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To failure or not?
- Thread starter Eric1987
- Start date
i thought you should hit failure with every lift every time you work out
Thats what I thought too but I see different stuff and I am no expert.
jerrity126
New member
Yeah I've heard that before too and have wondered about this. I think going to failure is best for mass and not going to failure is good for strength, but I'm no expert!
depends..
If you are training for strength.. the time to rest is more important than the lift itself. Failure is just causing damage, if you can't cause damage or "shock" to the muscle then doing a failure set is important to do..
I would suggest that if you are training to failure every time you train, you are not growing in size or strength, nor are you resting or eating enough.. Thats an observation... shocking the CNS is good, endangering ligaments, joints, and tendons in the thought that pain = growth is wrong..
If you are training for strength.. the time to rest is more important than the lift itself. Failure is just causing damage, if you can't cause damage or "shock" to the muscle then doing a failure set is important to do..
I would suggest that if you are training to failure every time you train, you are not growing in size or strength, nor are you resting or eating enough.. Thats an observation... shocking the CNS is good, endangering ligaments, joints, and tendons in the thought that pain = growth is wrong..
Failure and strength training do not go together.
If you continually train to failure your CNS will become fatigued and you will be unable to recruit those motor units responsible for power output. Avoid failure like the plague when training for pure strength imo.
If you continually train to failure your CNS will become fatigued and you will be unable to recruit those motor units responsible for power output. Avoid failure like the plague when training for pure strength imo.
So your 8th rep sholdnt be failure? I thought that was the only way to recruit the muscle fibers that dont get used, going to failure. ??
How about planning your workout to hit failure like once a month or so? The tendency of must of us is going to failure on bench press or stuff like that, but there are only a few who follow that path with squats, nobody wants to fall on his ass even with a decent spotter lol, yet curling till death seems to be a trend and some wonder why the bis don't grow lol.
The truth is that working out to failure constantly, with forced reps too leads to injury, cns breakdown and regression, that's when your body tells you enough it's enough don't put me through it anymore.
The truth is that working out to failure constantly, with forced reps too leads to injury, cns breakdown and regression, that's when your body tells you enough it's enough don't put me through it anymore.
What about doing reps without a spotter but going to failure, so for bench i do 245 x 9, then 275 x 3, then 225 x 11, the last repps are myl ast one but they are not forced reps
djeclipse
New member
Not necessary, the same applies, read KoRiN's post above.
The training to failure is one of the myth's the BB mags gave us in the 80's and 90's.
Train to succeed, not to fail.
djeclipse
New member
Still? Maybe it's time you actually listened and started some proper training with planned progression.
Are you injured? A month off is a long time, a dealod should not take that long at all.
I never go to failure on deadlifts. It's too much weight to attempt to push to the last rep. You can use heavy weight and make progress everyweek. every week I'll either increase reps by 1 for each set at a given weight, or increase weight by 10-20 lbs depending on how much stronger I have gotten. This way, I am always doing more work each week, either through reps or through weight.
I usually go to failure on benching. "Failure", to me, means I couldn't do another rep without help. I could try and have the bar choke me to death if I miss. If that's the case, I just rack the bar. Since I don't lift with a partner, I don't have a spotter. Therefore actual failure is not an option. Unless I am doing a drop set with light weight that I can just rest for a few seconds with the bar on my chest and then lift it up.
I don't lift for strength. Although being strong is a plus, that's not my main focus.
I usually go to failure on benching. "Failure", to me, means I couldn't do another rep without help. I could try and have the bar choke me to death if I miss. If that's the case, I just rack the bar. Since I don't lift with a partner, I don't have a spotter. Therefore actual failure is not an option. Unless I am doing a drop set with light weight that I can just rest for a few seconds with the bar on my chest and then lift it up.
I don't lift for strength. Although being strong is a plus, that's not my main focus.
Well Iv only deadlifted once since the last time I asked about this.
I am doing planned progression with my squats and bench. Deadlifts its just 4 sets ramping up the weight each set and adding 2.5kg to each set every week.
Iv reset my squats and I think next monday Ill start again. Next monday my squats will look like this:
40kg x 5
50kg x 5
62.5kg x 5
75kg x 5
85kg x 5
djeclipse
New member
The same principles applies.
When on "juice" your body is able to recover faster so you are able to add more weight to the bar each week then you would when not on a cycle.
I think a person should be even more focused on recovery when on "juice". Most people jump up in poundages quite significantly and start throwing around weights they previously couldn't. Irrespective of faster recovery, the heavier loads can easily lead to joint, tendon and muscle injuries.
I'm sure some of the most serious injuries are done on juice.
rep ranges build muscle differently. failure at 10 or 12 is much different than failure at 1 or 2. you want dense muscle? youre going to have to go into phases where moving heavy weight for specific reps and sets are necessary. 10 sets of 1 could be leaps more beneficial than 3 sets of 12 or 15, especially on an exercise like the deadlift. working in the 3 to 5 rep range is extremely beneficial.
working to failure with higher rep ranges and multiple sets per exercise is pretty much hypertrophy. your body adapts to training pretty quick. reps about 3 weeks. sets/exercises 4. then you have time under tension which affects muscle growth. doing 1 way all the time doesnt aid progress.
so when you do rep range from 3-5 should the 3rd to 5th rep be the east one you could have done?
bblazer
Banned
Not necessarily. At least from a PLer point of view. But it should be pretty damn close.
A slightly different take might be to judge your effort at when your form goes to shit. Say you are doing 3-5 reps of DLs, and at the 4th rep you start losing form, but you know you can pull one or two more, that may be a good stopping point.
B-
