Training To Failure Is Killing Your Gains

#gregdoucette #trainingtofailure #science

[shahidally]

honestly the first time I saw a greg video and he said train harder than last time, it was and is the best advice about exercising I've ever heard. It really helped me.

[leonardogonzalez]

I'm still gonna train harder than last time 💪

[SamsonBiggz]

If you can do 12 but stop at 10 it's fine. If you can only do 10 but have a spotter and get 2 more that's fine too. Remember it's not the 1 workout that's gonna give you gains. It's being consistent and working out for weeks, months, and years that gives you gains.

[AbelAlbonetti]

Completely agree with Greg! When you see the best train they go to failure!

[thekingtauros]

I think you and Dr. Mike agree on this idea. In the video you were commenting on, he goes on to say exactly what you mentioned.

Beginners can afford to start pretty easy and as you progress, you can start to go to failure more and more often on exercises that won't injure you should you fail.

[MrZoobidibop]

I actually started going to failure on just about all sets but reduced my volume to 2 working sets for most exercises. I can go hard and i recover in time to train my whole body 2x a week. Started doing that at the beginning of this year and I've made considerable improvements from it, really just depends on the person and how they like to train.

[מימוןבןאברהם]

Your motto inspired me to perform harder and therefore the gains came in. Thanks so much for these words Coach Greg!

[greenswamponion]

Powerlifters everywhere crying rn hearing this news

[caitlinpierce]

I always get excited when a video of yours pops up, I get to learn something new. You're fabulous, I don't like when people are mean to you

[leeweilap]

I used to train like I was a newbie for 6 years, after I watched the Greg video train harder than last time go to failure. I gain a lot

[TeamYouphoric]

If you're just looking to lose a bit of fat, build a bit of muscle, or get a bit stronger then you don't need to. If you're trying to be a strong as you possibly can or build as much muscle as you possibly can then you definitely will need to periodically train to failure.

[lazur]

Depends on how motivated you are. Many subjects simply aren't really failing when they think they're failing. If they go 3 reps short, they're TOO short.

[aaronjiang]

Something to keep in mind is that dr mike is also a powerlifter/builder kind of guy. Alot of his videos are about strength training programs. If you see those videos, each block starts off with rpe 7, then builds to an rpe 9-10 in the last few weeks. Usually for strength, going to failure is not worth it because of how taxing it is on the nervous system. However, isolation exercises can be taken to failure more often

[giannil]

It's pretty unfortunate that you didn't dive any deeper into Dr.Mike's training methodology which is in fact more complex and involves much more than "stopping 3 reps shy of failure".
However, that's understandable given the lack of context within Mike's IG post if I recall correctly. So I will try to explain what his method looks like in short.

First week of the mesocycle, you stop at your best guess of 3 reps in reserve, and do however many sets gives you a decent pump and disruption, without affecting the next workout.
As you progress through the mesocycle, you slowly increase reps and weight up until you hit... 0RIR or failure. You also add (or, more rarely, decrease) sets based on the amount of soreness, disruption and pump.

This ensures two things:
You don't start accumulating too much fatigue early on, which allows you to do more volume as the weeks go, which eventually leads to..
The few last weeks of training featuring both very high volume and great proximity to failure!

If you trained to failure every single time, which is totally an option and totally works, you should absolutely lower your volume because it's simply not as sustainable.
Even though, by doing 2 sets to failure during the first week of accumulation may lead to just as many gains as 3 sets to 3RIR would get you, it simply cuts off the possibility of rising volume as much overtime and accessing those next level adaptations you could drive via training ultra close to your max recoverable volume and close to failure during the last few weeks pre deload, because the cumulative fatigue would be much higher if you ever tried to approach such amounts of volume.

This is just a very basic overview of Mike's thought and method, and I'm well aware that MANY folks train to failure all the time and get awesome results, maybe even better! But this is some food for thought and it may be interesting to take everything into consideration instead of making it just a 3RIR vs Failure discussion.

[kfcmusicfitness]

The best part about training, every physique is different, so no cookie cutter approach to it. Time and experience will tell your story. Would be wise to observe, practice and not be confidently ignorant (lack of knowledge on something but confident about it).

[jamesross]

In my opinion, it depends on whether the weight is the same or not. Stopping 3 reps short of the same weight is bullshit. You gotta increase the weight and let your results and recovery time decide on what's best.

[discospeed]

I think it's different for everybody. My first bulk I trained to failure every single set and I made crazy strength gains, but after 2-3 months I had a complete burnout. My muscles were still sore after 5 days off but I still kept going because I could increase the weights every single time. Then after another month, I sometimes took a complete week off and still was sore. Soon after that I got a strain in my chest, my calfes started hurting and I overall felt completely wrecked. I remember my chest still being sore after 2 weeks off, my back & legs after more than a week.
Since I started stopping at 1 or 2 reps before failure my recovery is way faster and the workouts don't kill me. What happens is that you pretty much split up your energy and don't go all in on your first set already.

[Freedomfortruth]

Training harder then last time is really the best advice as long as people do it safely.
Thanks Greg. I've trained for years and years but only properly for the last year or so
. I spend less time in the gym but have had better results then I ever achieved because I used to train wrong

[bostonphil]

Salute to all you veterans 🤙
Thankyou

[guillermopaolini]

Staying away from failure, with high volume, failure will inevitably be reached, giving the same results. And if you don't recover, more food and more rest.