Not training to failure?

[Robert Jan]

WTF?
My bench is supposed to be sucking cuz I train to failure on all sets?
I mean I only do 4 sets for chest. not exactly overtraining is it?...

and not training to failure.... what bunk. Where does that leave intensity? where does that leave the whole train hard till you drop thing

what about everybody including huge folk talking about how ******* hard they have to push themselves in the gym.
How no pain = no gain.

not training to failure... i can just vision it:
*does 6 reps on bench*
thinks: "mmm i could probably do another 3 or so, but this should be enough for now"
*racks it*
how gay is that? wheres the sweat and the pain?

this is what Ive been told NOT to do from day 1.

 

[Honey Roasted]

For each exercise (and I usually only do about 2-3 of them for most workouts), I do several warm-up sets first. I gradually progress to the weights used for my final working set, so the final 2-3 sets aren't exactly "warming up". I don't go to failure on any but the last set, meaning my last rep for each set is never forced or partial (so if I do have a spotter, he does NOT touch the bar). Sometimes, I don't even go to failure on the last set of the given exercise if I feel on the border of overtraining.

I used to go to failure on almost every single set except for light warm-ups. Since I've changed my ways, I've been feeling better and recovering better. I save the intensity for the last few sets or for the final set.

Say I'm on the 2nd to final set and fairly close to the weight used for my final set. I might do a predetermined number of reps, and then on my last set I'll use the rest-pause technique. On top of this, I might add static holds, etc. This makes the last set extremely intense. I am only really pushing my CNS on this last set. The real workload is distributed over the mini-sets of the rest-pause set. This works well whenever rest-pausing is a good idea.

A second way is a kind of pyramiding. I'll be on my supposedly "last" and working set, but do a predetermined number of reps. I'll take a good rest, add a little weight, and pump out either the same number of reps or slightly lower. Repeat. The intensity is obviously there. Since on my supposedly "last set" I only did a predetermined number of reps (not going to failure), I didn't really tax my CNS that much on that set. The real workload is distributed over the few working sets I do, increasing greatly as I reach the actual final set. This is done whenever rest-pausing is not a good idea.

You might notice that these two ways are really the same except for the rest-pausing on the first one. It depends on what you want to call working sets or heavy warm-ups. You might say it's a matter of words, but one way of describing it seems to fit better sometimes than the other. Depends on how close in weight those final sets are and how hard they are for you.

I suppose there are other ways of training also where you aren't doing something like doing the bench press for 4 working sets and going to failure on all 4 of those sets.

 

[Robert Jan]

I was always told heaviest sets first is the shit

 

[gettinlarger]

going to failure on EVERY SINGLE SET YOU DO is, well, dumb ...

 

[Needhelp]

Reiner! This is all.

 

[b fold the truth]

what about everybody including huge folk talking about how ******* hard they have to push themselves in the gym.
How no pain = no gain.

not training to failure... i can just vision it:
*does 6 reps on bench*
thinks: "mmm i could probably do another 3 or so, but this should be enough for now"
*racks it*
how gay is that? wheres the sweat and the pain?

Be careful whose toes you step on here...and who you make fun of...and who you call gay...and whose training you call gay.

You are visioning something that is all or nothing. You hear..."don't train to failure" and think that you do only 6 reps of a possible 9 rep set. Not true. A 6 rep set for me is just that...6 reps where I could NOT get 7.

I don't have a spot or even a squat rack to train in...so I manipulate my squatting with other factors: time, rest, tension, accomodating resistance, etc... I do 2-4 sets every week of the log clean and press and never train to failure...yet I still grow in size and strength and have NOT had an injury to my shoulders.

I train with intelligence...

Before you knock how some of the big guys train...think about what you are saying.

B True

 

[JOKER47]

Re: Re: Not training to failure?

A 6 rep set for me is just that...6 reps where I could NOT get 7.
B True

To me, that IS training to failure. I don't have a spotter at home, so for me, that is as far as I CAN go.

If I have lifted to the point I can lift no more, I trained to failure.


Seems like a logical definition to me.

.02,
Joker

 

[ZZuluZ]

Funny how the greatest and most intelligent people on this forum do NOT train to failure.

You, sir, are an idiot. [It had to be said]

-Zulu

 

[JOKER47]

Funny how the greatest and most intelligent people on this forum do NOT train to failure.

You, sir, are an idiot. [It had to be said]

-Zulu

Dayam...Who was that directed to??

 

[needsize]

Some of my sets are to failure, but not all.

For example, is I'm doing my 5x5 routine, all 5 sets have to be on the same weight, so they couldn't all be to failure as I would then have to drop the weight on successive sets. Maybe the last set of 5 is to failure. But then I move on to higher rep exercises, say 8-10 reps, those I will take to failure. The last set of my routine will be to absolute failure, but then I drop some weight, and push way past failure, that way I know I've pushed my muscles as far as they can go.
I hope that made some sense