For years, that meant thinking of resistance exercise in absolute terms. A workout wasn’t a success unless I could no longer move my muscles at the end of a session, even if I needed a spotter to save me from being crushed by a barbell (yeah, that happened). 

But, what if I told you that pushing your muscles to the point that they can’t lift a weight isn’t the point? 

Whether you’re trying to add muscle mass, improve a few muscle groups, or are just using resistance training to improve your overall health, the idea of seeking failure is misunderstood and misapplied, and a big reason why many people don’t see amazing results from their workouts.

There’s a big difference between breaking a muscle down so it can grow, and demolishing it to the point that it’s harder to recover. 

Muscle growth is directly connected to muscle fatigue. But, if you want to build stronger muscle fibers or add muscle mass, failure is best used sparingly.

In fact, in most cases, the best approach for both short- and long-term growth is about finding a way to push yourself hard, add reps, sets, and weights, without hitting that point where your muscles stop working. (And that’s separate from injuries, which are much more likely when training to failure.)

To help you understand how hard to push and the right intensity for your workouts, we turned to Jordan Syatt, owner of Syatt Fitness. In this post, he provides 5 different questions that you should consider to help you build a more effective approach to your workouts. -AB

Should You Train to Failure?

By Jordan Syatt

Think back to the first time you ever lifted weights. What did you do?

You probably walked up to a dumbbell rack, picked up the heaviest weight you could hold, and performed some exercise movement — heck, any exercise movement — to the best of your ability. Rep after rep after rep. And you did so until you could no longer move the weight. 

Then you rested, probably until you felt fresh again, and repeated the process. Sometimes, a little naivety and simplicity is a good thing.

But, that simplicity is also why so many people are frustrated by what they do in the gym. Beyond the exercises you perform and the frequency and volume of your workouts, most people don’t know how hard to push on any given set. 

They don’t know how to build muscle. And they don’t know how to build strength. What they do know how to do is perform exercises listed in their training session.

There’s an important distinction. The results you see from your time spent in the gym is a combination of many factors. For muscle growth, it’s a matter of muscular tension, metabolic stress, and muscular damage. There are many ways to manipulate those variables, but most people assume that pushing every set to the last rep where your muscles are aching is what needs to be done.

It’s the reason why “training to failure” is one of the most highly debated topics in the fitness industry and, truth be told, it’s extremely misunderstood.

I’ve spent enough time studying the topic to know that there’s no simple answer. Some people swear that taking every set to failure is the secret to success while others insist it’s a recipe for guaranteed injury and “overtraining.”

The answer, as most things in life, depends entirely on the individual as well as their needs, goals, and preferences.

If you’re going to commit to training sessions, you might as well make sure you’re personalizing those workouts as much as possible. 

So, before you take another set to muscle failure, here’s what you need to consider. 

Question 1: Is Training to Failure Necessary for Muscle Growth?

Research on training to failure is, unfortunately, scarce. Increasing muscle hypertrophy is often necessary for physique competitors and strength athletes to improve performance. Since training to failure “may activate a greater number of motor units” and potentially enhance muscle hypertrophy, training to failure is often warranted among these individuals.[2] 

Willardson et al. is perhaps the highest quality review of the literature pertaining to failure-based training. After examining the data, the authors concluded that training to failure is a valid method to use in order to enhance muscle hypertrophy, facilitate maximal strength gains, and break through plateaus.

However, it’s important to note that Willardson also stated “training to failure should not be performed repeatedly over long periods, due to the high potential for overtraining and overuse injuries. Therefore, the training status and the goals of the lifter should guide the decision-making process on this issue.”

Linnamo et al. found that training to failure resulted in a significantly greater increase in the secretion of growth hormone compared to non-failure based training. While this finding in no way, shape, or form proves that training to failure is better than other methods, it may lend credence to the success so many athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness enthusiasts have had with failure-based training.

There are other studies, but what really what matters is, how does this apply to you?

So let’s start there: You. After all, it’s your goals and training style that will play the biggest role in determining if and when you should push your body to failure. And that decision comes down to asking 5 questions.

Question 2: Are you Breaking the 90-Percent Max Rule?

Training intensity is perhaps the single most important factor in deciding whether or not training to failure is effective or even appropriate. Training intensity refers to the percentage of weight being lifted in relation to an individual’s 1-repetition maximum (1-RM).

In my opinion, training to failure at intensities at, or above 90 percent of your 1-RM should be avoided. 

Training to failure with such heavy weights will do very little (if anything) to enhance muscle hypertrophy and may actually hamper strength gains. If you’re going to hit absolute or complete failure, you don’t want to do it with the maximum amount of weight you can push, press, deadlift, or squat. 

Furthermore, training to failure with near maximal weights will almost inevitably result in a breakdown of technique, drastically increasing the likelihood of injury. Don’t get it twisted: weightlifting is a lifetime activity, but you need to be smart about the risks you take. 

Generally speaking, training to failure should be reserved for training percentages ranging from 50 percent to 85 percent of your 1-rep max. 

While I rarely prescribe training to failure at either of these end-ranges, I believe that they are appropriate guidelines to follow for a majority of intermediate and advanced trainees.

Keep in mind, though, training to failure at 50 percent of your 1-RM can take an inordinate amount of time to complete and may not be well suited for those with time restrictions. On the other hand, 85 percent of your 1-RM is still heavy weight and the use of a spotter is strongly encouraged.

Question 3: How Often Should You Train to Failure? (Check Your Training Age)

There are three major categories signifying the current “level” of a given trainee. I call this “the trainee continuum” and they are: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

An individual’s training status will determine what they need, and therefore someone who is a beginner might require unique methods of training that may substantially differ from someone who is at an intermediate or advanced stage.

For example, beginner trainees must, first and foremost, work on developing proper form and technique in compound movements such as the squat, bench press, deadlift, and chin-up.

Consequently, training beginners to absolute failure would likely do more harm than good as maintaining proper form becomes exceedingly difficult in a fatigued state. 

In other words, if you’re a beginner and haven’t been training for, at least, 2 years consistently, then you’re likely best off not pushing to muscle failure, even when you’re below 90 percent of your 1-RM.

What to do instead? You can try the “reps in reserve” (or RIR) method. RIR is great for beginners and also incredibly effective for advanced lifters. 

Instead of pushing towards complete failure, you want to push to a different level of fatigue. For example, you’ll set a goal rep range (say, 8 reps) and make sure you have 2 reps in reserve (2 RIR). This way, you’re able to work towards a level of intensity that challenges your muscles, but you’re purposely leaving a number of reps in the tank. 

It can take trial-and-error to figure out how many reps you truly have in reserve, but — when you do — it’s a great way to add reps, weight, and more sets, while mastering form, fatigue, and recovery. 

If you’re not a beginner, intermediate and advanced trainees can push to failure more often. If you’re following the 90-percent rule, and sticking between 60 to 85 percent of your 1-rep max, you can train to failure between 2-4 times per week. 

How do you know how often you should push? Glad you asked because that will depend on your goal and the exercises you perform. 

Question 4: What is Your Goal?

An individual’s desired goal will dictate numerous components of their program, not least of which includes whether or not they should train to muscular failure.

Take, for example, the differences between powerlifters and bodybuilders. Powerlifters are focused on maximal strength development (including training their nervous system to handle more weight). Consequently, they train at relatively high intensities of their 1-RM. Additionally, powerlifter’s place a distinct emphasis on full-body, compound movements, which require a great deal of skill to maintain proper form.

In bodybuilding, the goal is muscle growth and, as a result, train at comparatively lower intensities of their 1-RM because strength is not always the answer. What’s more, bodybuilders tend to emphasize smaller, isolation movements designed to target individual body parts, which require less skill to maintain proper technique.

Because of these different approaches and the types of exercises performed, bodybuilders are able to train to failure more frequently than powerlifters. 

It’s important to note, however, that many elite powerlifters also train to failure on a regular basis. In fact, as a world record powerlifter myself, I regularly utilize failure-based training within my programs. That being said, I rarely train to failure in big, compound movements and almost exclusively use intensities between 60 percent to 80 percent of my 1-RM.

Question 5: What Exercises Are You Performing?

The more skill required for a lift, the less frequently it should be performed to failure. Conversely, the less skill required to perform a lift the more acceptable it becomes to train to failure.

Snatches, for example, are arguably the single-most complex lift and training them to failure is dangerous. Simpler multi-joint movements, such as variations of the chin-up, bench press, and lunge, are suitable for failure-based training but should be performed with extreme caution. Same can be said for exercises like squats.

Finally, single-joint exercises, including bicep curls, triceps extensions, and calf raises, are the least complex of movements and are far more appropriate to train to failure.

Question 6: What is Your Mindset?

Failure occurs when an individual is unable to complete another full repetition. This tends to happen due to the onset of fatigue.

Fatigue, however, is a truly subjective term and is nearly impossible to quantify. Based on pain tolerance, willpower, and other psychological factors, what constitutes muscular failure for one individual may only be slight discomfort to someone else. As such, it’s difficult to know whether a given individual is training to true muscular failure or simply cutting the set short.

Furthermore, it’s important to note that while some individuals derive pleasure from training to failure, others do not and attempting to force them may, in fact, deter them from strength training. Understanding the psychology of your clients (or yourself) and how they respond to training is of the utmost importance to long-term program adherence.

While it’d be easy to make a blanket statement about training to failure, ultimately it depends on your answers to the questions above. Failure-based training is a valuable tool in your training arsenal when applied correctly. If it fits your goals, needs, and preferences then use it wisely and with caution

Stop Failing. Start Succeeding

At Born Fitness, we help you make sense of fitness and nutrition information. If you want to create a plan for your life, here’s how you can stop guessing and start living healthier.

READ MORE: 

3 Rules for Building Bigger Arms

Faster Fat Loss: How to Add Workout Finishers

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Works Cited

[1] Aragon, Alan. “Training to Failure.” Alan Aragon Research Review. Alan Aragon, Mar 2009. Web. Web. 9 Mar. 2013.

[2] Schoenfeld, Brad. “The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 24.10 (2010): 2857-2873. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847704>.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Training to Failure: 5 Questions You Need to Answer appeared first on Born Fitness.

In reality there are many (many) other fitness goals, and lots of other reasons to workout and eat healthy foods; but this is what interests—and confuses—most people. While losing the extra pounds can be the most frustrating process, building muscle is harder for most people to understand.

After all, if you go to the gym and lift weights consistently you should pack on slabs of new muscle, right? And yet, most gym goers would respond with a resounding, “NO!” Instead, more people are more familiar with training…and then training some more, and never seeing gains that are quite as good as they want.

Your muscles are greedy, so to keep them happy you must give them what they want: variety.

To dig a little deeper and find the answers to the your muscle gaining struggles, I reached out to Brad Schoenfeld, MS, CSCS, author of The MAX Muscle Plan: Blast Through Training Plateaus for Your Best Body Ever, educator, and trainer. 

Brad literally spends each and every day researching muscle gain, so I asked him to share his thoughts on why so many people struggle to add size. Here are 5 common muscle-building mistakes he’s identified, and the fixes that can help you upgrade your body.

5 Muscle-Building Mistakes (And How To Make Gains)

By Brad Schoenfeld

1) You Always Train in the Same Rep Range

The claim that muscle growth is maximized in a moderate rep range (6-12 reps per set) continues to be a source of debate in the fitness field. Although this theory is backed by some research, evidence on the topic remains far from conclusive. But for arguments sake let’s say that moderate reps are in fact best for gaining size. Does that mean that you should train exclusively in this narrow rep range? The answer is an unqualified, “No!”

Training in a lower rep range (1-5 per set) maximizes strength increases, thereby facilitating your ability to use heavier weights during moderate rep training. In this way, you create greater tension in the muscles, spurring better growth. High reps (15-20 per set), on the other hand, help to increase your lactate threshold.

By delaying the buildup of lactic acid, you stave off fatigue when training in the “hypertrophy range,” (the muscle building range) thus increasing time under tension—another important aspect of the growth process. Bottom line is that optimum muscle development is best achieved by using the full spectrum of rep ranges.

Your fix: Periodize your program so that it is built around a moderate repetition protocol, but you make sure to include training in both the lower and higher rep ranges.

Although a number of different periodization models work, I recommend a modified linear approach beginning with a strength phase (lower reps), followed by a fairly short metabolic phase (high reps) and then culminating with a hypertrophy phase (the typical 6 to 12 range).

Depending on your goals and body, this might mean sticking with a particular rep range for a longer period of time. (Such as not changing every 4 weeks.) When properly implemented, this produces a “supercompensation effect” so that you maximize muscular gains and see a peak at the end of the training cycle.

With time, you might then want to shift to a non-linear approach, where you shift rep ranges more frequently to hit all phases.

2) You Use the Same Exercises Every Day

Most people have a limited number of favorite exercises that are staples in their routine. That’s human nature. While it’s okay to have your old stand-bys, they shouldn’t be performed at the exclusion of other movements.

Changing up your exercise selection has a couple of important benefits from a mass-building standpoint. For one, it helps to prevent the so-called “repeated-bout effect” whereby muscles become accustomed to the continual use of the same movements, making them increasingly resistant to trauma.

Staving off such accommodation allows for greater structural perturbations to muscle fibers. That might sound like a bunch of confusing science to some of you, but what it all means is that changing exercises can facilitate increased growth.

What’s more, muscle fibers don’t necessarily span the entire length of a fiber and are often innervated by different nerve branches. Thus, exercise variety alters recruitment patterns in the musculature, ensuring optimal stimulation of all fibers.

Think of it this way: Some people like blonds, other prefers brunettes, and you have those that love redheads. Your muscles are greedy, so to keep them happy you must give them what they want: variety.

That’s why exercise variety provides your muscles with the variety it literally needs for optimal growth. Even slight variations in the exercises you employ will work the muscles somewhat differently, enhancing results.

Your fix: Employ a diverse selection of exercises over the course of your training cycle. This can be accomplished by switching around modalities, training angles, planes of movement, and even your hand and foot spacing. (For instance, on dumbbell curls, think about holding the handle with your pinky against one end of the bell, and on the next set perform with your thumb against the bell.

That slight shift will work your biceps in different ways.) The possibilities are almost endless if you think outside the box. There is no hard rule as to how frequently exercises should be changed, but a general guideline is to do so at least on a monthly basis.

3) You Over- or Under-Isolate Your Muscles

When it comes to exercise selection, there are two basic camps. On one end of the spectrum are those who preach that the only way to get big is by performing the “big lifts” such as squats, presses, and rows. On the other end of the spectrum are those who claim that key to muscle-building is “isolating” muscles with flys, curls, extensions, and the like. Who’s right?

Both camps!

Realize that this isn’t an either-or debate; the two types of movements are in fact complementary. Multi-joint exercises involve large amounts of muscle and therefore are highly efficient for packing on mass.

Alternatively, single-joint exercises allow for greater targeting of individual muscles (or even portions of muscles), enhancing overall growth and symmetry. Integrating a mix of both types of movements into your routine can have a synergistic effect that improves both muscle size and symmetry.

Your fix: Structure your routine so that it is comprised of a combination of multi- and single-joint exercises. As a general rule, every workout should contain at least one or two “big lifts” and a single-joint move.

Oh, and realize that for all practical purposes you can’t “isolate” muscles. The body is designed so that multiple muscles will always be active during exercise performance. Thus, you can only target a given muscle so that it is more active in a given movement.

4) You Always Follow the Straight and Narrow (Sets)

Typical resistance training routines involve performing “straight” sets where you do a set, rest, perform another set of the same exercise, rest, and then continue in this fashion throughout each exercise in your workout.

There’s nothing “wrong” with the basic approach; straight sets can and perhaps even should form the foundation of your routine. But it’s also good to mix things up a bit with some specialized techniques.

Supersets (performing one exercise followed immediate by another exercise without rest), drop sets (performing a set to muscular failure with a given load and then immediately reducing the load and continuing to train until subsequent failure) and heavy negatives (performing eccentric actions—the lowering of a weight—at a weight greater than concentric 1-repetition maximum) can be excellent additions to a mass-building routine. They help to induce greater metabolic stress and structural perturbations that can take your muscle growth to new heights. These strategies are particularly effective for advanced lifters who need to “shock” their body to spur greater growth.

Your fix: Selectively add specialized techniques such as supersets, drop sets, and heavy negatives into your routine. A word of caution: these techniques should be considered advanced training strategies. Their fatiguing nature increases the risk for overtraining, and it is therefore wise to limit their use to no more than a few microcycles over the course of a periodized program.

5) You Do Too Much Cardio

A goal of many lifters is to increase muscle development while simultaneously reducing body fat levels. In an attempt to accelerate fat loss, cardio is frequently ramped up while performing intense resistance training. Adding some aerobic training a muscle-building routine isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Overdoing it, however, certainly is.

You see, the signaling pathways for resistance training and aerobic training are contradictory. Some researchers have coined the term “AMPK-PKB switch” whereby aerobic training promotes catabolic processes (AMPK is involved in pathways associated with protein breakdown, which for your sake can be considered “muscle wasting”) and resistance training promotes anabolic processes (PKB is involved in pathways associated with protein synthesis, or for you, “muscle gaining”).

While the concept of a “switch” is a bit overly simplistic (most of the evidence points to anabolism and catabolism taking place along a continuum), there is little doubt that concurrent training has the potential to interfere with anabolism and thereby undermine your ability to build muscle. What’s more, adding extensive cardio to an already demanding resistance-training program can hasten the onset of overtraining, which brings muscle growth to crashing halt.

Your fix: If your goal is to maximize muscle, keep cardio at moderate levels. How much is too much? It ultimately depends on the individual, as some can tolerate more than others. A general guideline is to limit steady state cardio to no more than about 3 or 4 weekly bouts lasting 30 to 40 minutes.

Alternatively, 2 to 3 high-intensity interval training workouts a week should be fine for most lifters. Just make sure that you stay in tune with your body and be aware of any signs of overtraining.

You also should be aware that unless you’re a newbie to lifting with a fair amount of weight to lose, it becomes increasingly difficult trying to simultaneously gain lean mass while losing body fat. Once you’ve been training for a number of years, it’s best to focus on one goal or the other.

Looking for Muscle Building Guidance?

If you want help building muscle, losing fat–or both–join me in the Born Fitness online coaching program. You’ll receive professionally designed workouts, have access to me and some of the best strength and nutrition coaches to ask your questions, and receive exclusive access to an exercise library, personalized workouts, and 24/7 support.

Learn More About Born Fitness online coaching.

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The Tension Weightlifting Technique: How to Make Every Exercise More Effective

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Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post 5 Muscle Building Mistakes (And How to Make Gains) appeared first on Born Fitness.