Training to Failure

This post is going to address the topic of going to complete muscular failure during resistance training. This means, lifting a weight repetitively until you cannot lift any further- in some exercises this means you may have a spotter help you as you fail on the last rep. Going to failure is a fantastic tool but I see so many people in the gym doing this EVERY workout. This is detrimental to your gains- strength and hypertrophy.

The second negative with training to failure is risk of injury. As you push for that last rep, proper form technique can go out the window putting stress on certain muscles/ joints. You also need a spotter with some exercises e.g. the bench press to make sure you do not get stuck under the bar. One exercise I recommend never going to failure on is the Deadlift. Good form is essential and you can injure your back easily by rounding the lower back.

If you fancy a read, here are 5 studies that prove that strength and hypertrophy gains are higher with multiple sets short of failure compared with one set to failure. One point I would like to make is that in the last study it shows that FAILURE TRAINING PERFORMED TOO FREQUENTLY CAN RESULT IN REDUCTIONS IN THE RESTING CONCENTRATION OF TESTOSTERONE. Overtraining also leads to strength loss, poor sleep quality, low energy, low sex drive. Studies conclusively show that going to failure works the CNS (central nervous system) more than the muscles itself so when you keep going to failure you risk burnout (overtraining). If you really need to push to beat that personal best to step up to the next level and beat that last workout then yes it should be used sparingly.

1- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17530977
2- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20300012
3- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18841079
4- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20617335 
5- http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/

Someone who is new to lifting can make incredible progress at the start by going to failure but it is not a long term program, you are setting yourself to hit a wall and potentially begin to get weaker and weaker. What I recommend is training to failure every 6 weeks, slowly build up your strength stopping just short of failure and by about week 6 you should be struggling to keep pushing for heavier weights. This is when you should utilise failure training and push for the new PR for a couple of workouts. Then deload for a week, and repeat.



BYE! 

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