Lift to fail?

I have been training just under two years, my lifts are okay but not spectacular. Only 300 raw wilks. I have recently been doing 5x5 training and I got to and past failure every workout, and I walk like I got f***** up the ass all the time. I just got a trainer because I've decided to take my lifting seriously and I would like to compete at the international level within 5 years, I am only currently 21. My trainer says that I only really need 2 good sets in a workout, but he said I can do 5x5 and I should be ok, but I am only allowed to go to fail once in 3 weeks on each lift. How do you guys do your workouts? How often do you got to fail?

I go to failure on one or two sets of every exercise. But I am not trying to gain strength, I am shooting for hypertrophy. I figure the only way to know that I have exhausted every fiber is to go to failure. Then, sometimes, I will immediately drop down in weight and go to failure again.

I am interested to know what the strength guys say.

really? nobody here lifts weights?

I've never been a huge proponent of working to complete failure. Now part of that might be due to the fact that 98% of the time I have worked out alone.

I've never seen one study that proved working to complete failure had any advantage over simply pushing yourself to your limit of being able to complete the set and progressively upping the weight.

Progressive weight increase, adequate rest and proper diet.

Work hard, rest often, eat well.

i only ever went to fail when i was peaking for meets