In Part I of our discussion on training to failure, I asked you a question:
“When do YOU terminate your sets?”
In the comments section of that post, you responded.
The consensus?
There wasn’t one. I mean, not even close.
Replies ranged from the very conservative “when the speed of movement slows down” (which I think is bogus, and I’ll provide my thoughts in another post) to the much more extreme use of “forced” reps (having a spotter assist you to complete more repetitions, as “the kid” from my previous story reluctantly had me do for him) on a regular basis.
Needless to say, due to the wide range of replies, this is an area that is an area that most here could use some clarification on, and that’s exactly what I plan to give you over these next few posts.
For today, I promised to share with you what I feel to be the ideal point of termination for your sets, but first let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.
What is “failure”?
While fairly self-explanatory, the term “failure” does indeed carry quite a bit of ambiguity within the bodybuilding and fitness communities.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s define failure in terms of completed repetitions.
If you complete a repetition (in good form), you succeed (at completing that repetition, thus no failure occurs). If you do not complete the repetition (again, in good form), you fail.
This is failure.
Some strength coaches will try to tell you that if you barely complete the last repetition of a given set and would not be able to perform any subsequent repetitions, you have trained that set to failure. This is distorting the English language.
When did you fail? You didn’t.
Simply put, you fail when you attempt something and do not succeed.
With that said, here’s my “general” recommendation on set termination:
If you will be unable to complete the next repetition in near perfect form, terminate the set.
In other words, avoid failure.
Why?
Simply put, attempting to move a load (in an already hyper-fatigued state) and having to set it back down because you are unable to lift it again is extremely taxing on a central nervous system, which is the major cause of overtraining.
The harder you push, the more damage you do to your CNS, and the less effective your workouts become. Not only that, but before you know it you’ll be feeling like s#%t, too.
A winning combo, I know.
Bring on the skipped workouts, inconsistency, and lack of progress!
There’s no way around it: abuse your central nervous system with true “failure” training day in and day out, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to fail altogether.
That said, notice I prefaced my recommendation by saying it was a general recommendation.
Do I ever train to failure? Yep. And when used “intelligently”, failure training can yield exceptional results.
At least 120 comments and I’ll share a bunch of “intelligent” methods with you tomorrow.
Until then, train to succeed.
Joel
Just want to add something to my comment above, if my program said I have to do 8 reps and I can only do 6 reps and can’t do another 2 reps in good form
1. Should I just stop it at 6 reps ? ( seems like it is what you meant in the above post )
2. Or should I continue to “squeeze” out another 1 or 2 reps ( via all those ways I mentioned above?)
Hi Joel ~ I’m a 60 year-old man with Muscular Dystrophy (NON-wheelchair) and I’ve been working out for almost 9 years. My neuro-muscular problem is in the peripheral nerves (elbows to fingertips, knees to toes). I’ve always gone to failure and sometimes I do a few forced reps. I used to be a big fat guy (over 300 lbs.). I’ve lost almost all my excess weight, but my progress in building muscle has been stalled for a long time. Do you think my neuro problems are stymying my efforst to build more muscle? Perhaps I shouldn’t ever go to failure. I’m eager to hear your comments.
Many thanks ~ Conway…
I love reading your suggestions…it gets me fired up for my workouts!
Thank you! :-)
There are only 2 accurate measures of intensity
0% effort where no work is being done and 100% effort
where one more rep has you breaking form and heaving and hoing the weight
and since it is unknown excatly what % is
required to stimulate a growth response it is only logical
to go to 100% when trying to trigger growth however going to failure
is to be used sparingly on only the last set of an exercise
you really have to know your exercise tolerance level
to learn how much is too much effort and frequency
for you but it is abundantly clear that muscle won’t grow
and get stronger unless you give it a very strong reason to
and then allow it enough time before the next workout to
fully recover and then grow.
these are the basic laws of muscle growth above all others.
hi i always take all my reps to failure,except when i have a very physical day at work as i work in the construction industry ,and some times i just cannot make it through some routines.But last week i took a few days off at the gym and when i returned i had an amazing workout
As Mike Mentzer would say if training to failure, even with one set you need to give sufficient time to recover, and depending on the person this can take, from the thousands of people he trained, 2 days to weeks.
Maybe you should read the Article “Understanding Recovery: A wound healing model” by Dave Staplin in which he states that for all steps to recovery to take place can take up to 6 weeks.
@Matt – …where did he mention anything about tempo change? That wasn’t even mentioned; unless I’m blind. Please point it out to me if I’m wrong…
Muscle failure from a biological view is when the golgi tendon organ will cause “weightlifting failure” to protect the muscle and tendons from excessive force. You push, but your arms are lowing the weight all the same. Not many people train to failure even the so called experts. This is the true essence of weight training failure and as you mentioned is beneficial in certain weight training regimes.
However, as we all know go hard go heavy and do the basics. Forget the fancy complicated mumbo jumbo around exercising that do little to nothing for getting results.
@Lucky –
Hey lucky, tell it like it is. If your goal is to get bigger muscles you need overload, rest plus calories. Good comment.
I agree with your comments and appreciate them although I thought I would make a comment. Not everyone is capable to know exactly when failure or last rep before failure is coming unless you are a very healthy person. Due to different medical conditions sometimes you just know your limits from experience, others need to test their bodies or have someone help them. I thought I would make this comment as it is often assumed everyone is healthy and fit without limitatons. I am suggesting some need to learn their limititations and work with their bodies. Reps can vary on them.
I really like what you have mentioned in this post. I do my workouts without a partner and more often than not, i stop when my mind tells me that i have put in my best effort and cannot do another rep with proper form….
When talking about hypertrophy, finishing a set with awful form reps lets fewer energy in the tank to keep congesting the muscle. I totally agree with your failure approach.
How does your periodization between non-failure and failure periods looks Joel. It’ll be interesting to incorporate “shocking weeks” to my workouts.
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...read more