Go till failure?

[Jonnyg419]

I change my rep scheme pretty often and I usually only go to failure every other week. I only work my muscle groups once a week, since I am on my first cycle and I feel myself recovering quicker, is it okay to go till failure every week, and more often per workout? I really want to force some good growth ans I am willing to go balls to the wall at the gym, but I just don't want to over train. What can you guys say from experience?

[Times Roman]

the urge to go "balls to the wall at the gym" is very very tempting while on cycle. muscularly, it seems very doable. but here's the problem. if you haven't been in the gym seriously and very intensly for 3 or 4 years, you probably don't have the tendon/ligament strength to support the continuous intensity you describe. You can get away with it for awhile, but there is a real risk for injury. it's happened to me three times in as many years, and each time rehab is up to 6 months. ffor me, one of the goals is injury prevention, which means not to push the failure thing too hard, even though it is very tempting.

[Jonnyg419]

Thanks man, very true. I have been training seriously for 3 years, but every now and then when I try and go heavy or perform one rep maxes, I do get joint pain. The fear of injury has caused me to lean toward the high volume approach to bodybuilding. But goddamn it is tempting to really test my limits haha.

[Times Roman]

i was feeling strong about 8 weeks ago, so began one arm seated concentration curls in the 80lb range. muscularly, i can handle it. but my connective tissue struggles, and if I persist, i pay the penalty.

[Jonnyg419]

i hear you man, i will stick with what has been working. I have been getting great results doing the progressive training that I have been doing, If it aint broke don't fix it.

[auswest]

I change my rep scheme pretty often and I usually only go to failure every other week. I only work my muscle groups once a week, since I am on my first cycle and I feel myself recovering quicker, is it okay to go till failure every week, and more often per workout? I really want to force some good growth ans I am willing to go balls to the wall at the gym, but I just don't want to over train. What can you guys say from experience?

You should be going to failure on every exercise, I hit failure every set the first couple being lighter higher rep to failure getting a feel, and the ill load it up for the next couple of sets hitting failure around 6-8 and then depending on the exercise drop set it.
Why would you not go to failure those last couple of reps is what sets those who make progress and those who don't apart. That's where muscle is built so to speak. Failure or nothing for me and I don't have problems with recovery on or off doing so.

[HawaiianPride.]

Your recovery capacity will drastically improve. It's fine to increase your volume a bit if you'd like. Pay attention to your body language for signs of work overload. I go to failure on my last working set of nearly every exercise excluding FST-7 sets, and some super sets depending on the movements involved.

[HawaiianPride.]

You should be going to failure on every exercise, I hit failure every set the first couple being lighter higher rep to failure getting a feel, and the ill load it up for the next couple of sets hitting failure around 6-8 and then depending on the exercise drop set it.
Why would you not go to failure those last couple of reps is what sets those who make progress and those who don't apart. That's where muscle is built so to speak. Failure or nothing for me and I don't have problems with recovery on or off doing so.

Picking a number and stopping there and going to failure are two separate things. When it's said to "go to failure" or another term is "burnout" this generally means you pump out as many reps in a set as you can without stopping until you hit a natural failure point and your body completely gives out. Most people do this on the very last set of your exercise to really get that blood in there as a finisher. With that said, going to failure/burning out on every set of every exercise of your workout would sure as hell exceed anyone's natural recovery capacity, risk injury, be counter-productive, and is just plain wrong IMO. I think you might be confused on what the OP and myself mean by "going to failure" and simply completing a set in which you hit 10-12 solid reps with manageable weight while stopping with enough energy to probably bang out a few more reps while saving energy for your next set and ultimately finishing the exercise. If everyone went to failure or burned out on every set of all movements like you do, it would probably be extremely hard to even get 4 decent sets in with weight enough to properly hit hypertrophy and actually gain muscle vs just getting an extreme pump and not properly taxing and stressing that muscle tissue/fascia. This is why sometimes you'll see many training templates saying for example:
Bench Press:
Warm up set-145lbs for 20 reps
1st set - 225lbs for 10 reps
2nd set - 235lbs for 8-10 reps
3rd set - 245lbs for 8 reps or to failure (as many as you can do)"
See what I'm saying? Of course you want to push yourself on every set, but push yourself on each set to a safe limit and provide yourself with enough energy to get yourself to the next set, and on your last set as a finisher, bang that shit out until you can't even lift your arms!