How Old-School Lifters Used Paused Reps to Build Serious Strength
When you look at some of the most iconic old-school bodybuilders, legends like Lee Haney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Franco Columbu, it’s easy to chalk their physiques up to being “built different.” These guys didn’t just turn heads; they stopped traffic.
And while genetics certainly played a role (hard work builds muscle, but it doesn’t change your muscle insertions), one training technique helped set their physiques apart—even from today’s best: paused reps.
How Pause Reps Build Strength
"Old-school lifters swore by paused reps because they eliminate the stretch reflex," says Everett Miner, NASM-CPT. "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 keeps the target muscles under tension longer, which helps expose weak points, increases time under tension, and makes strength gains easier to track over time. By eliminating momentum, it also lowers your risk of injury and shifts the load where it belongs—on your muscles, not your joints, tendons, or connective tissue.
"Pausing kills all momentum because you can’t use a fast eccentric and/or a 'bounce' to sling the weight back up," Miner says. "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."
Related: Best Squat Variations to Build Full-Body Power and Muscle
When to Use Pause Reps
Realistically, you can use pause reps for just about any exercise, but that doesn’t mean you should. Miner says the key is choosing movements with a clear stretched or bottom position.
"Use paused reps where they reinforce tightness, control, and tension in the stretched position," Miner says. "That’s where you get the biggest payoff for both strength and muscle.
For compound lifts like the squat, bench, and deadlift, pausing can help you tighten up your form, clean up sloppy reps, and power through sticking points like the bottom of a squat or just off the floor in a deadlift.
"For most big lifts, a good rule of thumb is to use paused variations for about 10 to 30 percent of your total working sets," Miner adds. "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."
Programming Pause Reps
According to Miner, a good pause rep is long enough to eliminate the stretch reflex, but not so long that you lose tightness or rack up unnecessary fatigue. For most lifters, that sweet spot falls between half a second and three seconds, depending on the lift and your goals.
One-Half to One Second
Half a second to one second is a great cue for beginners who are trying to perfect their form, but can also be used "to kill momentum and increase control of the lift for most general strength and hypertrophy training while minimizing extra fatigue," Miner says.
Two to Three Seconds
"Two to three seconds is the likely optimal pause time for most pure strength-training focused lifts like squat and bench," Miner says. "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."
Try the following exercises with a pause, focusing on these instructions from Jonathon Sullivan, M.D., Ph.D., SSC.
Pause Squat
James Michelfelder
How to Do It
- Set up with a barbell in a squat rack. Standing with the weight across your back, take a big breath and brace your core.
- Push your hips back, knees slightly out, keeping your chest up throughout. Descend at a normal, controlled speed, not too slow, not a dive-bomb.
- Balance midfoot, keeping your heels down as you move through the movement.
- Pause for one to three seconds at the bottom.
- Drive up powerfully, no bouncing out.
Why It Works
Pause squats require you to use just your quads, hamstrings, and glutes to lift up out of the squat, instead of momentum, leading to more muscle recruitment and positive stress.
Pause Bench
Beth Bischoff
How to Do It
- Set up with a barbell over a bench. Lift the weight off the rack.
- As you lower the weight down to your chest, take a deep breath into your upper thoracic region and pin your shoulder blades down—don’t relax into the chest.
- The pause can be short—about a half a second to two seconds—just enough to eliminate momentum. Push the weight back up.
- Expect your paused bench to be roughly 10 to 30 percent lighter than your touch-and-go. That’s normal.
Why It Works
Paused benching locks in tightness, standardizes your bar path, and builds big pec strength and powerful triceps.