so much with a hypercaloric diet as hypocaloric.
But in definition diets it is very important to train with the Rest-Pause method, since even having less energy in general, it will help you recruit that type of internal fibers that, at that moment of the diet, will to be key to maintaining muscle mass.
The 1st critical point: “carbohydrates”
In the definition stage, the Rest-Pause technique can even be more beneficial, because when you start to reduce calories, at the same time you start to reduce the three macronutrients, and among them the carbohydrates that they are the ones that regenerate ATP the fastest.
If you don’t have enough carbohydrates, of course, practically the ATP level will be lower, therefore, maintaining a tension of 20, 30 or 40 seconds will be more difficult,
When you don’t have that carbohydrate stock, it will be more difficult for you to reach those type II fibers, those fibers empower you, white fibers.
From this point of view, keeping short breaks from the momentary failure will help you recruit those power fibers and therefore, “at that time of a hypocaloric diet”, they can be kept working.
The 2nd critical point: “work very heavy”
It is one of the keys when we are in definition;
- Not creating muscle mass but maintaining power fibers, especially if we are talking about type II A-B fibers and some even name X or C.
- We are talking about internal fibers, that type of maximum flight fibers, which is recruited with a very high weight, close to 100% of 1RM.
This could lead to injury, so the solution would be to work at 60, 70 or 80% of 1RM with small sets Rest-Pause , which would help you recruit that guy of internal fibers equivalent to working with a weight close to 100% of 1RM.
For Raúl Carrasco, our IFBB Pro, the Rest-Pause technique is no better than working with a super heavy weight, since it offers the same benefit when it comes to creating hypertrophy, but with less risk injury.
Is the Rest-Pause technique a system perhaps more beneficial than doing a Heavy Duty with a forced repetition system, having your partner help you behind ?.
Well, this question is answered by Raúl in the video that you have just seen and that we synthesize in a few words:
- It is not better, it is the same but always with less risk of injury.
- Perhaps the Rest-Pause technique will create more metabolic stress when compared to a complete failure set with two forced reps.
- When it comes to creating sarcomeric hypertrophy, it continues to be a high-intensity technique that was even used in Heavy Duty.
In summary, it works at high intensity, both in volume with a hypercaloric diet, and in definition with a hypocaloric diet.
The effectiveness of Rest-Pause
We analyzed a study published in the 2019 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that measured muscle and strength adaptations in the thighs
The markers to compare between Rest-Pause vs traditional workouts were muscle strength, hypertrophy, localized muscular endurance and body composition.
The bodybuilders in question were randomly assigned to:
- A traditional multi-set training group (n = 9; 7 men and 2 women) who developed 3 sets of 6 reps with 80% of 1RM and 2-minute rest intervals between sets.
- A group that developed Rest-Pause (n = 9; 7 men and 2 women). .
Although the results did not show significant differences (p> 0.05) between the groups in the strength of 1RM (16 ± 11% for bench press, 25 ± 17% for leg press and 16 ± 10 % for bicep flexion in Rest-Pause vs traditional multiple sets: 10 ± 21% for the bench press, 30 ± 20% for the leg press and 21 ± 20% for the bicep curl).
In localized muscular endurance, the group that trained with the Rest-Pause technique showed significantly higher repetitions (p
In muscular hypertrophy, the group that trained with the Rest-Pause technique at rest showed a significantly greater thickness (p
According to this landmark study, the Rest-Pause technique resulted in similar gains in muscle strength as traditional multi-set training, however, it resulted in greater gains in localized muscular endurance and hypertrophy for the thigh muscles.
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