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Stop Reps

Pause Between Reps Training

Some experts in weight training do not agree with the touch 'n go type of training that most of us do when doing reps. These people believe that stop reps are the only way to perform an exercise correctly in order to avoid any momentum or bouncing that might happen when doing touch and go type of reps.

Stop reps are different to training rest pause as you are only stopping at the beginning and the end of the movement and not during the movement. For example when doing a deadlift with a lot of weight doing stop reps will ensure that you are performing the movement correctly and not bouncing the weight off the ground at the bottom.

The same as bouncing the barbell off your chest when doing a movement like bench-press. It can do anything from cracking your sternum to not activating the muscle fibers because of incorrect technique. Some people on bodybuilding forums feel that stop reps are not a training technique but rather just correct training.

If you are stuck in a training plateau it is certainly one of the many different training techniques that you can use to help you break out of this and start gaining muscle again. Doing dead-stop reps has another advantage in that it does not use our very strong reflex action when doing a movement.

When we perform bounce-reps we can all lift a heavier weight because of this stretch reflex or reactive strength which actually means the release of any stored energy that you might still have left. If we think of the jumping up to reach something we all naturally go down into a small squat before we jump up, this is the stretch reflex.

If you think about stopping at the bottom of a squat or the bottom of a bench-press for 3 seconds before you start to push again, the force generated will need to recruit all the muscle fibers it can to complete the lift. Obviously resting the barbell on your chest while you count the 3 seconds down is a stop dead rep.

Stop reps need to be done without resting as you are just stopping the movement you are not stopping to lift the weight. However there is a very good training technique that is also called stop reps where you do rest and even release the weight before you start on the next rep.

One can do this when training any movement like doing bench-press for example where you would do it on a power rack and set your pins to support the barbell just as it stops at your chest. Your only focus of attention is then to drive the weight up as fast as you can after resting the weight for 3 seconds.

One can do the same with squats where you would sit on a stool to rest for 3 seconds before exploding upwards, the same as you would do with bench-press as mentioned above. Stop reps should be done whenever you have problems increasing strength.

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