‘Rest-pause training’ is a protocol straight out of the bodybuilding playbook, designed to push individual muscles not just to failure, but beyond.
Pretty hardcore in nature, and not without it’s risks; this style of training is perfect for busting through muscle-building plateaus, forcing yourself out of training ruts and taking your workouts to the next level.
Despite our disclaimers, the protocol is deceptively simple on paper: pick up a weight, perform a set of your chosen movement – pushing hard until you can no longer perform a rep with good form – then take an extremely brief rest, 10-15 breaths usually does it, before jumping straight back into the fray and pushing through to technical failure, again.
You can repeat this a few times until you hit a pre-set rep count, or until you can no longer perform even a single rep.
By not allowing the working muscles to fully recover between bouts, your body is forced to delve deeper and deeper into its reserves of muscle fibres, which after recovery can result in massive growth.
Rest-pause-isolation doubles down on both the simplicity of the technique and the kit you need to utilise it, by using unilateral movements; working just one side of your body at a time, with a single piece of equipment. You’ll alternate between left and right sides, one resting while the other works, allowing each side just enough time to recover and eek out a few more muscle-swelling reps.
We’ve employed this technique to create this back-blasting workout, that requires only one heavy dumbbell, but guarantees huge lats.
Begin by performing five single arm rows with your weaker side, next match those reps with your stronger side. Move back and forth between arms five times, without resting. That's one set. Rest for 2 minutes and repeat for five total sets and a lat and forearm pump that you won’t soon forget.
1. Three Point Dumbbell Row x 5 Left/ 5 right x 5
Hold a dumbbell in your left arm and hinge at the hips, placing your right hand onto a bench or box (A). With a flat back and rigid core, shift your weight onto your right hand and row the right dumbbell up into your hip (B). Pause briefly, then lower the weight under control until your arm is straight. Perform five reps and then switch sides, repeat this five times for one set.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
