When Do YOU Terminate your sets?

I stop when I can’t do another lift. Fortunately that is usually when the instructor is finished counting. If we can get through a set easily she encourages us to get a heavier weight. So we are always at the optimum weight.

i terminate my sets when my form changes or if i just go half up with the weight, no its not the same with every workout i sometimes stop when im near failure.

I vary the termination just like I do with the other variables like weight, reps, sets, speed, etc.
I also train legs on Monday because I want to get it out of the way so I can look forward to the rest of the week.

Hey Joel,

Love the Article, you seem to have a knack for starting a discussion.

I personally train to failure on each set, however, I never break form. If i can’t lift with good form, then I might as well not lift at all.
I do have specific rules of when I should fail, ie after a certain number of sets/reps, but I move to failure each time.
Ryan

I terminate my set when failure happens. If I feel my spotter is doing the work there’s no use in continuing. I don’t treat all body parts the same.

If someone is concentrating on building muscle, then it makes sense that they would want to train to failure. Building muscle effectively requires that the muscle gets fatigued to a certain extent. Training to failure works when it comes to muscle building, since it is one of many ways to fatigue the muscle properly.

Training for strength requires a different approach. Stop 1-2 reps short of failure. When you train to failure you send negative feedback to your nervous system to not fire as hard on subsequent sets. It also produces fatigue in the muscle. Gaining strength is about increasing tension, not increasing fatigue.

Obviously it depends upon what part of the training cycle someone is in as well. As someone is finishing up a strength training cycle when they are pushing their personal best, they will approach failure.

-Rusty

I usually push myself ONE more rep before i quit even if its hard for me to lift or my muscles are hurting…

When I can’t do anymore! Or to muscle failure you could call it.

I tend to stop my set when I can no longer do a good paced quality rep. To me, that is “failure”. I don’t understand why people count rubbish reps which usualy aren’t even working the targeted muscle group. How many ‘pros’ do you hear talk about stimulate not annihilate.

I used to be just like the young man you described, squirming to get through extra sets, arching my back and completely wrecking my form. Now, after 30 years of lifting, I am now beyond 40, I have discovered it is much easier on my body and much better for me physically to break my sets off as soon as I recognize my form breaking down. Not that I don’t eek a couple extra reps out here and there but I truly try to focus on my form. I have to believe that many of my low back issues and various other aches throughout my years have come from improper form while lifting, something I try to point out to anyone that will listen now. Thanks for your site and information.

Sup Joel,
if i get at the point i cant lift all my reps to end´, i stop and wait cause i always train alone. So i stop wait 30-60 seconds and than do my last reps i missed before. i try to finish ALL my reps and sets.
Atm i train kinda diferent, but normaly i take a weight i can lift like 6 times and than i try to lift the same weight more and more until i get aropund 10-12. if i get at this point i put more weight on and so on…
Dont know if this is the ultimate workout rutine to maximze the muscle volume, but i gaint 10kg muscle in the first 3 mounth.

Greets from germany Björn

I try to aim for a range of reps. Usually 8-12 or 15-20 depending on the muscle and how I feel. If I think I am compromising my form or I feel discomfort in a joint I stop that set & adjust the weight for the next set. If I get to my goal & feel it was easy I increase my load. If I reach my goal & don’t think I could lift another rep, my set is over.

For me, the set is over (and rest mandated) once the muscle either feels painful or otherwise won’t allow me continue. I will normally, on principle, finish the reps “owed” from the interupted set in an extra one, immediately following the interupted one. Since I work out on my own and don’t want to bother fellow-exercisers to “spot” for me, I do not let myself get to the point of failure when doing, for example, squats or chest press with dumbells, to avoid accidents or hurting myself through dropping the dumbell. On the other hand, if I have more control, for instance when doing bicep curls with a dumbell, then I am more inclined to actually push myself to the point of failure before stopping the set.

It depends on how the reps are going. Sometimes I’ll be on my first or second set and I’ll be feeling some burn and have to work a bit harder for completed reps. It’s times like these that I’ll usually won’t be able to complete my last set with full reps. I continue to finish out the set until I’ve reached the desired amount of reps or until my reps are now only encompassing 60% of range of movement of the first rep/first set.

Other times I won’t feel much of a burn, I just start losing movement range. It mostly happens after the last set or doing extra sets(because I didn’t “feel the burn during my original sets) Again I’ll finish reps until I’m down to about 60% range of movement compared to a normal rep. Once I hit 60% I’ll get a lower weight and do the same thing. With a lesser weight I regain alot of that range and continue the process doing usually 2 sets of 6 reps then I decrease the weight again. I try to decrease the weight 3 or 4 times.

I think the number of reps should depend on the phase of training that you are in;
If you are in a strength phase with higher weights then form should never be sacrificed and your reps should be completed between 2s and 6s.
If you are in a conditioning phase with lower weights then you can go that little bit further, forcing the last few reps with less emphasis on form.
If you are in a power phase the reps should be completed as written in your schedule and should be completed as an explosive act.
In a hypertrophy phase every rep counts and form often suffers, but be careful not to injure yourself.

always figured it is better to do ont right than ten wrong, so, if I only do what i can get done with the proper form.

As I noticed many people do, I terminate my sets when whichever of these happens first: I reach the number of reps I desire or when my form begins to break down and I can no longer do the next rep. Of course if I reach the number of reps I desire with no struggle at all I increase the weight!!!

I go to where I can feel the muscle being worked is acheing (sp?), just before it starts to shake. I do my weakest side first, then do the same # of reps on my strong side. Working towards balance. Then I move on to a different muscle/body part right away. That way my heart rate stays elevated and I don’t cool down. My routine takes about 25 – 30 min. including warm-up and cool down stretches.

Well normally I would terminate one rep after I feel like I can’t keep proper form anymore. This rational usually goes for arm execises. Leg execises I usually don’t have an issue. Chest on Mondays are cause everyone wants to work out the chest and tris seeing how they make one look their best and they don’t want to miss that workout so they do it first thing in the week.

id say the reason why lads work on there chest on mondays is for a ego boost
and lazyness at the same time .
if you pump the chest on monday everything eles looks trimmer plus ,
it can feel like a arm and sholder work out .
i thought training to failure was to keep going till u cant complete ur set

Hey you’re right about Mondays and bench press. I guess that’s why I do squats on Monday as well. I never connected that up but it all started when I could not find any free flat benches. I would imagine the reason is Monday is the start of the week and all the dudes hit the gym hard and they think CHEST is gonna get the girls. They are so wrong! It’s a whole package,not a gorilla look that does the trick.

But anyway!
If I have no spotter, I quit when I know I can’t do another rep unassisted. If I have a spotter that I trust (who is not having a day dreaming day, watching the stupid TVs that are in there for who knows what reason), then I’ll let him guide me through a few more reps, provided I believe I am actually doing the work and my form is still solid. Or I’ll ask him to lift the weight and let me do the negatives unassisted so I can really squeeze a lot more out of the set. If alone, I sometimes cheat and do the negative slowly for 2-3 more reps.

I end my reps when I can no longer hold proper form for one exercise, then
I move on to the next exercise for another muscle group and so on. I do this for every set I do, but when I want to “burn it out” I will switch to lighter weights until I can no longer hold proper form.

I train with kettlebells so perfect form is essential or I could do some serious damage to myself with my workouts ( and my house :p).
Therefor I train till the point of musculature and technique failure (which is usually at the same time, or within a rep or two of the end). Then I rest for about a minute or do a little hard, quick on the spot cardio then go hard at my next exercise.
I have used this technique over the last few months and have gotten from around 14% body fat a few months back to about 8% right now. :D
So in the long and short of it, it works

Hi Joel, I quit when my time is up or I Know I have had enough!

I take my sets to failure, as this should be good for muscle growth. If I fail on under 4 reps, I take some weight off, and do a new set before resting. To be honest, I’m not 100% on if this is the perfect way to go, but it seems to work fine so far.. Looking forward to seeing what is right, and what isn’t. :)