Training To Failure: New Study CHANGES Everything?

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Picturefit on YouTube! I share some of my health and fitness tips with you. Come check out our content! New fitness topics on a weekly basis. Want to learn about more health and fitness topics? Ask it in the comments! Learn all you need to know and what to do at the gym. Learn about aerobics, strength, hypertrophy, power, and endurance!

Any information in these videos should not be taken as personal healthcare advice. If you have questions about your health, please speak directly to your personal healthcare professional. #gains #lifting

[khatdubell]

The biggest problem with not training to failure is that most people probably use it an as excuse to quit way too earlier in a set.
Its a lot easier to ask people to train to failure then it is to ask them to stop short of failure.

[Najahfreeman]

Training to failure is so much easier. I suck at guessing if I have 1, 2 or 3 RIR but I can sure as hell tell when my muscles just won't move anymore. With training to failure i know I trained as hard as i could and I have no regrets

[someguyusa]

I have always trained using either a 5 rep heavy set, 10-12 rep moderate weight set or 20-30 rep lightweight set. Usually on a rotation to keep things fresh, and ample warm-up especially on the heavy sets. Reaching failure was never my goal, only approaching it, then increasing my weight by maybe 5lbs as long as I had been able to complete every set for at least a week straight. Cardio on the off days. Slow and steady progress, no strains, no dropped weights, and no injuries of any kind have ever happened to me in strength training in the 15 years I've been doing it.

These days I'm just maintaining as I am not a professional trying to break records, but I am very strong compared to the average guy. It's important to remember that you cannot make gains forever. There will come a point where you're basically just maintaining and that's normal. Be happy when you find that place because the hard part of building everything is done, and now you can just enjoy your life with your strength as your foundation for other activities. That's the point, right?

Train hard, train consistently, eat enough (especially protein), drink water, and get good sleep. You will make gains and develop a nice body composition over time without injury or even trouble moving the next day if you adopt a marathon mindset and do not ego lift.

[hankshill]

I can confirm, I've been failing my whole life and gained nothing from it.

[plentyguitarplantyfood]

Training for about 8 years now. Starting to go to true (or VERY near) failure only ON MY LAST SET of each exercise fixed almost every problem I ever had during the years. And the gains still come.

[JP-]

I feel like everyone should go until failure every once in a while, just to remind yourself of where you are in your fitness journey and what you're capable of. You need to do something really difficult or come face to face with your limits. Sometimes people need that wake-up call.

[kabanchan]

train to failer but not to tare your tendons or joints

[Zinji]

i barely trained to failure at all in my first 2 years of training, but now i train to failure every set and ive had the most gains with muscle size, strength and my overall fitness in the past year or so, it feels so much more fullfilling as well, i train 6 to 8 sets on every exersise till failure and i keep beating my volume pr's and one rep max pr's like every 2 weeks, i think its best to start not training to failure much as a beginner then to move onto doing it more over time.

[kuriosites]

I think there is a balance between volume, frequency, and intensity. You can't do all of them to a high degree and the optimal balance will likely differ among individuals. I tend to lean toward lower volume and frequency, while taking every set pretty much to failure or beyond. Also, there is likely a psychological component as well so that people lean towards what fits their personality.

[Joe.hench.]

The last 3 reps that you can manage in any set are usually more valuable than all the reps before that

[LucidLivingYT]

The study controlled for volume, which takes away the greatest part of not going all the way to failure, being able to get more volume in with far less fatigue.

[mypastlife]

Always trained pretty close to failure and added in on certain weeks finishing off the day night with some crazy to failure push until you drop exercise. Something truly devious and gruelingly painful. Honestly I always found it was useful more for building mental fortitude then truly being about the muscle training at that moment. And when my group would add in outsiders to train, or teach for a while, I always found the ones who would really start to push their limits at these final bits of training would find more success when they go back to training on their own as what they where training for diverged.

Going to failure takes a certain level of mental toughness to break limits, to defeat the little voice telling you to quit, its too hard or your too tired. I think pushing your self that way is the only way I would think about training to failure.

[taitcarrillo]

It’s way easier to tell someone to do an exercise until they can’t, as opposed to telling them to pick the perfect weight to get 10 reps while keeping 2 in reserve.

Keep it simple, pump out those few extra reps.

[peadarr]

Interesting that you get equal strength gains when not going to failure.
Pretty important if you’re just strength training for another sport where you don’t want gym work to leave you too worn out for your primary activity such as running or climbing

[slydog]

I always train to failure. When that isn't done, it's just a guess as to where your failure point is: it could be 1 or 2 or 5 more reps. When I go to failure I know exactly where that point is. Leaving too many reps in the tank reduces the benefit of resistance training.

[itzdomz]

I always try and take every set to failure, doesn't matter if it's using bodyweight or weights. I just never feel satisfied knowing I could've done more, it makes me feel like I wasted a set whenever I don't take it to failure. I just try and squeeze out as much as I can and if I feel like I'm doing too many reps I just increase the weight of do a harder progression. I've only been lifting a few months but I feel like I've been gaining muscle quicker ever since I stopped stopping at a certain number of reps (for example 3 sets of 10 of push-ups). If you can do more then do more, if you can push yourself then do so. It's definitely a lot better knowing that you've done your best compared to knowing that you could've done more.

[cappluf]

Personal experience: I use to train for quantity instead of quality, what I mean by this is I train for more reps and did around 60-90 push ups a day. 12 was my max for a set so I did multiple sets of 10 or 6 through out the day, my progress was slow and after around 3-4weeks my my max was still around 12-13. I took a break from pushups due to studies and when I decided to come back I still could only do around 11-12. Because I didn't have as much time as before I just did 2 sets until failure, I strived to get 1 more rep after I reached what I know to be as my max, after around 2-3 weeks I can now do a max of 20 push ups consecutively and 25 resting on the top (meaning I rest but still in the push up stance).

[dooderman]

I think the most overlooked factor is recovery time, like you can’t just check the “gains” after 1 session, because that doesn’t account for people who train more often, and you can’t check gains after multiple sessions because what if the recovery time isn’t optimal for each style of training? For example someone who trains once a month, it would no doubt be the most optimal for them to train to failure, but someone training every single day would see zero progress training that way, they would just be too tired, and their muscles won’t have recovered yet. That’s the problem with so many of these studies, there is too many moving parts not being accounted for, I think the science needs to stop trying to push ahead of itself and instead figure out some of the underlying biological reasons some techniques do and don’t work and why, rather than just continuing to do trials and trials and trials with way too many variables that haven’t even been understood yet.

[paulgallagher]

The other important thing about gains is RECOVERY. Eddie Hall did his max lifts for years every 7 days but found he wasn't advancing or getting stronger. He switched to 10 days in between max and instantly saw improvements. Its not just about training the muscles its about HEALING them too!

[ironically_iconic]

I believe how close you train to failure should depend on the individual workout and your own health. I am much less likely to injure myself badly when doing push-ups compared to lifting weights, so I will push myself more with push-ups, I also have anemia so I give myself larger breaks to catch my breath.