If you're aiming solely to get stronger then you don't need to go to failure that often. If you're aiming for size you should go to failure pretty often
Isn't the whole point of lifting basically telling your body >we weren't able to do that last rep. We must rebuild our muscles to be stronger so that next time we can
If you're just doing 3 sets of 10 or whatever, how is that going to build muscle?
Because you don’t need to. You can get a sufficient anabolic response to build muscle without going to failure. >but it takes longer
Not much longer, and I prefer to not beat my body up every day and be fatigued all the time.
I agree, but the issue is "to failure" is an incredibly vague statement. On one extreme, failure could be interpreted as the point where literally every last molecule of ATP in your body is exhausted, your muscle fibers are tearing themselves apart Ghost-in-the-Shell-style, and form has completely broken down and you're snapping up all your shit everywhere, but still grinding it out. On the other extreme, some could interpret failure as being the the moment you have the ever-so-slightest deviation from perfect technique.
Me personally, I'll always go for something and try to get it so long as it feels safe. I'll grind out those gut-wrenching heavy squats, but if my back feels like it's deflating and I start tipping, I'm dumping that shit off because I don't want to herniate my back.
based broscientist. you shouldn't really hit failure outside the end of the mesocycle. you could even deload heavily and train using submaximal loads for months, then retest your RMs to be much higher, granted you increase the overload every workout
>Why would you not train to failure every time?
It feels uncomfortable and exhausting. Can't I get some results (let's say 80% there) if I don't push it that hard?
When you lift to failure you can still lift more.
At which failure is the ultimate failure?
Do you lift until you cannot move?
Or is one failure a success in your mind?
Sure, there's a lot of different ways to train. If you're only aiming for hypertrophy or general strength, then you can just find the style that suits you best and do that. All that matters is providing the body with a novel stimulus that will signal a need for growth, so you can either go to/past failure to get it all at once or accumulate that stimulus with more sets. It's more of a spectrum than a binary.
If you were training for something more sport-specific like american football or olympic lifting, you would benefit from more specific training. But at that point, you likely have a coach who can guide you, or other resources like books and online articles.
You don't need to lift to failure unless you're a novice. The muscle growth they showed in both practice from coaches and research is practically identical between 1-3 reps in reserve with equivalent volume.
What doesn't show up well in research though is fatigue. Most coaches will tell you that lifting to true failure generates a disproportionate amount of fatigue for the same volume. Which is something I'm inclined to agree with because I've experienced it. The happy medium is going to true failure on one or two sets of most of the lifts you can safely go to failure on once every two weeks or so. This is more to test where failure is and see if you need to go up weight if you have more reps in reserve than you thought.
There's simply not enough benefits to lifting to failure routinely to bother with it except in two circumstances. Those would be when you're cutting or otherwise doing reduced volume or minimalist/maintence routines where there's not as much fatigue to worry about but losing intensity would cause your numbers to probably go down. That's where lifting to failure has the most utility and where it will hurt you the least.
To add a practical guideline: >18+ sets a muscle group per week of heavy compounds not including accessories
Don't lift to failure >14-18
Lifting to failure is okay sometimes but not nessisary to make progress >10-14
You shouldn't be more than 2 reps from failure most sets >less than 10
You need to be trying to hit failure when you can and be at most 1 rep away from it for most sets
I'm lifting to succeed, not fail.
as long as you’re not lifting because you’re a failure
If you're aiming solely to get stronger then you don't need to go to failure that often. If you're aiming for size you should go to failure pretty often
Why would you not train to failure every time?
Isn't the whole point of lifting basically telling your body
>we weren't able to do that last rep. We must rebuild our muscles to be stronger so that next time we can
If you're just doing 3 sets of 10 or whatever, how is that going to build muscle?
bump
Because you don’t need to. You can get a sufficient anabolic response to build muscle without going to failure.
>but it takes longer
Not much longer, and I prefer to not beat my body up every day and be fatigued all the time.
I agree, but the issue is "to failure" is an incredibly vague statement. On one extreme, failure could be interpreted as the point where literally every last molecule of ATP in your body is exhausted, your muscle fibers are tearing themselves apart Ghost-in-the-Shell-style, and form has completely broken down and you're snapping up all your shit everywhere, but still grinding it out. On the other extreme, some could interpret failure as being the the moment you have the ever-so-slightest deviation from perfect technique.
Me personally, I'll always go for something and try to get it so long as it feels safe. I'll grind out those gut-wrenching heavy squats, but if my back feels like it's deflating and I start tipping, I'm dumping that shit off because I don't want to herniate my back.
based broscientist. you shouldn't really hit failure outside the end of the mesocycle. you could even deload heavily and train using submaximal loads for months, then retest your RMs to be much higher, granted you increase the overload every workout
>Why would you not train to failure every time?
It feels uncomfortable and exhausting. Can't I get some results (let's say 80% there) if I don't push it that hard?
I only lift to success.
When you lift to failure you can still lift more.
At which failure is the ultimate failure?
Do you lift until you cannot move?
Or is one failure a success in your mind?
Sure, there's a lot of different ways to train. If you're only aiming for hypertrophy or general strength, then you can just find the style that suits you best and do that. All that matters is providing the body with a novel stimulus that will signal a need for growth, so you can either go to/past failure to get it all at once or accumulate that stimulus with more sets. It's more of a spectrum than a binary.
If you were training for something more sport-specific like american football or olympic lifting, you would benefit from more specific training. But at that point, you likely have a coach who can guide you, or other resources like books and online articles.
You don't need to lift to failure unless you're a novice. The muscle growth they showed in both practice from coaches and research is practically identical between 1-3 reps in reserve with equivalent volume.
What doesn't show up well in research though is fatigue. Most coaches will tell you that lifting to true failure generates a disproportionate amount of fatigue for the same volume. Which is something I'm inclined to agree with because I've experienced it. The happy medium is going to true failure on one or two sets of most of the lifts you can safely go to failure on once every two weeks or so. This is more to test where failure is and see if you need to go up weight if you have more reps in reserve than you thought.
There's simply not enough benefits to lifting to failure routinely to bother with it except in two circumstances. Those would be when you're cutting or otherwise doing reduced volume or minimalist/maintence routines where there's not as much fatigue to worry about but losing intensity would cause your numbers to probably go down. That's where lifting to failure has the most utility and where it will hurt you the least.
To add a practical guideline:
>18+ sets a muscle group per week of heavy compounds not including accessories
Don't lift to failure
>14-18
Lifting to failure is okay sometimes but not nessisary to make progress
>10-14
You shouldn't be more than 2 reps from failure most sets
>less than 10
You need to be trying to hit failure when you can and be at most 1 rep away from it for most sets
I don't lift to failure, I fail to lift.
My life is a failure so everything I do is to failure
Sounds like you're on track for some sick gains, bro.
failing at anything lowers T
If you're trying to get stronger and more powerful you explicitly should not be going to failure for most of your sets.
We're gonna make it bros
Yes. To give yourself a break from lifting to failure so you can recuperate from CNS stress caused by lifting to failure.
Lifting to failure every set makes you a dyel bigger