May '24 • Exercises & Pain Reduction
Why Training to Failure May Be Holding You Back
I was triggered to write this based on a combination of two things, one - just watching someone in the gym, and two - listening to a podcast about how people go through the same old routine in the gym when they aren't making progress.
So let's talk about why you aren't making progress and growing bigger and stronger despite seemingly training so hard.
Going to failure from time to time is good and we primarily want to do it on one or maybe two exercises in a given session. But I see people training to failure early on in their workout and taking all their sets to failure.
Here's why that doesn't work.
#1. The majority of us want to have muscular failure, not neurological failure. That's going to force more muscle growth which is what we are looking for whether you are trying to gain muscle and size or lose weight (you still want more muscle to make that body recomposition).
When you push yourself to failure early in your workout and multiple times you cook your nervous system and it becomes your limiting factor instead of the muscle. Most people work out to build muscle, but if your brain and nerves are constantly overworked, it won't be able to effectively tell your muscles to work. To get the most out of your workouts, it's better to stop a few reps short of failure. This way, your muscles can still work hard without your nervous system getting too wiped out too soon.
#2. Of course, I managed to bring this back to my wheelhouse... pain and dysfunctional movement. Our body want to survive more than anything and if you put it under load and tell it to lift, it's going to lift. This is a great feature by the way! But it will also find any means necessary to make that happen, and that is when we see form break down, you want to train your body to have good movement patterns to be your strongest and most resilient self. When form breaks down we also often stop targeting the right muscle and let other ones come in and take over. By stopping a few reps before failure, you can keep your form in check and make sure you're working out safely and effectively.
#3. Training to failure also leads to higher levels of overall fatigue, both during and after your workout. This increased fatigue can make it harder to recover between workouts, slowing down your progress. If you are trying to lose weight this is particularly problematic because you cook your nervous system at the gym and end up being lazier the rest of the day, which turns into burning fewer calories than expected. Plus, constantly pushing to failure increases your risk of injury. When you're overly tired, your muscles and joints are more vulnerable to strains and other injuries. It's better to leave 1-5 reps in the tank to make sure you're training hard enough to grow muscle but not so hard that you're risking your health.
So what should you do instead?
It all comes down to a fancy term called progressive overload. This means gradually increasing the weight, reps, or intensity of your exercises over time to keep challenging your muscles and promoting growth. But you don't need to go to failure to achieve this. To maximize muscle growth you actually want to be training with 1-5 reps left in the tank, you can still progressively overload your muscles without the negative side effects of constantly pushing to failure. This approach allows for steady, sustainable progress and better overall results in muscle growth while reducing injury risk.
In summary, for the best muscle growth and to stay safe, try to avoid training to failure in every set. Save it for 1 or 2 sets every 2-8 weeks, primarily to see where you are at to help base future training off your max. Remember that training to failure should be defined as when your good form breaks, not when you physically cannot lift it anymore. Focus on keeping good form, managing your fatigue, and progressively overloading your muscles without pushing them to their absolute limit every time.
How often do you push exercises to failure
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Other (daily, yearly, never???) Comment below!
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Why Training to Failure May Be Holding You Back
skool.com/peak-health-pain-free-living-2613
A group dedicated to eliminating pain using my science-based EQ² Pain Program so that you can return to living without the limitations of pain.
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