Hope I can do it.” – trying (and failing) to psych yourself up. Oh man, this is heavy! Alright, just one more. Not sure if I can get the last one.” – worrying and starting to doubt yourself. “ Ah damn, that previous rep was really hard. So taking that extra few seconds does not contribute anything to the set except spending extra time under the bar.Īs you stand there with a heavy bar in your hands, trying to catch your breath, self-doubt starts to enter your mind. If it’s a set of 5, you’d have held the bar for an extra 8 seconds or so. Let’s say you take 3–4 seconds to “rest” between each rep. You’d still have to stay tight to hold up the barbell. That’s because you’re not really resting – you’re still loaded with the heavy barbell, either in your hands or on your back.
You might think you’re resting, but these longer than necessary pauses add to your fatigue. Generally, when the lift gets hard, there’s a tendency to pause too long before going for the next rep (although I’ve noticed that before the last rep is where lifters tend to pause the longest). Should be pretty straightforward, no? Just bang out the reps until you’re done. There isn’t really, however, much discussion about how long you should take between each rep.
There are many articles about how long you should rest between each set (in fact, we’ve written one ourselves). This is something I’ve noticed (especially on the press), and that’s what this article addresses. “Resting” between reps when the lift gets hard That’s when you know the last rep ain’t gonna happen and you rack the bar.īut I already knew that, from the moment you paused after the 4th rep. Against your will, despite doubling your effort, it starts to sink back down. The bar moves up to about your nose… but refuses to go further, no matter how hard you push. When coaching a lifter like this, I can tell whether or not a lifter will miss their last rep.Īfter taking a few seconds to rest, now you’re ready! So you take a huge breath, brace hard and start to press. And just before the 5th and final rep, you pause. The 4th rep is harder than you expected, but you manage to grind it up. 1st rep, 2nd rep, 3rd rep, and the fatigue starts to build. You take a big breath and take the bar out. You mentally prepare yourself to press a heavy set of 5.
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