Hello,
I’ve trained using the Doggcrapp program and for the most part really enjoyed it. I just have a basic question concerning the rest pause sets. The gym I go to only has a couple of Hammer Strength machines. The rest are the lame plate ones. Personally I found that I was able to do much better on the rest pause sets using those machines over free weights. I guess it was a matter of feeling much safer. My question is would DC be as beneficial if performed using straight sets?
If you used straight sets, it wouldn’t be DC.
1 top set/bodypart is probably not enough without RPing
I’m confused on several fronts…
You start off by talking about machines vs free weights… machines are perfectly fine if you can add weight to them and train in a safe manner. Nobody will be able to tell if you built your chest from incline barbell benching or HS incline pressing. What they will be able to tell is if you became the gym idiot trying to rest pause 295 lbs on the free bar and ended up stapled with no spotter.
Then you mentioned straight sets which are of course done in DC, and for people that don’t have adequate recovery ARE the program. Usually two straight sets with varying rep ranges depending on the exercise but I would say something like a 6-10 and after rest 11-15 would be adequate for most. Not sure if that’s what you are looking for.
There are people commenting who don’t know enough about DC to give proper guidance.
There is a gargantuan DC thread in this very forum where several guys who have been doing the program for years will explain things for you if you’ve done the baseline research, no need to start a new thread 
Thanks a lot Scott M. I don’t think i explained my issue very clearly because I am basically saying exactly what you were saying in your first post. Usually I prefer free weights but when rest pausing I feel like machines are much better. I don’t have a training partner and most people at the gym don’t know how to spot.
There have been a couple of times where i had to use the safety catches on the incline press (which are so low I had to sink below the seat for the bar to catch!). My gym only has 2 Hammer strength machines. 1 incline and 1 pull down (that nobody ever uses!) We have the other machines but they really feel awkward and unnatural.
Your 2nd point sounds very interesting to me! So basically you follow the same split, same blast and cruise, same stretches, … but replace the rest pause sets with the 2 straight sets. I feel that my recovery is pretty good (not amazing but definitely not weak), so would I be shortchanging myself by following this version?
Thank you… i promise if i have anymore questions I will bring them up in that thread.
[quote]Bingbeast wrote:
Thanks a lot Scott M. I don’t think i explained my issue very clearly because I am basically saying exactly what you were saying in your first post. Usually I prefer free weights but when rest pausing I feel like machines are much better. I don’t have a training partner and most people at the gym don’t know how to spot.
There have been a couple of times where i had to use the safety catches on the incline press (which are so low I had to sink below the seat for the bar to catch!). My gym only has 2 Hammer strength machines. 1 incline and 1 pull down (that nobody ever uses!) We have the other machines but they really feel awkward and unnatural.
Your 2nd point sounds very interesting to me! So basically you follow the same split, same blast and cruise, same stretches, … but replace the rest pause sets with the 2 straight sets. I feel that my recovery is pretty good (not amazing but definitely not weak), so would I be shortchanging myself by following this version?
Thank you… i promise if i have anymore questions I will bring them up in that thread. [/quote]
spotting on free weights with dc is very tricky when using random people. i typically will train alone and will stop 1 rep short of failure so that i can rack the weight safely and don’t need someone to spot me. it also gets hard for you to track your progress when you have spotters touching the bar, helping you out when you don’t need it, etc. a smith machine can be your best friend with this as racking the weight is just a twist of the wrist away.
i have done 2 straight sets before with dc and it has worked well for me. i currently do a 2rp set which combines the best of both worlds imo as it is not as taxing as the 3rp set (the typical dc set up) but gives me more muscule stimulation than the 2ss.
[quote]Bingbeast wrote:
Thanks a lot Scott M. I don’t think i explained my issue very clearly because I am basically saying exactly what you were saying in your first post. Usually I prefer free weights but when rest pausing I feel like machines are much better. I don’t have a training partner and most people at the gym don’t know how to spot.
There have been a couple of times where i had to use the safety catches on the incline press (which are so low I had to sink below the seat for the bar to catch!). My gym only has 2 Hammer strength machines. 1 incline and 1 pull down (that nobody ever uses!) We have the other machines but they really feel awkward and unnatural.
[/quote]
There is also flat/incline/decline db (20-30 RP) and smith (11-15 or 11-20 RP) bench press to choose from. Adding db low-incline and smith flat, for example, to compliment the hs incline would be a solid setup and wouldn’t pose the same troubles as bb bench.