Training to failure is the “heroic” approach to training; the act of pushing yourself so far that your muscles genuinely just give way because they cannot support anymore stress. Sounds great doesn’t it? Shouldn’t you strive to be able to push yourself this far?
A few weeks ago I would have answered “Yes” to that question as it was how I was approaching pull ups. I’d lift myself until my arms wouldn’t lift me anymore and always on that last pull up I’d shake violently, grunt in pain, and I’d walk away from the set feeling pretty damn good about myself. But I soon learned training to failure is not all that it’s cracked up to be after reading through Muscle Gaining Secrets.
While pushing yourself to your limit is exhilarating and places considerable stress on your muscles, it’s an example of short term thinking. Forming the habit of training to failure will:
- Increase your risk of injury
- Make it unnecessarily difficult to complete additional sets and finish your training session
- Create the association between training and unbearable pain
At the same time though, this is not an excuse to start doing low intensity, high rep exercises; we’re not planning on sacrificing effectiveness to an extreme level. What we do want to do is train to near failure.
What is “near failure” training?
It’s exactly what it sounds like. Train until you reach a point near failure. This is quite tricky at first as you have to be mindful of how you’re feeling and sort of guess how many more reps you can do before your muscles give way. Then, with that in mind, you strive to stop your set 1 rep before you hit the “failure point.”
Should you ever train to failure?
Every now and then (perhaps once a week) attempt training to failure. This is a good idea because it gives you a true indication of how far you can take your body, allowing you to set an accurate benchmark when you come back to near failure training. Plus, like I said before, it is exhilarating to push yourself to a new height; it’s just not sustainable.
