Pause Benching

[17 shots]

I just thought I'd throw this out there for anyone who's never heard of it before and maybe wants to try something new. I know we all get results from different routines when it comes to working out, but maybe it'll benefit you too

For the last 3 weeks or so, I've been doing pause benching, and I've been seeing some pretty good boosts in my bench strength. I get stronger doing bench press the regular way too, but my reps have been increasing faster for me while doing pause benching

For those unfamiliar with it, it's basically using your brute strength to get the bar off of you instead of momentum. In a regular bench press, when the bar hits your chest, you explode back up using momentum to get the weight off of you. With pause benching, when the bar hits your chest you let it sit there for a second or two, and THEN push the bar back up. This takes away the momentum, and forces you to use only your muscles to get it up

What I do to make it even more intense, is I lower the bar slowly for a count of 3 seconds, focusing on the negative. Then I pause at the bottom for a couple seconds, and push back up with everything I've got

Be careful trying to do this with the heaviest weight that you usually bench the normal way, because it WILL be harder. Start with like 20 pounds less then the weight you usually use and see how that is first, then gradually go up. I made the mistake of trying to do this with the weight I always use a few months ago, and I ended up getting stuck under the bar on my last rep and spraining my wrist lol. I had to lift light weights for like 3 months, it sucked... dont be like me lol

YouTube pause benching to see people doing demonstrations of it

 

[jaymbrs]

If you're using momentum on the bench press, then you're not doing it correctly to begin with. You're not supposed to even let it touch your chest. I find it ridiculous when I see dudes just bouncing the bar off their chests. It does nothing. Same thing as using your shoulder to swing a dumbbell up for curls. Not effective.

 

[lamath]

If you're using momentum on the bench press, then you're not doing it correctly to begin with. You're not supposed to even let it touch your chest. I find it ridiculous when I see dudes just bouncing the bar off their chests. It does nothing. Same thing as using your shoulder to swing a dumbbell up for curls. Not effective.

From my experience most of the time good form and movement are required.
However when on a plateau, cheating on the movement to get 1 or 2 more rep will actually help.

I think pausing is good but only one of the tool you can use to improve.
A good spoter is great and will make you push yourself beyond failure, negative movement is also good, half movement not going all the way up or not all the down etc...

 

[17 shots]

From my experience most of the time good form and movement are required.
However when on a plateau, cheating on the movement to get 1 or 2 more rep will actually help.

I think pausing is good but only one of the tool you can use to improve.
A good spoter is great and will make you push yourself beyond failure, negative movement is also good, half movement not going all the way up or not all the down etc...

Yea I always bench at home by myself, so I take big risks lol. I've only gotten stuck under the bar once tho, I usually have a great feel for when to stop... man that sh1t was scary tho lmao

 

[jaymbrs]

From my experience most of the time good form and movement are required.
However when on a plateau, cheating on the movement to get 1 or 2 more rep will actually help.

I think pausing is good but only one of the tool you can use to improve.
A good spoter is great and will make you push yourself beyond failure, negative movement is also good, half movement not going all the way up or not all the down etc...

Agreed and Arnold himself was an advocate of cheat reps but like you said, only for 1 - 2 of your last reps.

 

[17 shots]

If you're using momentum on the bench press, then you're not doing it correctly to begin with. You're not supposed to even let it touch your chest. I find it ridiculous when I see dudes just bouncing the bar off their chests. It does nothing. Same thing as using your shoulder to swing a dumbbell up for curls. Not effective.

I agree with you, but at the same time there's kind of no way around it when your lifting as heavy as possible and squeezing out last reps. We go guerilla when we cheat and we see results lol

 

[lamath]

I agree with you, but at the same time there's kind of no way around it when your lifting as heavy as possible and squeezing out last reps. We go guerilla when we cheat and we see results lol

Heavy af and low rep gave me the best result strength and size wise, however not the best for overall fitness for sport like hockey.

Look at Sheiko program its old stuff but very good

 

[EyeBRollin]

Agreed and Arnold himself was an advocate of cheat reps but like you said, only for 1 - 2 of your last reps.

Arnold was a steroid abuser. Everything he suggest should be taken with a grain of salt, unless you plan on taking massive amounts of steroids yourself.

If you're using momentum on the bench press, then you're not doing it correctly to begin with. You're not supposed to even let it touch your chest. I find it ridiculous when I see dudes just bouncing the bar off their chests. It does nothing. Same thing as using your shoulder to swing a dumbbell up for curls. Not effective.

Not true. Bench does in fact utilize the stretch reflex. It’s not cheating at all to go fast on the eccentric portion.

You know what else works? Benching more weight the correct way.