I’ve always been a little confused about training to failure and could use someone else’s opinion.
First off from what I’ve read it seems that when you train to failure it’s your nervous system that is failing. But does it have any effect on your muscles aside from the few extra reps you perform, which could just as easily be included in another set. Personally, I don’t like training to failure all the time but on the other hand it’s really cool to push yourself, and sometimes you go way beyond your expectations and you realise that you weren’t 2 reps shy of failure but closer to 5.
Second, when you train to failure with higher reps it’s not the same as low reps is it? It’s not hitting the nervous system as hard and the muscle feels most of the strain. Therefore I’m thinking I could go to failure with higher reps with less negative effects.
Thirdly, I’m interested in the effects of training to failure on all sets, just the last sets of an exercise, or just training to failure every third week followed by a recovery week.
Fourth, when I was reading Atomic Dog TC was mentioning not training hard enough and it just got me wonderin what he’s doing. I guess I’m just like a lot of people I really like training and sometimes you don’t feel anything unless your hurting.
The subject of training to failure comes up on a regular basis. The current stand of the “experts” is to avoid it at all costs.
What they fail to realize is that everyones nervous system is different. What might burn one person out might help someone else. Therefore, I tend to disagree with many on this as I have used “training to failure” throughout my lifting career and had great results. However, like any powerful technique it should not be over used. I train to failure probably once per week on the final set of each movement.
I don’t think doing 200 32 times then failing would have the same effect as attempting 400 and getting crushed.
I would suggest failing regularly, but judiciously. From a bodybuilding standpoint, I would aim to have your sets end at the last rep that you can perform. This way you might guess wrong and fail occasionally, but you will generally push yourself enough.
For strength training, if you don’t fail occasionally, you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough (IMO). I only fail on a couple of sets a week, though (and my goal is strength). I have noticed, however, that as lifters get better/stronger, they tend to not fail as much. There are many reasons for that, but it’s something to keep in mind.
I think people make this way more complicated than it is. When you finish your last set, your last rep should be to the point that you could not complete another rep regardless of how hard you try. that doesn’t mean you sit there and hold the Olympic bar until it crushes you to death. It means if that last rep requires all of your strength just to re-rack the weight, that is the goal. True failure would mean you lift until you drop the weight.
As far as lifting light weights for many reps, you are not reaching failure, you are reaching fatigue. There is a large difference between the two. Your goal is to “fatigue” the muscles by doing multiple sets of different exercises. Your goal is also to reach near-failure on progressive sets past warm up. If you aren’t lifting heavy, don’t expect to grow much. If you aren’t straining at all to move the weight, don’t expect much progress.
concur with the above posts-it all depends on how you define “failure”. I think the basic objective of training is “progression” and “overload”, that is subjecting your body to something new that the body has not experienced before. This can be accomplished by adding weight, adding reps, adding workload, adding negatives, adding forced reps, making the biomechanics of the exercise more difficult, reducing the rest between sets, etc. Remember-whatever you can measure, you can improve. I do find that about 90% of the time-I need to aim for what I term “positive failure” with all of the basic/compound movements, that is where another positive rep would not be possible.
This is a very good question?
Some say that training to failure is absolutely necessary do to the fact that you must achieve maximum voluntary contractions to stimulate a positive metabolic or neural response. Others: Ed Coan comes to mine; say that they never train to failure and get great results. One of the biggest arguments for not training to failure is that in doing so you are teaching your body to fail. So it is hard to determine who is right. What even makes it more confusing is the fact that it is not always clear as to what type of failure is being talked about (concentric, eccentric, isometric). I think that Ian Kings approach is one of the best, week 1 of a program avoid failure, week 2 go right to the point of failure, week 3 go beyond concentric failure with some forced reps. Hope this helps.
It’s true that you can get bogged down with thinking too much about a topic. That’s why I particulary liked the last couple of Dan John articles.
To get through the distraction I try to rely on my training log and if my weights are going up I know I’m doing something right.
Currently my aims with weightlifting are twofold first I want to get stronger in a weightclass for NHB. On the other hand I lovvvve rugby. I want to put on as much size as I can so I can run people over.
I currently I use mini circuits where which include power cleans, chins, 1 leg squat, dips, etc… where I can only get about five reps with a few in the hole so I can get a lot reps done in total.
I had a few more thoughts on training to failure, but dang it’s slipped my mind.
[quote]RMD wrote:
Thanx for all the great responses!!
It’s true that you can get bogged down with thinking too much about a topic. That’s why I particulary liked the last couple of Dan John articles.
To get through the distraction I try to rely on my training log and if my weights are going up I know I’m doing something right.
Currently my aims with weightlifting are twofold first I want to get stronger in a weightclass for NHB. On the other hand I lovvvve rugby. I want to put on as much size as I can so I can run people over.
I currently I use mini circuits where which include power cleans, chins, 1 leg squat, dips, etc… where I can only get about five reps with a few in the hole so I can get a lot reps done in total.
I had a few more thoughts on training to failure, but dang it’s slipped my mind.[/quote]
I think RMD has the right idea, watch your training log, if it’s working keep doing it, if not, change something.
when i first started lifting for about 3 years i trained to failure on every set i done. i done alot of sets too.
now i use 2 rep methods advanced gvt etc and never train to failure.
but in those first few years training to failure benefited me with the same gains as i have with any other programe the only difference is DOMS i hate DOMS and now i get similar if not better results without havinng DOMS the days after.
EG: ny bench went from 55kg at 145lb bw to 108kg at 160lbs bw in my first year training to failure.
deadlift from 140kg to 220kg in my firs year of doing that kept same bw and trained to failure every set using no lower than 4 reps.