Written by Team MD
03 April 2019

19training-to-failure

Is Training to Failure Worth It?

Better Muscle Gains Without Overtraining

 

 

Q: I have always heard differing opinions about how many of your sets you should take to failure in your workouts. Some people say that every set should be to failure. Others say only the last set of an exercise, and some even say you should always hold back just a little bit from ever going to total failure. For someone like myself still really in need of a lot more mass, what do you recommend?

 

EVAN CENTOPANI

I know most people want to hear a definitive answer that would apply to everyone, but that’s not realistic since we are all slightly different. Dorian Yates has said that early on in his Mr. Olympia reign, he found that even two sets of an exercise to failure wasn’t optimal, and he saw better gains once he cut it back just one all-out set. The problem with doing just one set of failure is that you really need to make sure you put out 100 percent on that one set, because you won’t get a second chance. I think everyone needs to experiment with that for themselves. Some bodybuilders do take all their sets to failure and see good results that way. Others never go to complete failure, yet they grow that way. So I think it makes sense to give both extremes a try, as well as something in between. It all comes down to recovery. Some people are able to recover faster and more completely, and for them it absolutely would be wise to take more sets to failure. If you can recover that way, you would make better gains by doing more sets to failure versus less, since you would be stimulating more growth in the workout.

 

VICTOR MARTINEZ

I don’t believe in taking all sets to failure at all, and that was something I learned in the three years I did powerlifting when I was younger. Let’s say you’re one-rep max on the bench press is 405. You start warming up with 135, but you can’t go to failure. If you did, you would do 100 reps and be too pimped to go as heavy as possible in the sets that follow. You also need to respect your nervous system. You can’t take everything you do failure, or you will burn out. Good luck making gains if you do that! You’ll be badly overtraining. Taking all sets to failure doesn’t give you the best workout; it takes away from it as far as I’m concerned. I like to do my sets increasing the weight and decreasing the reps— as in 20, 50 and 10-12. Only the last two sets, or maybe only the last one, would be to failure. It’s worked out very well for me over the years.

 

JUAN MOREL

Moderation usually seems to be the best answer to most questions. If you take all your sets to failure, you will fry your nervous system and use up so much energy that you won’t be able to finish your workouts. On the other hand, if you don’t do any sets to failure, your muscles never get the intense stimulation they need to force the growth response. So for me, it depends on how many working sets of an exercise I am doing. If it’s something like squats, where I might be doing five working sets, the last two or three will be all-out. If it’s something I’m only going to do three sets of, the first set will be to a couple of reps shy of failure, and only the very last one is the set I will push 100 percent on. You also have to remember that I believe in training with a higher volume in general, too. I had to hold back on a lot of sets I do or else I would have to cut my workouts short. You have to listen to your own body and use your best judgment.

 

STEVE KUCLO

Going to failure on all of your sets is not the ideal situation, in my opinion. I believe it makes more sense to save going to for failure until the last set or two of an exercise. You only have so much energy to work with at any given workout. If you blow your wad by giving 100 percent on the first work set, where does it leave you on the sets that follow? You’ve heard that you can work hard or you can work long, you can’t do both?

 

I prefer to increase the weight and increase the intensity as the set goes on, so you build up to that final all-out set with the heaviest weight. To me it’s like the concept of warming up, only you apply it to work sets. Make each set progressively more difficult until the last one is definitely the toughest. I disagree with never taking any to sets failure. If you never push past your boundaries, your body will not have any reason to adapt and grow. You do need to hit that new level that you’ve never hit before if you want your body to continue growing. I don’t know any bodybuilder who never takes sets to failure.

 

 

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