Thread: Training to Failure?

Trying to failure is what most of the people here do. It takes less time to do, and you get better results (most people).

Originally Posted by Leatherface

There are alot of schools of thought on this.

What are your thoughts on training to failure for serious growth? Are the HIT guys on to something or is volume training the way to go?

BTW, I am aware there are no definitive answers for this, but I thought it would make a good topic of debate concerning the pros and cons of both

I have always trained to failure on my worksets (7-10 rep range).
However, just recently, I tried a powerlifting routine where you
almost never went to failure.
You were doing worksets in the 1 to 5 rep range.

I felt that I got better muscle growth going to failure.
You came out with a pump, which does not equate to muscle growth
but it feels great, and you were really exhausted.

In the power lifting, I got better strength gains, but I came out
thinking I should have done more. I was not all spent and tired.
I also did not seem to get the same growth.
Although it could also be that it is easier to
grow your muscles at the beginning and harder to continue to
have the same type of gains.

I am going to try a mix of both now.
One heavy day and one failure day and see what that does.

good luck

I don't really know if I train completely to failure. I go to however many I can do, but when I know I can't do another one, I don't attempt to. (Especially when training alone lol) For the last 2 or 3 reps, however, my spotter needs to help me quite alot. So I'd call that training to failure.

I train to failure on most things but If I don't have a spotter I won't. I've gotten the best gains this way.

I do not train to failure.

i rarely train to failure, maybe on my last set of an exercise because i'll be pigheaded and i want to hit the same amount of reps as the other set(s).

there are also different stages of failure that we have to define. there is one where you try and get another rep and as soon as you figure out that its not happening you discontinue your set. there is another where you keep trying to get that last rep out and you push till your blue in the face and/or the bar just comes back down by itself. then there is beyond failure, ie dropsets, forced reps, rest/pause etc.

i don't necessarily say don't train to failure, but you have to realize that you can't be training 15 sets/workout to failure on each set and do that 5 days/week.

robert how far from failure do u train?

ill only train to failiure when cutting since going to failiure has reported higher increase in metabolism as opposed to not doing so most likely as a reuslt of glycogen depletion and mroe extensive repair. This helps with the fat burning etc.

Although when im bulking i find doing less number of sets allows me to keep calories a bit lower than some one else since there is not nearly as many calories burned in the long run. Similarily i dont do much cardio when bulking. Also workouts are shorter

both should work just as well each other i dont see any reason for it not to.