If you want to fast-track your muscle growth, “rest-pause” training may be worth checking out. Essentially, rest-pause training involves alternating between mini sets and brief rest periods. This advanced training technique aims to promote greater muscle growth than if you were to perform traditional sets. We spoke with an expert who breaks down everything to know about rest-pause training and why it’s effective for building muscle.
How Does Rest-Pause Training Work?
“The goal [of rest-pause training] is to push the muscle past typical fatigue limits, creating more tension and muscle fiber activation to stimulate growth,” explains Katie Kollath, ACE-CPT and co-founder of Barpath Fitness. “An example of a rest-pause set would be choosing a weight you can perform for 10 reps and then performing eight to 10 reps, rest [for] 20 seconds, and then do as many more reps as you can get after your mini rest.”
Rest-pause sets optimize muscle tension. The brief rest period allows your muscles to semi-recover, which helps you go harder and perform more total reps than if you were to do a single continuous set.
“[This training method] also increases muscle fiber recruitment,” Kollath adds. “Fatiguing muscle fibers with repeated efforts encourages greater recruitment of type II (fast-twitch) muscle fibers, which are crucial for hypertrophy (muscle growth). Rest-pause sets also amplify metabolic stress. Brief rests keep muscles under tension and increase lactate and other metabolic by-products. This stress [stimulates] growth hormone release, further aiding muscle growth.”
Kollath points out that rest-pause training is an advanced-intensity method, so it should always be used sparingly. “We recommend incorporating it into your routine one to two mesocycles per year,” she says. “Each mesocycle of training is generally anywhere from three to six weeks. You have to be sure your nutrition and recovery [are] optimal to see results when doing rest-pause sets in your training, as it is very fatiguing.”
Sign up for our newsletter!
Alexa Mellardo
Alexa is the Mind + Body Deputy Editor of Eat This, Not That!, overseeing the M+B channel and delivering compelling fitness, wellness, and self-care topics to readers. Read more about Alexa
