Rest Pause Workout: Finish with “The Countdown”
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Rest Pause Workout: Finish with “The Countdown”: You’re in the gym, it’s arm day, and you’ve got a great pump going. You’re feeling strong, looking good, and are about to finish this workout off. The other people around you in the weight room can’t help but admire the gains you’re making right now. So you’re about to power the pythons and finish this training session off in epic fashion with…3 sets of 10?
That seems kind of, I don’t know, normal. Do you want normal results? Of course not. You didn’t spend the past hour or so clanging and banging with the iron for normal results. If you’re in your comfort zone then you’re doomed. To achieve great results, you need to push yourself to your limits and that includes finishing strong. This finisher will be exactly what you need to do just that.
By Roger Lockridge
Rest Pause “The Countdown”
“The Countdown” is a rest pause set taken to the extreme. By the time you finish this you’ll have completed 55 reps. Since we used arm day as the example, we’ll focus on triceps and our weapon of choice will be the rope pressdown. This is a great movement to target that long head of the tricep area and pump a lot of blood into the arms. Choose a weight that you can get for 15 reps or so. If you go too heavy, you might sacrifice form and risk injury. If you go too light, you won’t get the full effect of what this protocol offers.
Get into position and perform 10 reps. Don’t fly through them either. Push the rope down, squeeze the triceps, and control the rope as it comes back up. Once you finish the 10th rep, let the weight go back on the stack but don’t let go of the rope. Keep the rope in your hands and wait 10 seconds. Count to ten or watch a clock. If you have a partner, let him or her watch the clock for you so you can focus. As soon as that 10th second passes, get back to work. Now you’re going to do 9 reps in the same fashion. When you finish rep number 9, stop again but this time it will be for 9 seconds. After that, you perform 8 reps followed by an 8 second pause. Have you noticed the pattern yet? You’ll rest-pause for the same amount of seconds as reps you performed. You also take one rep and one second away each segment after so eventually you’ll get down to 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and finally 1 rep for a total of 55 reps with weight you would normally use for 1 set of 15. That last single rep should not be very easy for you to execute. If it is, you went too light.
The pump you’ll get from this will be all the assurance you need that you finished off that workout in grand style and you’ll be more than ready to take your post-workout supplements. You can use this on any major body part and any exercise you like so long as you choose the right weight and don’t sacrifice form. There is a guide below of how “The Countdown” works so you can take this with you to the gym or keep it on your phone for future reference.
“The Countdown” Finisher
Exercise of Choice
10 reps 10 seconds rest
9 reps 9 seconds rest
8 reps 8 seconds rest
7 reps 7 seconds rest
6 reps 6 seconds rest
5 reps 5 seconds rest
4 reps 4 seconds rest
3 reps 3 seconds rest
2 reps 2 seconds rest
1 rep Finished.
