All About Pause Reps

I was featured in Men’s Journal for a piece on how old-school lifters used paused reps to build serious strength. While the published article includes key takeaways, I’ve included my full original insights below for those who want the deeper context, coaching cues, and programming tips.

The Men’s Journal story has already been picked up by nearly 30 major newspapers across the country — including the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer, and more — making it a nationally syndicated feature.

You can read the full Men’s Journal article here, and check out my full, unedited breakdown below.

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Why did old-school lifters favor paused reps over touch-and-go? What does pausing at the bottom actually accomplish?

Old-school lifters swore by paused reps because they eliminate the stretch reflex. Instead of bouncing out of the bottom, you pause long enough that your muscles have to generate force purely from a dead stop - no elastic energy to help. Pausing also keeps the working muscles under tension exactly where you’re weakest - at the deepest point. This creates more reliable strength progress, a safer lift, and a boost in muscle growth over time.

Pause reps expose weaknesses, increases time under tension, and creates repeatable, trackable strength progress. 

How do paused reps eliminate momentum and why does that matter for raw strength?

Pausing kills all momentum because you can’t use a fast eccentric and/or  a “bounce” to sling the weight back up. Instead, you develop starting strength, the ability to push or pull forcefully from zero at a dead stop. This carries over to your true max lifts, where momentum won’t save you. Plus, it’s one of the best ways to test if you’re genuinely stronger or just better at bouncing through your sticking points.

Are paused reps more effective for certain lifts?

They absolutely can be. For compound lifts, paused reps shine where there is a clear bottom position under load:

• Pause Squats: The pause squat is one of the best ways to fix common bottom-end mistakes - like shifting onto the toes, letting the knees slide forward, or collapsing the chest. You can’t cheat your bracing or balance. You build stronger, more repeatable depth and better technique that holds up under heavier loads.

  
  
  
  

• Pause Bench Press: Pausing off the dials in your bar path, forces you to be mindful of the range of motion, eliminates sloppy bounce reps, and builds powerful reversal strength right where some lifters struggle - off the chest. It also grooves proper competition form.

  
  
  
  

• Paused Deadlifts: For general strength and conditioning or recreational lifters focused on overall size and muscle, paused deadlifts usually aren’t essential. They’re mostly helpful for powerlifters who want to strengthen the initial pull off the floor or fix specific sticking points. However, a slight pause at the bottom of a Romanian deadlift can be smart for hypertrophy and as accessory work for your traditional deadlift - you hold the deep hamstring stretch briefly to increase time under tension and muscle fiber recruitment.

  
  
  
  

When it comes to isolation and accessory work, paused reps make sense when there’s meaningful tension in the stretched position. For example:

• A standard standing biceps curl has almost no tension at the bottom or top, so a pause there won’t do much.

• But if you adjust the curl to bias the lengthened position like a Bayesian cable curl with your arm behind your torso - the bottom now has significant stretch and tension. Pausing there can boost hypertrophy by increasing time under tension in the position that loads the muscle fibers most.

• Similarly, on a cable chest fly, pausing at the deepest stretch (when the pecs are lengthened) can help build more muscle than pausing in a contracted position where tension drops off.

Bottom line: Use paused reps where they reinforce tightness, control, and tension in the stretched position - that’s where you get the biggest payoff for both strength and muscle.

When programming paused reps, what’s the sweet spot for pause duration? Big difference between 1–3 seconds?

A good pause is long enough to erase the stretch reflex but not so long you lose your tightness or generate too much fatigue. For most lifters somewhere between  ½ - 3 seconds is ideal depending on the lift and the goals.

• ½ to 1 second is enough to kill momentum and increase control of the lift for most general strength and hypertrophy training while minimizing extra fatigue. It's also a great point for beginners to start to become more aware of their form.

• 2-3 seconds is the likely optimal pause time for most pure strength training focus lifts like squat and bench. It demands even more control and strength and can be used in intermediate-advanced trainees. Longer pauses are great for troubleshooting, increasing the challenge and stimulus, but can increase fatigue.

How often should someone use paused reps if their goal is strength rather than size?

“Paused reps” are best used strategically - you don’t need to pause every rep on every lift, every session

For most big lifts, a good rule of thumb is to use paused variations for about 10–30% of your total working sets. This works well for squats, deadlift variations, or Olympic lift progressions. It’s a smart way to troubleshoot sticking points, refine technique, and add an extra stimulus during specific training blocks.

For example, you can spend entire blocks, or months, of training with pause reps for certain lifts. For example, Strong Lifts Intermediate 5x5 program is a proven program that incorporates pause work for about ⅓ of the total workouts for as long as you can run it while still improving.  

However, some lifts, like the bench press, are often better off using a slight pause all the time. In the bench, a soft bounce can quickly turn into sloppy form, inconsistent touch points, or shoulder strain. Keeping even just a brief ½-1 second pause on the chest at all times helps lifters stay tight, maintain control, and build raw power where it matters most. This is why many experienced lifters simply treat a slight pause as standard bench press practice, not just a special variation.

Use other paused variations (like pause squats, paused pulls, or long eccentric holds) as needed to build specific parts of the lift, fix weak points, or reinforce solid positions - without adding so much fatigue that it slows down your main strength work.

Top cues to maintain tension during the pause - especially for squats & bench press

🔑 For Squats – Pause Squats How-To: You see the same bottom-end mistakes over and over:

• Lifters shift weight onto toes, losing midfoot balance.

• Knees slide forward, hips come forward, hamstrings shorten.

• Chest caves in - loss of thoracic extension - lifter folds over.

  
  
  
  

Pause squats fix these because you can’t hide behind the bounce.

• How to do it right:

  
  

  • Descend at a normal, controlled speed - not too slow, not a dive-bomb.

  • Pause 1–3 seconds at the bottom.

  • Focus on Jonathon Sullivan’s MD, PhD, SSC simple checklist:

    - Big breath & brace

    - Knees out

    - Hips back

    - Chest up

    - Balance midfoot - heels down

  • Ref:  Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com/video/three-reasons-why-you-should-be-doing-paused-squats & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndkmWT9V9tc&t=1s 

  • Drive up powerfully: no bouncing out.

    
    

🔑 For Bench Press - Pause Bench How-To:Touch-and-go benching often gets sloppy: people bounce the bar, miss the groove, or mask bottom-end weakness.

• Paused benching locks in tightness, standardizes your bar path, and builds big pec strength and powerful triceps.

• Keep a deep breath in your upper thoracic region, pin your shoulder blades down, and hold leg drive - don’t relax into the chest.

• The pause can be short - about ½ to 2 seconds - just enough to eliminate momentum.

• Expect your paused bench to be ~10-30% lighter than your touch-and-go - that’s normal.