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Pause . . . and Effect

How losing your momentum can help you gain new muscle.

By Fernando Pages Ruiz, CSCS, with Cole Maranville, IFPA

March-April 2003

Progressive Overload
Training Variation
The Routine
Strength and Power
Why the Slow Negative?
Why the Pause?
Why the Explosive Lift?
Bench Press
Barbell Curl
Triceps Dips
Squats

No matter how hard you weight train, there's always a point at which improvement tapers off. Your workouts start wallowing and you soon hit a plateau that seems impossible to overcome. This can be very discouraging. In fact, it leads many exercisers to start overtraining or to give up entirely. Neither extreme is an effective – or necessary – response.

Everyone hits an exercise standstill from time to time, even elite athletes. So the next time your workout gets stale, instead of fighting or quitting, try slowing down.

That's right: See how taking a pause during each rep and purposefully losing momentum can propel you into the next level of fitness.

If slowing down seems like the exact opposite of what you want to do when you're stuck at an exercise standstill, try thinking about it this way: Once you lose momentum, it takes a lot more energy to get going again. When you slow down and add a pause to each of your lifts, you actually increase the intensity of every rep without adding more weight.

In fact, you'll find you need to back off your total tonnage to make those strength gains. The added intensity of moving weight from a dead stop overloads your musculoskeletal system quickly and provides the physiological kick-in-the-butt needed to push your workout out of limbo.

Progressive Overload
Muscles, bones and connective tissues respond to mechanical overload by getting stronger. Exercise works by progressively taxing your muscles and related tissues so they continue to grow. You stop making progress when the sets and reps you're doing no longer provide enough stimulus.

The best way to encourage your body to develop further is to increase the intensity of your workout. Most of us do this by either adding sets and reps or loading more weight onto the bar. But eliminating momentum achieves the same end in less time, while forcing greater muscle-fiber recruitment (meaning more of your muscle has to report for duty).

You've probably noticed that many weight-bearing exercises are easier to do at a faster rate of movement. Try knocking out 10 swift pushups (piece of cake). Now try another set with a slow descent, a one-second pause at the bottom and an explosive press to finish. You'll find this set is much harder than 10 regular pushups.

When you move quickly, you exploit momentum and a physiological phenomenon known as the stretch-shortening cycle or "stretch reflex." This is just a fancy way of saying that when your muscles move fast in one direction, they spring back reflexively in the other. That's why you cock your arm back before throwing a ball and bear down to set up a vertical jump. A quick countermovement precedes almost every powerful athletic effort.

While lifting weights, the combination of momentum and your stretch-shortening cycle acts like an overzealous spotter who provides a little too much assistance. Eliminate this assistance, and you can reduce the number of repetitions you do, as well as increase the rest periods between sets and dramatically improve your strength and power. Without momentum, you force yourself to perform more absolute muscle work. More work translates into faster improvement and a one-way ticket to the next level of training.

Training Variation
Just because slowing down is an effective plateau-buster doesn't mean that you should eliminate momentum from your workouts forever. To stimulate the development of muscle, connective tissues, and bone, your body demands variation.

Different types of exercise yield different results. Certain routines stimulate muscle growth, others endurance. The following routine is designed to help you increase lean body mass and obtain the strength and power you need to advance through a difficult sticking point. It's a tough workout that entails near-maximal muscle contraction with a full recovery period between each set. It's designed for people who've had some experience in the weight room and need a new routine to facilitate progress. (If you're just getting started, the standard approach of three sets of 12 to 15 reps at moderate weight can provide enough stimuli to challenge your muscles.) Try this plateau-buster for about six weeks and then return to your old workout with improved strength and power.

The Routine
Although the illustrations and captions included with this article describe weightlifting movements for the major muscle groups, you can apply the concepts underlying this type of training to almost any weight-bearing exercise. The rudiments include:

• Full extension at the beginning of each rep to stimulate your ligaments and tendons.

• A slow eccentric, or "negative" phase (usually the downward portion of the exercise when the weight is moving with, rather than against, gravity) to maximize muscle-fiber recruitment.

• A full one-second stop to eliminate the stretch reflex.
• An explosive concentric (against gravity) movement to maximize muscle contraction and develop power.

If this sounds hopelessly complicated, don't worry – you'll catch on quickly. But before we start pumping iron, there's another subtle concept to grapple with, and that's the relationship between strength, power and size.

Strength and Power
Although most of us use the words strength and power as if they were synonymous, in sports science these two terms have related, but somewhat different, meanings. Strength represents your maximum muscle force. Power represents a measure of your maximum muscle force at speed. In other words, strength determines how many suitcases you can pick up; power is a measure of how fast you lug them up a flight of stairs.

Power, or high-speed strength, becomes an important element in exercise because it corresponds to the skill of developing kinetic energy, or the recruitment of strength in motion. In this sense, strength represents potential energy; power marks your ability to use it. Almost everything you do (especially in athletics) entails moving an object at speed, be it your body (in the case of running) or a projectile (as in baseball).

You hit an exercise plateau when you have maximized your strength gains through a given routine and no longer generate the force required to stimulate your muscles to progress further. It's possible to slog through a plateau slowly, but increasing the intensity of your workout over a given time unit (i.e., the power equation) stimulates improved recruitment of your muscle fibers and yields the kinetic energy to perform better right now.

As your muscles get stronger, they also get bigger – a phenomenon known as hypertrophy (more on that in our July issue). But the most significant gains in strength and power come from training your muscles to work more efficiently. That's why the strongest lifters are not always the largest.

The routine described here will certainly stimulate growth in your lean body tissue, but that's not the main objective. The objective is to train your muscles to recruit existing fibers with greater force through the synergy of slow eccentric resistance, a brief pause and an explosive lift.

Why the Slow Negative?
Although many people call the eccentric phase of an exercise the "negative phase," there's really no such thing as "negative muscle work." An eccentric contraction actually refers to resistance offered by a muscle when force is exerted upon it.

When you lower a glass from your lips to the table, your biceps brachii muscle contracts eccentrically to prevent the glass from slamming down and shattering. Likewise, when you lower the dumbbell after performing a curl, the weight of the dumbbell acts upon your muscle. Your biceps decelerate the weight of the dumbbell, stretching slowly and under your control by contracting eccentrically.

Slow, controlled eccentric movements generate a tremendous amount of muscular activity. In studies with the bench press and squat exercises, concentrated eccentric efforts yielded greater strength gains than the standard concentric-centered workout. You can actually handle much heavier loads in the eccentric phase of an exercise, and you'll often see trainers adding resistance to take advantage of this.

Another way to achieve a similar overload is to lower the weight very slowly over a five-second count. The slower you lower the weight, the less assistance you get from gravity. The more work you do, the stronger you get.

Why the Pause?
The force required to break the inertia of a standing object (like pressing the bar off your chest after a one-second pause during a bench press) generates the most vigorous contraction your muscles can achieve. It offers a measure of your absolute strength without the aid of momentum or the bounce provided by your stretch reflex. Practicing lifts from a dead standstill assures you're training your muscles to put out near-maximum force on every exertion. It's one of the best ways to improve raw strength.

Why the Explosive Lift?
Compared with a slow lift, a lift that involves acceleration (an explosive lift) provides the greatest resistance to the muscles involved early in the exercise. This pattern corresponds to the muscle recruitment of most sports. Picture a sprinter, whose legs propel him from the starting block, or a pitcher, who generates tremendous power at the beginning of the throw and then releases that kinetic energy into the ball.

Almost every athletic movement begins at near-maximum resistance and ends in release. Imagine your muscles as if they were springs torqued down tight. Then imagine those springs discharging their energy in a swift, powerful and well-controlled movement. This is the kind of movement that corresponds to the exertions of daily life and sport. And it's the energy that will allow you to overcome any exercise plateau.

Bench Press
What/Why: One of the most popular upper-body exercises, the bench press, develops the chest (pectoralis major and minor), shoulders (anterior deltoid), triceps (long and medial meads) and the sides (serratus anterior). This compound exercise is a great way to build multipurpose strength and make your whole upper body look fitter, fast.

How: Load the bar with 60 to 80 percent of your 1RM (the maximum weight you can lift once), or the maximum amount you can lift for eight reps. Lie on your back on a flat bench with your chin aligned slightly ahead of the rack. Keep your butt and lower back in contact with the bench and your feet flat on the floor. Take an overhand grip on the barbell with your hands more than shoulder-width apart.

With the help of your training partner, remove the bar from the rack. Inhale and slowly lower the bar to your chest. (For comfort, you may want to roll up a workout towel and place it on your chest as pictured.) Hold the bar at your chest for one full second, and then push the weight back as quickly as you can while maintaining control, exhaling as you complete the movement. Pause with your arms locked, and then repeat four to six times. Perform four sets.

Barbell Curl
What/Why: The barbell or dumbbell curl develops your arms (biceps brachii, brachialis and brachioradialis muscles). Traditionally a male fetish, curls have gained cachet with women since Demi Moore showed off her toned arms in GI Jane. Besides looking good in short sleeves and at the beach, toned biceps also help you execute the movements involved in rock climbing, gymnastics, lifting grocery bags, tossing a ball and grappling.

How: Load a barbell with 60 to 80 percent of your 1RM max (see above). Stand. Keep your back straight and take an underhand grip on the barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Inhale, then curl the barbell in one smooth, quick movement while keeping your back straight (contract your butt, abs, and back muscles to keep yourself from swinging) and your elbows tucked at your sides. Lift your elbows slightly at the end of the curl to get a better biceps contraction and exhale at the end of the movement. Lower the bar very slowly over at least five seconds.

Another variation is to lower the bar in quarter segments and pause for one second at each stage. Hold the bar at full extension for one full second, inhale and repeat the exercise six to eight times. Perform four sets.

Triceps Dips
What/Why: Many sports, such as tennis, basketball and boxing, require powerful triceps – the muscles along the back of your arm. It's also good to maintain strong triceps so that you don't develop that elderly jiggle when you rest your elbow on a table and the breeze blows your flaccid triceps like an old sock on the clothes line. There are many triceps exercises available, from the dip bars to pushdown and overhead triceps press. The exercise description provided here works equally well for the seated triceps extension machine, bench dips, and bar dips (shown). In addition to the triceps (lateral, long and medial heads), this exercise also develops the chest (pectorals) and shoulders (anterior deltoids).

How: Assume a proper, fully extended starting position on the equipment of your choice. Inhale and then bend your arms slowly, lowering your torso in at least five seconds while keeping your back erect and your elbows pointing straight back; squeeze your triceps and the center of your back. When you reach the bottom, hold this position for one full second and then extend your arms powerfully and return to the starting point. Exhale as you complete the movement and pause for one full second before repeating eight to 10 times. Perform four sets.

Squats
What/Why: Many athletes consider squats the king of all exercises because they simultaneously work the front and rear thigh (quadriceps and hamstrings), buttocks, lower back, calves, shins and abs along with muscles in your shoulders, back and arms. Essentially, squats provide a whole-body workout for conditioning your largest muscle groups. In addition to developing a well-sculpted derrière, squats can improve your jumping, running, kicking and overall strength.

How: Place a barbell with about 80 percent of your 12 repetition max at shoulder level on a squat rack. Grasp the bar with your palms facing away from you (pronated grip) and slightly wider than shoulder-width. Step under the bar and place it evenly across your upper back and shoulders (over the anterior deltoids and clavicles). Your elbows will be flexed, upper arms parallel to the floor. Tilt your head up slightly, chest up and out and your back and torso straight. Engage your abdominals and glutes. Extend the hips to raise the bar and step back from the rack.

Position your feet hip-width apart, toes turned out slightly. Keeping your feet flat on the floor and your back straight, inhale, and allow your knees to bend slowly. Squat down, flexing your hips as if you were going to sit on a bench. Maintain a flat or slightly arched lower back (do not round it). Do not allow your knees to extend past your toes. Continue the movement until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Pause for one second, then rise to the starting position, extending your hips and knees at the same rate. Do not flex your torso forward or allow your back to round. Exhale as you pass the sticking point about two-thirds of the way up. If you have not practiced squatting, to start, use an unweighted bar. If you are an experienced squatter, you can use a lighter weight and practice an explosive, although controlled, upward movement. Perform three sets of six to eight reps.

Contributing writer Fernando Pagés Ruiz is a Strength and Conditioning Specialist certified by the National Council on Strength and Conditioning. Cole Maranville has a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and is certified by the International Fitness Professionals Association as a Personal Health and Fitness Trainer. Both live in Lincoln, Neb., and train together regularly.