Training to failure builds bigger, stronger muscles right. There are two sides to this tale and neither is wrong. Read the Positives vs. Negative effects of training to failure and make your own mind up.
Positives:
- Muscles require sheer exhaustion to grow back stronger, increase in power, gain strength, and build endurance. By training to failure, the exercise you perform gets harder the longer you carry out the exercise, so when training to failure you perform the same exercise until it is physically impossible to do more. This stresses out the muscles big time. When muscles are stressed, they microscopically tear and, with the right diet and rest, grow back stronger.
- This type of training builds incredible strength and, with mental strength and correct form, the muscles can grow back stronger as well as increase in size.
- Give the muscles a break to prevent injury. Increase the weight during a set and then reduce it to give the muscles a chance to recover.
- Push through the pain. When you feel that you longer are maintaining correct form, do not risk injuries simply reduce the weight until your mental power is back on top form. Positive mantras are useful, especially during various weight-training sets.
- If you have the mindset and muscle power, go for it. It is an effective way of building strength and power in the body.
Negatives:
- It has a high risk of injury because if correct form is not maintained, the body will suffer. When the muscles turn to jelly the body is telling you it has had enough.
- May not be a training style to suit everyone. Each person has a varied pain and fatigue threshold so do not join in if you know your limits are short. Design your own short, sharp workouts instead using a mixture of plyometrics and weight training.
- Studies have established that the best way to increase muscle size and strength is to work on the volumes lifted rather than the intensity of the training. Makes sense, because if you’re already exhausted after the first set than you may have to reduce the weight. If your muscles are already tired and weak, it would be dangerous to try to lift the same weight. It is important to listen to your body.
- Focus on gaining muscle strength and size through a focus on technique rather than competing far too many reps with a high weight that you may struggle to lift. I’m sure you would agree that it is better to perform three brilliant reps rather than five or six sloppy ones.
- During plateau periods, you could use advanced methods like eccentric training, where time and effort goes into lowering a weight before pushing back up explosively. This type of training stresses of the muscles far more than concentric alone would. Eccentric training causes greater damage to the muscles and therefore, with the correct diet and rest, can build stronger muscles. Eccentric training is perfect to do if you have a training partner as you could work on one rep max eccentric contractions.
