To pause or not to pause

[LtL]

So I'm a competitive powerlifter but due to the impending arrival of my first child, meet scheduling, trying to grow into the 100kg's weightclass and general time constraints I won't be competing again until December/January time and my next big goal is BDFPA Nationals in March/April next year. So now you have my life story, I'll move onto my question:

I'm running Westside at the moment and when I max out on bench (regular or close grip) I'll go for a triple or single, should I pause the rep's?

As I see it the pro's of just using touch and go:

Get used to moving heavier weight
Increased bar speed
Increased confidence from shifting more plates

And the con's:

Touch and go is way harder so any higher weights would be a bit of an illusion
I need to work on bar speed off the chest from a dead stop
In competition there's no prizes for t and g

At the moment I'm pausing all singles and the first rep' of each triple but I'm keen to hear peoples' input here.

LtL

[BendtheBar]

I personally am a fan of building as much strength as possible, and then worrying about pauses later.

But I am sure there might be other opinions....

[gaspers04]

I like pause work into the mid 3's then TNG (controlled, not rib breakers).

[zzman]

I didn't train with pauses up until the last 2 weeks of my training prepping for my last meet. I ended up making plenty of progress on my bench. I do think I might have made more progress had I trained with pauses earlier or more often.

[IronManlet]

Your pause Bench will always be a bit lower than your regular Bench. Personally, I never did pause benching until ~4 weeks out from my competition; and I was still able to pause fairly close to my max.

For regular training, I'd just go with TnG. Then again, my Bench sucks to hell...so what do I know? haha

[LtL]

Time to touch and go more weight I think

LtL

[LtL]

Originally Posted by gaspers04

I like pause work into the mid 3's then TNG (controlled, not rib breakers).

What's your 1RM G?

LtL

[gaspers04]

Originally Posted by LtL

What's your 1RM G?

LtL

435 at home with no hand-off or spotter. Went up easy.

[LtL]

Damn you are STRONG! Was just trying to get an idea of what percentages you pause at.

Should be smashing some serious t and g PB's at the weekend now

LtL

[Aurik]

My .02 worth is that I wouldn't worry about pausing until you're within sight of an actual competition. You can lift more weight without pausing, and more weight = more muscle fibers stressed = more growth. Once you've got a competition in your sights, then practice the pausing so you've got a better idea of what you can do under meet conditions. Right now I'd focus on putting as much *bleep*ing weight on that bar as you can move for a 1RM or a triple to build your strength as fast as you possibly can