When You SHOULD Terminate Your Sets

@Joel Marion – so what you are saying is that if he can do 8 reps with good form, but no more, he should do 6 reps with more weight on his workout!!

This is a confusing and important subjetc to me..
If i have to do 4 sets of 10 reps and i complete the first set just fine, but cannot achieve 10 reps on my second set with the same weight (and even less on my 3rd and 4rth) should i just go to failure with the same weight (even tho i would have done less reps than what my program sais) or reduce the weight by about 5 pounds per set so I can finish my required reps….

And also whould I be increesing the weight I do every single workout (I heard something crazy like that) so that I keep shoking my muscles??

help would greatly be appreciated

PS: are u saying we shouldnt always train to failure?

So we should stop 1 rep short to failure??

Does this “Do not train to failure” only count for weight training or also for bodyweight training?

@Joel Marion –

For pushups I’m fine, I can do about 30 reps, but chin’s/ pullup’s is a problem , I can only do 6 full reps so I guess I should use this ladder too

Thanks,

Michel

@Joel Marion – thank you very much :) i realy hope u send us part 3 on this (if there is one)

PS: to generalize, i should be doing the required number of reps (each set) while maintaining near perfect form and stoping 1 rep short to failure (in most cases) to avoid overdoing it.

PSS: do you know of any magic number of percentage that the weight must be increased buy (from week to week maybe), or should I just increase it buy a bit when i feel like I can do more reps than the required amount?

@Joel Marion – thank you very much for this info. I needed it alot. I look forward to better and more effective workouts now :)

Quick tip:
Imagine you’re doing your workout at home with no one else in the house and you have no safety supports in place. You’ll quickly be able to tell when you’ve done enough reps.

One method that I use to train with is “progessive loading” I make sure that every time i do the workout i do one of three things – either increase the weight, increase the reps or increase the sets. In doing this I do not worry about working to failure – WHY? – because with progressive loading you are continully changing and increasing the aggregate weight (total weight lifted) for each and every workout and failure will occur along the way.

For example: lets say you are using a 35lb. DB for hammer curls and in your workout you do 4 sets of 15 reps. The next time you do hammer curls you do 4 sets of 16 reps. GOOD! now you may complete that or you may reach failure during one of the sets. STILL GOOD!! you maintain that until you can achieve 4 sets of 16 reps, then you up it to 17, the goal being 4 sets of 20 reps. I find that the 20rep max is a good time to add more weight and repeat the process.

I am currently training 3 workouts (each focusing on different muscle groups), 4 times per week in a 3 week rotation: week one is A,B,C,A; week two is B,C,A,B; and week three is C,A,B,C – after two months of this with progressive loading I would again change the workouts.

Calculating your “Aggregate Lift” is a great way to monitor your progress and it can give you a mental and psychological boost as you see the total liffete continue to increase.

It also keeps body is always wondering what will be next. :-D

I have recently changed my workout and boy does it work.For 6 weeks I do 5 sets of 10 reps,increasing in weights every set with the last set at 90% of my max and if I can manage it I push 100%as long as it doesnt affect my form.I have found that doing it this way I get a nice workout per muscle group.Failure is a big part of this program and I believe that you need to work to failure to benefit, as long as your form stays 100% correct. Your spotter needs to know how to assist you. I have found over the years that alot of spotters end up helping you too much, and have recently found a spotter that helps but to a minimum forcing me to complete the set on my own properly.this has made an enormous difference in my workout and would suggest to anyone that has a spotter to get tips from the experts before you workout,believe me it makes an enormous difference.
cheers

Joel,

I tell all the readers of my site to avoid training to failure as well. In fact, I haven’t failed to lift a weight in years.

Strength trainers, and Olympic lifters know that failure is only something to be reached in competition…they would never train to failure on a regular basis throughout the year.

What is cool about this method of stopping 1-2 reps short of failure is that you never need spotters. Obviously when someone is new it doesn’t hurt to have spotters on certain lifts, but once someone lifts for 5, 10, 20+ years…they know exactly when to stop.

I found your site through your “Cheat Your Way Thin” ebook…thanks for putting out such a tremendous source of free info and not just tying to sell hard. I like visiting sites like yours with great content on a regular basis.

Cheers,

Rusty

As I wrote in part I – for me failure means being unable to complete the set in proper form. So I def agree with you here buddy!

Cheers,

Yavor

When talking about fast twitch vs slow twitch and 10 sets of 3 vs 3 sets of 10 wouldn’t explosive lifting be using more momentum and less actual muscle force than slow controled reps? I always was told that slow controlled reps were the way to go, is this wrong or wrong some of the time??

Hey Joel I was wondering..when you do high rep training till failure its cause of the Lactic Acid build up rite?..I heard that it boosts metabolism like crazy..so would that be a good idea to burn fat?..I tried that in my last workout and just this morning I feel so lean!..would you advice this for fat loss?..I did sweat like crazy at the end it..so it should yield good results if I stick with it for a month don’t you think?..what’re you comments on this?..

Thanks Joel. Yes, after 20+ years of training, I have found that I don’t recover very fast with really intense heavy workouts, so I have to cycle them with lighter weights and slower tempo; however, I do train close to failure on every set. Close means under control and sometimes that means 2 reps before failure since I have no spotter. If I am in the mood, I do half-reps with the heavy days to bust past plateaus.

Hey Joel,

I agree totally with stopping the set short of failure, especially on big power moves like benches, squats, deadlifts, rows, overhead presses, etc. Sometimes I’ll push it a little more with smaller exercises for arms, calves, etc. but they are not nearly as draining on the CNS as the big moves.

all the best,
Lee

Joel,
You say “If you will be unable to complete the next repetition in near perfect form, terminate the set.” I agree with that when working with high reps (15 and above). But when using low reps (8 or less), I either stop when I can’t do another correct rep, and increase the number of sets OR I ‘cheat’, using body-movement or a training partner, to get the weight comfortably past the ‘sticking point’, and do 2 or 3 reps more, concentrating on ‘negatives’ to lower the weight in a controlled manner.

@dimitra –

I can totally relate, dimitra! It is unnerving to be noticed now; I feel like I’m under a microscope sometimes. It can actually be sort of humiliating. We’ll both have to get used to the idea that being noticed isn’t an inherently negative thing.

Don’t go to “the gym;” go to “war.” No pain, no gain baby. SPARTANS!!!! WHOO WHOO!!!!!

Thanks for the definition of “Failure”. True Failure is the decay of proper form through the repetition as opposed to not being able to move the weight at all. We all know we can continue lifting with bad form, but that is where injuries begin.

I look forward to reading your next “clues”.

What do you think of the school that decreases the weight or the full scope of the move once failure is met, until failure is again met, to squeeze the last effort out of the muscles?
David

alright.. well how do you intelligently use failure then?