Should I be training to failure? I keep reading that its better to train just shy of failure and to stop the set when the bar speed slows down to much (like avoid the grinders) any truth to This? I’ve always trained to failure and made great strength gains but I notice I always burn out quickly…basically all my strength gains have been in three big lumps in the three years I’ve been lifting…like I made te newbie gains and then was stuck for a year, added about 100 pounds to my lifts in a matter of 4-6 months then hit a huge plateau…
I’ve done that twice and other than that I haven’t made any strength gains…I don’t make consistant progress is what I’m saying, I make huge strength gains and then plateau…could it be I’m training to failure all the time and burning out my nervous system? Should I train heavy but avoid failure all the time?
It could be but considering you have added 100lbs to all your lifts 2 different times in 2 years I would have to say you found something that works for you. If I could add 100+ to my big 3 in 4-6 months twice I wouldn’t care what I read I found what works for me. If your worried about burning your self run your method until you plateau then back off 6-8 weeks and follow a lower volume periodazation program and recharge then kill it again
I’ve always gone with the model of never going to failure on the main movement. Always leave one, maybe two reps. Supplemental lifts I leave a rep or go till I know I can’t do another rep. Accessory movements, I go till I actually fail half the time.
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
I’ve always gone with the model of never going to failure on the main movement. Always leave one, maybe two reps. Supplemental lifts I leave a rep or go till I know I can’t do another rep. Accessory movements, I go till I actually fail half the time. [/quote]
This!! ^^^
[quote]Reed wrote:
It could be but considering you have added 100lbs to all your lifts 2 different times in 2 years I would have to say you found something that works for you. If I could add 100+ to my big 3 in 4-6 months twice I wouldn’t care what I read I found what works for me. If your worried about burning your self run your method until you plateau then back off 6-8 weeks and follow a lower volume periodazation program and recharge then kill it again[/quote]
well I’m only nineteen and I attributed alot of the strength gains to just growing. I gained 80 pounds over the two years of training as well without training for hypertrophy…but other than that I haven’t made significant progress…at least not on a weekly basis…
[quote]StrengthDawg wrote:
I’ve always gone with the model of never going to failure on the main movement. Always leave one, maybe two reps. Supplemental lifts I leave a rep or go till I know I can’t do another rep. Accessory movements, I go till I actually fail half the time. [/quote]
This!! ^^[1]
x2. Anytime I go through a training cycle where I took too big of jumps or had a lot of fails on my main lifts, my total in a competition reflects it.
That being said, some of the best bench advice I ever got was to do DB work to failure every once in a while. Stuff like establishing 50 rep max’s and doing 3 sets to failure with very heavy DB’s has improved my bench dramatically over the years. This advice came direct from Louie while I was at Westside… for like 4 days. haha.