Do you train to failure?

[King Koopa]

That doesn't mean training for failure. Doing the same weight x3 for 8 reps is better than 10, 7, 4. Then going up a weight the next week.

Training to failure constantly gives your workouts a short tail. You give it your all early but lose explosiveness early as a result. Spreading it out allows you to lift more over a longer period of time. And by spreading it out, it's literally 1 or 2 reps max you miss out on, which you get back on the following set. Failure should only come on the last set or two of a particular exercise.

IMO if you are busy/work 40 hours a week or more and train more than 3 times a week, training to failure aint for you.

That's exactly how I feel. I work 9-5 every week day and tend to go to the gym before work 3-4 times a week. Most of the time gym days are back to back and my muscles need some time to recover.

I haven't really trained to failure in a while. Allows me to do more sets/reps. I tend to do it more so with my arms, and that's closer to the end of the workout. And I still get stronger and go up in weight every other week.

 

[RTF]

Yep, i'm also the pre 9-5 gym goer. Training to failure mad me OTT tired and I barely get over 7:30 sleep in the work week more than once. If you are sleeping 9 hours on the regs then by all means go balls to the walls every set. For us guys I think it's 1 way street to feeling tired af.

 

[Jesus]

Slow/pause reps>>>Training to failure with shytty ending reps

 

[Dank Hill]

I never have a spotter so I cant on most of my workouts.

 

[unit321]

For the most part, trianing to failure is something that body builders do. Not all the time. Just once in awhile.
You can do it either in one rep max attempts, use a spotter. Arnold Schwartzenggar dids squats to failure. He passed out in a squat rack.
You can do it in low weight/high rep exercises/ or super set exercises. Try doing cable bar curls. Set the weight at 10 plates, do as many reps. Move the pin down one plate, do as many reps. Continue until you get to the last plate, no pin needed. Max out on the reps you can do. When you are done, you cannot do simple stuff like spin the combination dial on your lock. Lactic acid build up is enormous.

 

[ThiefyPoo]

So yall train to failure on a every work out session

I only do that shyt on saturdays when i work out my whole body and superset till im crawling out the gym.

My usual is

Mon - chest and biceps - 4 sets x 10 reps
Tues - Back and shoulders - 4sets x 10 reps favorite day
Wed - Triceps and legs - 4 sets x 10 reps Now on this day i do go to failure on my last 2 sets but they are supersets so actually add 3 more sets .
Thursday - All cardio
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Whole body no free weight all cables and machines . Super set everything and going to failure .
Sunday - Rest or maybe depending how i feel cardio.

Tomorrow im going to do cardio because i need to hit the stair master then the sauna.


MON-WED all free weights i do this because on saturday i work out my whole body.

I dont need to be wasting time putting weights on and off

 

[andre patton]

I posted this in the random gym thoughts and wanted to know what people thought on this?

:

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GO TO FAILURE TO MAKE GAINS.

In my experience, you actually make better gains when you don't. You leave more gas in your CNS meaning you can lift more weight for more reps across sets.

As soon as you push to failure (as in you give everything for that extra rep win or lose) you lose A LOT of strength for the next set. Where as if you stop 1 or 2 reps before that you'll retain most of your strength. Which means you'll be able to do more reps across your sets.

That's why I like to use the same weight across sets, with the aim of achieving a defined number of reps on the last set. So whether that's a 5x5, 8x8, 3x8 whatever... while your working hard on that first set it's only really the last few sets you might approach failure.

However that means working in 70-90% of your 1 rep max and a lot of people don't like that.

If you lift weights more than x3 I would suggest you don't train to failure often. As soon as I stopped going to failure so often, I stopped picking up injuries and actually made faster gains.


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I hear people say they avoid barbell bench for this reason and it's not valid.


Sidebar: I've failed at the barbell bench with no spot at least 5 times and it aint that bad. Don't put the clips at the end, tilt the bar and let the weights slide off one side. It's not pretty and you might feel some embarrassment but you'll survive. Once you get into it... know your body, you learn to leave that ego at the door and only make an attempt if your certain you can at least put the weight back on the lowest clip.

sounds like you're arguing against going to failure on every single set....which is too much i hope no one does that.

but i go pretty damn close to failure on my last set for every exercise i do.

 

[RTF]

I'm not saying that. Trying to failure is a useful tool, especially towards the back end of your sets but I don't think it should be the rule of thumb.

 

[Slystallion]

repping until failure only is for building size and for the pump...true strength gains come when you don't rep to failure and you stay in the 5-8 rep range and for really heavy stuff 2-3 reps but repping to failure is for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy that blasts water into your muscles and creates the pumped look that is temporary while strength training is harder muscle and called myofibular hypertrophy and is more for creating a hard dense look that doesn't add size

its best to have the right combination of both...so I only rep to failure on the last set on a lower weight to get a nice pump going after strength training

 

[Paisley Darts]

I was about to make a thread asking this question until I did a search and found this thread.

I've always trained to failure, just started not doing it. I'm going to see how things go.

I've also started focusing on the "negative" while lifting weights. I've been doing it for a week with my biceps and I can see gains already.

 

[semtex]

I shoot for 20-30 total reps per exercise depending on the intensity. Get those reps at all costs

 

[Ronnie Lott]

Yup. I always do a drop set on bench press and I burnout