Thread: Training to failure

Luke are you bulking or cutting or what. To me 12 reps goes to the Quads. Most everything else I try to keep my rep range in the 4-8 bracket for almost everything.

I believe you last set you take to failure when using that method.
I use as heavy weight as I can handle for 4-8 reps on bench. So chest days I do 3-4 sets with a weight I can only get 4 reps with. Another day I might lower the weight some and do the same amount of sets for 8 reps.
If you take every set to failure, I believe it would look like this unless you rest period between sets is a great amount of time.
8, 4, 2, 1 and 0. I don't think this would help anyone.
I pick a weight and stick to it. I might get 8 reps, 8 reps, 8 reps, 6 reps, 5 reps. It depends on the amount of time i take between sets. If I only get 5 reps on the last set, it was to failure.
But I feel more comfortable getting 5 sets with the same weight for all the reps that I began with. So I'd rather lower the weight a little and do that. The main thing is to add more weight the next time you bench

What the fuck did i just say?

all you need is one set of 8-10 reps every 48 hours. if you can get 10 go up 5 pounds. this a great way to put a full body together get huge all over 6 times as fast as doing it on group a week if you are in the gym longer than 50 minutes your wasting your time you body is out of juice when come to size. Do your legs first.

If you go to true, and complete, failure, then you should be using very low volume. Unless your central nervous system has super human recovery abilities, you will eventually throw yourself into a state of overtraining and/or stagnation by training with high volume and intensity.

Originally Posted by slider

all you need is one set of 8-10 reps every 48 hours. if you can get 10 go up 5 pounds. this a great way to put a full body together get huge all over 6 times as fast as doing it on group a week if you are in the gym longer than 50 minutes your wasting your time you body is out of juice when come to size. Do your legs first.

Sorry, I don't think my question was clear enough. What I am trying to figure out is:

Say I can bench 250 lbs 10 times. I can just barely get 10 reps and if I try to do rep number 11, I can't get it up. So when I work out, should I do 10 reps for each set (going to failure) or should I do fewer reps like 8 or 9?

Thanks,
Luke

If you go until failure every set then you should use low volume. It doesn't really matter which way you do it. I prefer going until failure.

Originally Posted by CowPimp

If you go to true, and complete, failure, then you should be using very low volume. Unless your central nervous system has super human recovery abilities, you will eventually throw yourself into a state of overtraining and/or stagnation by training with high volume and intensity.

Preach the gospel. Very few people can actually handle true failure training and it is really kind of dumb to do so when it's not necessary for most people IMO. Even those who say they do HIT often aren't training to true failure.

Originally Posted by ihateschoolmt

If you go until failure every set then you should use low volume. It doesn't really matter which way you do it. I prefer going until failure.

exactly, what he said. btw, what are you trying to do? cutting or bulking?

I am bulking. I have also always lifted to failure. The reason for my confusion is because it doesn't make sense to me why anyone would NOT lift to failure - why do 8 reps if you can do 10? It just seems like so many people advocate not lifting to failure because lifting to failure stresses your CNS - and I have had problems with overtraining in the past, so I'm considering not lifting to failure and seeing what happens.

as stated earlier, training to failure is okay as long as volume is kept in check. i usually do cumulative fatigue work where i will go higher volume and try and hit failure on my last set if even. i usually stop my set when i know that i'm not getting my next one.

you also have to take into account that there are different levels of failure. the one that i stated could be considered failure since you know you won't get another rep, then you can attempt the next rep but stop as soon as you get the message, you can also keep pushing till your blue in the face and you can even do stuff like forced reps/rest pause/forced negatives etc. so each of those will stress your CNS that much more. i know it took me longer to recover from a set of 20 rep breathing squats to failure than 4 sets of 8 not to failure squats with like 2-3 min RI.

there really isn't one proper way to train as long as you don't do anything completely stupid you can get away with a lot of stuff that people preach as overtraining or what not by manipulating the variables of training.

When I train for bulk....I simply put on a weight that I can lift between 4-6 times (if less than 4 take weight off...more then 6 add). I never train more than 45mins and I always rest between sets (probably not as long as I should)...to force myself to rest between super sets I will go hit the water fountain. If it takes you more than 45mins to train you are either talking too much or not training hard enough. As far as training to failure, I consider that lifting until you NEED a spot....when you partner actually HAS to touch the weights...that is how I was trained. If your goal is 10 and you can get it...do it. If you goal is 8 and you can do 10...that means you need to add more weight...I hope that answers your question.

Originally Posted by luke77

I am bulking. I have also always lifted to failure. The reason for my confusion is because it doesn't make sense to me why anyone would NOT lift to failure - why do 8 reps if you can do 10? It just seems like so many people advocate not lifting to failure because lifting to failure stresses your CNS - and I have had problems with overtraining in the past, so I'm considering not lifting to failure and seeing what happens.

I agree with you - why bother training if you're not training to failure? All exercise stresses your CNS. The only issue with your CNS is when you don't rest for long enough. That's why you should always have days of complete rest and not train muscles when they haven't fully recovered from the previous workout. I always try to space my workouts so that I am fully recovered and don't stick to scheduled days for this very reason - but almost everyone here always seem to disagree with me on this.

Oh yeah - i forgot to say that when people say rep-ranges they mean that when they can get over the rep range they increase the weight. They don't literally mean they stop at 6 reps if they can do more.