Breaks between reps

[Nathanael Teeple]

Rip,

I'm just starting my NLP, and I've been following your advice to hold my breath while doing each rep, but I sometimes find that after squatting something heavy (for me) and working hard, I can be a bit "woozy". Not necessarily dizzy, but... well, I'm sure you know what I mean. I don't expect this to be anything special to me. My question is this: Can I pause while doing squats with the bar on my back to take a few breaths and "turn the lights back on?" At what point does it stop being 1 set? I know this can probably become semantics, but is it fair to take 5 - 10 seconds between reps, or should I be pushing myself to finish each set without these little breaks? If that's the case, should I be worried about passing out with a bar on my back? Deadlifts are obviously different because between reps you aren't bearing the weight of the bar, so is it fair to pause at the top? How about the other lifts?

[Scaldrew]

Generally, you want the weight to be light enough to keep a good pace on your first three reps. Then you wait a breath and do the fourth rep. Finally, you take two breaths of pause and then do the fifth rep, which will be the hardest rep, but shouldn't take seventeen seconds to complete. These are guidelines for submaximal volume sets and usually apply more to the first and second sets rather than all of them.

On the LP programme where you're doing only three sets, usually at your perceived maximum each day, it can be hard to maintain this. You shouldn't only progress in weight so long as you can keep this pace going, but you shouldn't take two minutes to complete one set. Once you're at this point of doing very lengthy sets, you may want to review your training and recovery "logs" (bracketed for the latter word) as a significant retardation in bar speed implies a harder time recovering. This isn't always true, though; really heavy weights will never move as quickly as light weights, especially on volume sets.

The experienced eyes have it, in that there's no hard and fast rules. But try to keep it smooth and on pace. Don't rush your reps or sets, but don't turn it into a leisurely stroll either. I find the above helps for sets of five as sets of three usually don't allow one to do all three reps in the span of five to ten seconds, which is completely feasible on a set of five.

[Dalton Clark]

I'd like your age, weight, height, training history, and lifting numbers for context with this. It sounds like you are new to the lifting game and just aren't conditioned to heavy (for you) squats. They are taxing to the system and skyrocket your blood pressure - which is the likely culprit of the symptoms you are describing. You don't need to do 'cardio' to improve this. Your body will adapt to the this. That being said, taking 10 seconds in between reps is entirely unnecessary and will hurt more than anything else. You are still bearing a heavy load and this is entirely ill-advised once you get close to 300 pounds.

[Nathanael Teeple]

Age: 24
Weight: ~180lbs
Height: 5'11"
History: Never lifted weights before, but generally fit and healthy. I play lots of sports (hockey, basketball) and run somewhat regularly. I just did my 3rd workout of the LP today.
Numbers:
Squat - 205
DL - 195
Press - 80
BP - 135

Scaldrew, I took your advice today and felt just fine. It makes sense that I don't want to wait around after every rep. Thanks for the pointers!

[Dalton Clark]

Yeah you just confirmed everything. Scaldrew has a good method. Carry on, soldier.

[Scaldrew]

An important part about lifting weights that is hardly ever mentioned is the level of confidence with which one must actually train. Doubts in the mind of the lifter are easily spotted in the execution of every lift, not only on the face of the lifter, but also in the way the weight moves. Longer, drawn out sets usually indicate this lack of confidence from experience. It's something you'll get from hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of lifting, so don't worry about it. But an experienced lifter moves at a pace and forcing your hand (or leg) in this can help accrue this confidence quicker, especially once the weight gets up there. Doing your warmups as though they're working sets also helps with this.

It's similar to that saying "fake it till you make it" except you're not faking it; you're doing it for realsies.

[Nathanael Teeple]

Doing your warmups as though they're working sets also helps with this.

What do you mean by this? Do you mean that I should take them seriously, focusing on form and hip drive? Or are you just talking about pace?

As for the rest of it, I know what you mean. I was squatting with a guy who was clearly capable of the weight he was lifting, but he was convinced that he wasn't able to go all the way down, so he'd either do a 3/4 squat, or get down low and drop the bar onto the pins. I could notice the same thing in (to a lesser extent) in myself in how confident I felt pushing some weights. All that to say, thanks for the advice! I'll make sure I use it.