In the first installment of my Muscle Booster articles, I covered drop sets.

Here’s a breakdown of the technique:

What it is: A set where, after reaching failure, you rest a short period of time and continue to failure once again using the same weight. A typical set in this manner consists of 1-3 rest-pauses.

Why to do it: Like drop sets, rest-pauses allow you to take a set of a given exercise past the point of muscle failure, which can lead to gains in muscle size, strength and definition. But in this case, the short rest period allows you to stick with the same weight instead of going lighter. As a result, what once was a set of 10 reps with, say, 100 pounds becomes a set of 15-20 reps with 100 pounds by way of rest-pauses – so more total work has been performed.

How to do it: Performing a rest-pause set is very straight forward: pick the weight you’d normally use for a given set, go to failure, rest 15 seconds, then pick the weight back up and rep to failure again. Repeat one or two more times.

The number of reps you’ll be able to perform will decrease significantly with each rest-pause, so don’t expect to fail at 10 reps, then rest 15 seconds and get another 10. Chances are you’ll only be able to get 3-5 more reps, tops. If you do another rest-pause, you’ll get even fewer the next time. One way to avoid a big drop-off is to stop a couple reps short of failure on the initial set, which will allow you to get more reps after resting. Either way will work.

Here’s a sample back workout using rest-pauses: