To Failure or Not To Failure...

[B.Reel]

i have heard a bunch opinions on training to faiure. personally, i train almost every set to failure with my best form (usually 6-10 reps and 4-6 exercises for smaller muscles, about 10 sets for back/legs. i have made decent gains, but have slowed recently and actually lost strength on bench, my size has stayed the same.

might i be overtraining? ...keeping in mind the low volume.

 

[blackbeard]

if you are truly training to failure you shouldnt be able to lift any more weight

if your growth has slowed why not change up your routien and try something different?

 

[Behemoth]

I wouldn't train to failure very often... it's good once in a while, but not every session. That will burn out your CNS.

 

[pretty ricky]

i would take blackbeard's advice and change up your routine.maybe go from your high volume stuff to a low volume workout.

 

[t3project]

yea, change of routine should do it !!!

 

[B.Reel]

even when i switch my routine and go to higher reps (8-12). do i take those sets to failure?

alot of peops get better results from stopping one rep shy of failure. i'd like to hear from someone who has tried both and what they thought...

 

[pretty ricky]

go to the do deadlifts thicken your waist sticky and look on page 6 i think.there is a basic low volume pl routine that works real well.it's high intensity so you might have to change somethings up but it does work great!

 

[pullinbig]

nothing wrong with training lite for a couple of weeks.

 

[bigwill1970]

Your over training, you should only take one or two sets to failure. Try upping your reps and lowering the pounds once a month. You should see an improvement. You need to let the muscle heal

 

[Behemoth]

It's not so much letting the muscle recover as it is the central nervous system that needs to heal. You aren't letting it recover enough if you go to failure that often, and that can directly effect your strength... since as we all know, your neural coordination plays a very important role in strength.

 

[pullinbig]

i go to failure quite often. not every workout but i normally push it to failure or near failure. however i listen to my body and if im worn down ill haver a light day/week thrown in to recover.

 

[walls]

I was training to failure on everything I lifted for around 4 months and had some really good gains... I have had to stop training to failure as I have lost strength, feel low on energy, came out in cold sores, felt generaly low in the gym, loss of apetite, the list goes on... The main pisser is looking at some of the gains I have actually lost...
I'm now trying to get back the losses, which is hard when you've been used to training to failure, but not as hard as loosing your hard earned etc...

Incidentally, the main loss is biceps, probs about 1/2 inch has came off the size....

 

[Behemoth]

I don't want to sound like I'm totally anti-failure. It's important to push yourself regularly, because it does have some positive effects on the nervous system. You just have to realize that going to failure six days a week on every set will burn you out fast. I prefer maybe one day a week, or even one day every two weeks, only on certain lifts though unless I have some assistance.
Neural efficiency is just as imporant as muscle size, so unless you just want to be huge, it's something to seriously consider in your training.

Of course there are some people who can train to failure much more often, due to genetics or whatever. If you're one of them, congratulations.

 

[mister69]

i always go to failure, but i listen to my body and usually screw around with some light stuff for 10 days-2 weeks then I come back nice and healed and always stronger.

I know when my body needs a break, it seems that around 8+ weeks of failure stuff my joints hurt and my strength gains come to a hault so i usually just do some light stuff. But durrin this light stuf my calories stay the same and i am still spending lots of time with the fork and knife.

 

[pullinbig]

i always go to failure, but i listen to my body and usually screw around with some light stuff for 10 days-2 weeks then I come back nice and healed and always stronger.

I know when my body needs a break, it seems that around 8+ weeks of failure stuff my joints hurt and my strength gains come to a hault so i usually just do some light stuff. But durrin this light stuf my calories stay the same and i am still spending lots of time with the fork and knife.

sounds very familair.

 

[B.Reel]

All great stuff bros, Thanx. the common denomenator seems to be listening to your body and knowing when to back off. for the next 3 weeks i'm gonna lighten up a bit and concentrate on my form. then follow it with a heavy cycle and see how i feel

 

[pullinbig]

All great stuff bros, Thanx. the common denomenator seems to be listening to your body and knowing when to back off. for the next 3 weeks i'm gonna lighten up a bit and concentrate on my form. then follow it with a heavy cycle and see how i feel

everyone responds differently. find what works for you and got for it. you gotta remebr too a lot of the advice you get on here is from guys who cant bench 225 and dont squat or pull deads. so take it for what its worth. read the training logs in the jouranl section of the some of the stronger guys for solid training tips.

 

[walls]

you gotta remebr too a lot of the advice you get on here is from guys who cant bench 225

Guess that's me then :whistle

Weight is irrelevant to me, it's the effort I try to push...

 

[pretty ricky]

dude that is the most idiotic thing i have ever heard!weight is irrelevent?you one of those i dont care about being stronger i just want to be big.that is retarded you might want to rewind and start over!

 

[pullinbig]

Guess that's me then :whistle

Weight is irrelevant to me, it's the effort I try to push...

you missed the point. you want training advise from a 155 bencher or a 600 bencher? you want advice from someone who just started lifting 6 months ago or someone who been in the gym for years and yars?

btw ther weight on the bar is how we guage our progress. you think i bench 675 and dead lift 750 with a lack of effort? =0l