Length of pause between reps

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey,
I’ve got a question about how you view pauses between reps on the squat (could also apply to other exercises).

I recently watched back a video of me squatting 220 for 17 reps. I realized that for pretty much the whole set, I was pausing/resting about 3-5 seconds at the top of each rep to steady myself, catch my breath, and execute a valsalva. So the next day, I tried taking a 1-2 second pause between each rep instead and found that I could only do 180 for a set of 12. That’s a pretty significant difference. Subjectively, in the set with shorter pauses between reps, I felt more of a burn in my quads, whereas in the set with 3-5 seconds between reps, there was little burn but a greater sense of “systemic fatigue”, Unsure if these subjective feelings matter regardless.

So a couple of questions.

  1. How much of a pause at the top of each rep do you coach? and does this even matter?
  2. Would this differ if the goal is primarily strength or hypertrophy?
  3. As my goal is primarily hypertrophy at the moment, should i stick with longer pauses allowing me to use more weight and get more reps, or use a lighter load with shorter pauses between reps?

My hunch is that for hypertrophy, it’s probably a wash as long as the RPE of each set is similar. My hunch is that for strength, you want to maximise force production and load on the bar, and taking that little extra time to steady yourself, catch your breath, and execute a solid valsalva is probably worth it.

Thanks!

2

Hey Tom,

There’s actually a pretty satisfying answer here, as academic and practice converge to provide an answer.

Given the appropriate load and proximity to failure, both strength and hypertrophy are maximized when volume is maximized within a session. If rest periods go too long, strength performance doesn’t seem to improve past ~ 4 to 5 minutes for most, but volume suffers due to the length of the session getting unruly*. However, strength related adaptations tested in a separate session are similar with shorter rest periods near ~3 minutes.

Hypertrophy responses have been thoroughly investigated in response to rest pause training and various permutations thereof. The relationship is the same, i.e. more volume tends to drive more gainzZz.

In your situation, I don’t think either setup would be a part of any strength workout I’d program. I suspect the one with higher load and more reps would work better given how light both are, but still…not really pursuing maximal strength with either setup. If anything, the rest pause method allows for more volume at a higher load than you’d otherwise do.

For hypertrophy, the higher volume approach is definitively better. I don’t think it’s a wash if repeated regularly, though yes, the impact of a single set is probably inconsequential.

I discuss this in detail during our podcast on rest periods, which is available here: