3 Tips to estimate your proximity to failure

Most people don't train nearly as close to failure as they think. Here are 3 tips to estimate your proximity to failure more accurately.

[RobertJohnson-ndie]

Loving the Youtube content Menno!

#SteelandScience

[mathish]

Hey Menno, I have a really good trick for making sure you get to failure - say you do four sets of 10 - what you do is change this to 3x10+1x20 (all with the same weight. My idea is that you will psychologically prime yourself to fail around rep ten on set four, so if you expect to do 20 reps on the last set this will help you short-circuit that expectation.

[zka]

4:53 exactly. I never understood how can anyone fail a deadlift above the knees. How do you get stuck there, by what? By far the hardest part is the first ~5cms. If you win that, you can finish the rep most likely.

[Velar]

About sticking point in deadlift: i pull both sumo and conventional and in sumo I fail to lift weight from the floor but in conventional I almost always fail above the knee. So I think in deadlift sticking point is defined by technique and not so much by individual leverages

[wlosspros]

We used to (80s-90s) guide reps by teeth showing X 2-4 additional reps. Worked pretty well. Perhaps you can suggest available options for measuring resistance exercise movement velocity, such as Keiser, or technology for determining velocity of free weight movements?

[Abe_]

Would you say technique failure is also a sign? For example, bent over barbell rows, the back starts to swing. Same goes for bicep curles.

[alessandroraviola]

what do you think about putting on a loop band that can help you pass your sticking point? for example in the hack squat some people put on the loop bands so they can help them get through the grades after the hole which are usually hardest movement grades

[jaybrodi]

Menno is it true steroids users don't need more than 1.6g per kg of protein?

[casimirocoach]

I think it is very important to consider the fact that it is not the same to fail doing a squat compared to failing doing a bicep curl. When you fail in a squat you could fail with your quadriceps, or with your glutes, even with your erectors. When you do a bicep curl, you’re definitely going to fail with your biceps. So, despite having this type of research, I think it’s not always going to be applicable to every single exercise. Watching a squat you could think that maybe there is one repetition in reserve, but for which muscle? Maybe there is 1 in reserve for glutes, but you can not complete that rep upright enough to hit the quads. So could you really say there is 1 rep left in the tank? I’m saying this because sometimes people say “yeah, that set was too easy bro”, but the reality is that you cannot always tell. What do you think? 👌🏼