Paused Benching

[iron addict]

Talk to 10 lifters and ask them where their sticking point for bench presses is and in 7-8 out of 10 cases they will tell you in the bottom. Ask these same guys what they are doing to correct it and they will just tell you they bench press and do incline preses and then some fly’s or cable crossovers. DUH! No wonder they are forever stuck. You will never be any stronger than your weakest areas, so to get stronger, it’s key to work on weak points. While there are MANY, MANY ways to address a weakness in the bottom position of the bench press, this piece will be about a simple to use method that works WONDERS for a large percent of the guys and girls that implement it--pausing lifts.

All paused lifts amount to is bringing the bar down to your chest, or to your sticking point if using boards or the power-rack pins to regulate range of motion, and pausing for at least a full second which is long enough to eliminate most of the stretch reflex. If you use the power-rack or boards, you can ALMOST relax the pressing muscles to further eliminate the stretch-reflex. Eliminating the stretch reflex will reduce (in many cases drastically) the amount of weight you can use. That is fine, as the results will pay for themselves when you go back to regular benching and find the bar moves much more explosively in the bottom position after a period of paused rep benching.

Pauses can also be done when doing your dumbbell benching, close grips, and even much of your tricep and shoulder pressing movements. Another key to making this work well for you is to be very explosive on the positive portion of the lift, and of course, to control the negative portion with care.

I often put my trainees with bottom benching weaknesses on all benching and bench assistance work paused and within 8-10 weeks or so their sticking point has not only moved way up, but their bench poundage’s have moved way up too!

Iron Addict

[jsonbrent]

nice article...

[1fitdrillsgt]

nice post thanks

[Dapit26]

Another great way is to start on the smith machine with the bar touching your chest and bench from there. Do 3 sets of 10 reps. I don't use the smith machine but the free weight squat rack instead, it's much tougher. And you can't use your momentum. I gained 60 lbs on my bench a couple years ago and blasted through my plateau doing that

[chrismortimer66]

Alot of elite lifters say that pausing your bench is quite bad, and stops the golgi tendon from becoming affective, Louie simmons being one that disagrees with the pause method.
A get around maybe to complete your working sets of bench, then doing an isometric hold for as long as you can about 2-3 inches of your chest, when you can do it for 30 seconds, do it with more weight.
Do 2 sets of iso holds at end of bench sets.

[Alter-Ego]

I have been using the rest pause method for the past year and a half and the lower part of my bench is extremely powerful. I can do 10 reps with 315, then pause on my chest for 3-5 seconds and then explode up without any hesitation.

This was never the case before using rest pause. I have always been a loser on the bench so trust me when I say it works.

[AthleticMuscle]

Good post.

Just remember to stay tight during the pause. I see a lot newer lifters lose their tightness during the pause, and therefore their strength!