This article is an excerpt from the book “Rest Pause Training.” The article addresses rest-pause training in relationship to the way that elite bodybuilders tend to use it. The examples may not be rest-pause training in teh strictest sense of the word, but the idea of resting between reps in order to do more reps at the end of set can be seen in this article and the videos.
Favored Rest-Pause Exercises used by Elite Bodybuilders
From my observation of watching the last several Mr. Olympias in training videos, they tend to use rest-pause training for curls, triceps extensions, lateral raises, and barbell overhead presses. They don’t put the weight down, they just pause for a few seconds at the end of a set in order to continue the set with another rep or two. They also tend to use rest-pause training when doing cable flies for their chest muscles. Once again, they don’t let go of the cable handles, they just begin to pause for a few seconds between reps when they grow fatigued so that they can keep repeating reps.
Jay Cutler with a slight Pause between reps at the end of a set of curls
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ed Corney: Rest Pause with Cable flys
Leg Extensions and Leg Curls
Elite bodybuilders also tend to use rest-pause training for leg extensions and leg curls. They may not refer to it rest-pause training, but they naturally end up doing it at the end of a set by pausing a few seconds between reps to keep pushing themselves to do more reps.
A slight pause between forced reps with leg curls
Rest-Pause Reps are Avoided With Heavy Basic Exercises
I have not observed Mr. Olympias use rest-pause training for basic barbell exercises such as the bench press, squats, deadlifts, and barbell rows, although I have seen some elite bodybuilders do strip sets for the bench press. This simply means they do a full set with a heavy weight, then quickly strip off some weight and immediately resume doing a few more reps before they have to stop and strip off more weight to keep doing reps again. As to the reason why they don’t tend to use rest-pause training for basic exercises, I don’t have an exact answer. Perhaps it is because the high degree of fatigue that occurs when doing rest-pause reps is not comfortable or safe when using the enormous poundages that elite bodybuilder often use for basic exercises. Even more importantly, it may also be that elite bodybuilders have a sense that rest-pause training is too demanding to recover from when using the heavy weights that they are able to use for basic exercises.
Rest-Pause is Used Most often with Isolation Exercises
The bottom line with elite bodybuilders is that they predominately use rest-pause training for isolation exercises instead of basic compound movements such as bench press, squats, deadlifts, and bent over barbell rows. They use rest-pause reps to attack a specific portion of a muscle to feel a burn when doing isolation exercises.
For more on Rest Pause Training: Refer to the Book: