No, it’s not doing countless amounts of biceps curls in the squat rack. If you do this, I am disappointed in you!
It’s definitely not scoffing down a kilogram of the skinless chicken breast 10 minutes following your shirt-drenching workout.
The number one thing you must ABSOLUTELY do to build muscle is to get STRONGER FIRST.
Yep, that’s it.
Get Stronger!
Without a solid foundation of strength, you’re not going to be able to lift heavier, push past plateaus, or open that jar of pasta sauce for your mother. And who wants to let her down?
The problem, however, is that most people don’t actually focus on strength, or are misinformed of how to go about achieving strength.
What I have come across is that many waste countless hours a week hitting their arms, abs or other superficial muscles with endless amounts of volume trying to look stronger instead of being stronger.
Without this solid foundation of strength, you're going to hinder your progress, and possibly miss the mark at obtaining having a six-pack to show off at your beach vacation.
Which is why the first thing I help my clients do is GET STRONG. And one of the methods I use is Paused Reps.
By removing the momentum from your lifts, paused reps help recruit more of your working muscles throughout the entire range of motion.
Furthermore, the additional time-under-tension helps to keep you honest, because, let’s face it, we’re all guilty of occasionally adding more weight to the bar than we probably should.
This not only causes you to break form but can also lead to injury. And your bros are probably not going to chip in to pay for your hospital bills after a 200 kilogram loaded barbell comes crashing down on you.
If you want to get stronger then you have to lift smarter and that’s what paused reps help you do.
No more cheating your way to the end of your workout. Paused reps force you to use a weight you can lift for the entire duration of the set. This allows you to master the technique and build Hulk-like strength.
How to do a Paused Rep
Well, let’s use the bench press as an example.
Set yourself under the bar
Grab the bar and slowly lower it to your chest
Pause for one to two seconds with the bar hovering over your chest
Using your back to push off, bring the bar back up to the top and repeat.
Perform four sets of eight reps with two minutes of rest between sets.
Note: A one-second pause is only a starting point. As you progress feel free to raise the pause time to 3, or maybe even 4 seconds. Anything more than 5 seconds can be rather excessive.
Pause Reps for Other Exercises
The paused rep can be done on numerous exercises such as squats and biceps curls. However, knowing when to use them and for which exercises are the key to building a strong foundation. This is something that I strategically do with all of my programs for my clients including the ones for our online fitness coaching
I'm always welcoming more online fitness coaching clients. So, if you’re looking to get stronger, build muscle, and burn fat all year round, you should jump on this opportunity today
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