In our training program there are many different areas of the movement that we program Pauses, but the main technique we use is pausing at the weak spot. Every athlete has their own unique weak areas and strong areas, and our goal is to educate athletes to avoid over-training the strong areas and focus on the weak spots. It's easy to let your ego fly and just target the strongest spots of your training, but if you want to really blow up your lifts you gotta target those weak spots.
Let's say an athlete has a Bench Press sticking point about 3 inches off the chest. No matter how many times they Bench Press, they just won't be able to fix this weak spot because they aren't focusing on the weaker areas. While there are many ways to build this (and we use them all), one method that seems to always work is the Pause at the Weak Spot Training method. We will have 2 options for this. First, have the athlete pause exactly at their sticking point, this will quickly drain those muscles and start to build up more strength in that area. Then they can fight through the rep or have a spotter slightly guide them to the top. The second, is to have them freeze roughly an inch below the sticking point, then generate more force and speed than ever before as they fight through their weakest areas. This style of pausing will train the body to utilize more muscle in that area than it is used to, learn how to activate the stability muscles in that area, and train the athlete to increase their speed/intensity throughout the lift.
These 2 styles of Pause Training are a great way to fight past any sticking point and turn weak spots into strong spots. Too often, coaches and athletes just follow the same programing (especially in a team setting), but I have found that by adding a small amount of time into each workout where each athlete can target their weaker spots, will create a much more powerful/injury free athlete and a much more powerful TEAM.
Comments