training to failure is doing set till u can't complete last rep?

**Alex Rodriguez** · 09-12-2007, 09:31 PM

this might be a stupid question... but i hear a lot of people saying training to failure on every set, is usually bad... but training to failure just means u finish the set until u can't complete any more reps physicially? does this include cheating no? i mean i thought u always lifted until u couldn't complete anymore reps. so if u don't complete lifting the weight till the last rep. it's not training to failure? anyways if this is true, how much are u suppose to complete till u finish the set on average?

btw i am starting a new routine which says u shouldn't try completing to failure on some of the exercises.

**Alex Rodriguez** · 09-12-2007, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by Alex Rodriguez

this might be a stupid question... but i hear a lot of people saying training to failure on every set, is usually bad... but training to failure just means u finish the set until u can't complete any more reps physicially? does this include cheating no? i mean i thought u always lifted until u couldn't complete anymore reps. so if u don't complete lifting the weight till the last rep. it's not training to failure? anyways if this is true, how much are u suppose to complete till u finish the set on average?

btw i am starting a new routine which says u shouldn't try completing to failure on some of the exercises.

one more thing, how many reps do u usually leave out till u complete the set if u do?

**Kstoner6tb** · 09-18-2007, 09:26 AM

Good question...I'm interested to see some responses as I'm not sure

**Ronnie Rowland** · 09-18-2007, 10:29 AM

Powerlifter’s and those who compete in the strongest man/woman competitions have learned the value of preventing injuries and nervous system destruction by not training to all out failure and not using multiple exercises for each body part. Taking less away from the body allows it to recuperate faster, meaning the overcompensation process (where strength and growth occurs) can conclude sooner and with consistency. Using excessive body english to reach absolute muscular failure (the point you can no longer budge a weight), especially with heavy work loads, creates great demand on the tendons, joints, and nervous system.

Your goal as a bodybuilder should be to increase the weight on the bar through Progressive Overload and train with great intensity, not training to the point where someone has to pull the barbell off your chest on the last rep. To achieve such you must have a specific intent of stopping 1 repetition shy of total 100% intensity with each work set! Every now and then you might to slip up and hit absolute gut busting failure (defined as bad failure) but your goal is to push until you can’t get another high quality rep (defined as good failure). Stopping 1 rep shy of absolute gut bursting failure is still considered brutal training.

Let’s pretend you are doing a set of incline bench presses. You lay back on the incline press and crank out one, two, three¸ four, and five reps. You get to rep number 6 and your face begins to show some pain. Those standing around you think you’re finished but you get rep number 7. Surely you are finished they are thinking, but you use sheer will-power to lift the weight to complete number 8 while still avoiding momentary failure. You try for rep number 9 and have to bounce the weight hard off your chest in order to get the barbell up on your own and you just barely make it at that. The set should have been terminated after the completion of rep number 8! Repetition number 8 is what I consider good failure and repetition number 9 is what I call bad failure. Simply said, you continue lifting until you know that if you attempted the get the last rep you couldn’t without severely draining the nervous system and using bad form!

Your goal as a bodybuilder is not to avoid training to failure; it’s to avoid training to the wrong kind of failure. The ideal situation is to reach as close to muscular failure as possible, but in a way that will induce maximum stimulus to the muscle fibers without causing injury or impairing the Central Nervous System. I call this good failure because it is the absolute best way to train for maximum size.

* * I’ve experimented with absolute failure training and was very un-satisfied with the results. After making the switch to stopping a rep shy of absolute gut bursting failure on every work set, everyone’s results, including my own, have been nothing short of miraculous in comparison.* *