Does Training To Failure Help Increase Muscle Mass?
Training to failure has long been a much
debated subject amongst fitness professionals. Many experts
tell you that if you really want to increase muscle mass you
have to go to failure on each and every set you do while
others will warn you to avoid training to failure at all
costs. At different points in my career I have been on both
sides of this fence as I am continually experimenting with
more efficient ways of getting bigger and stronger.
Years ago I recommended that everyone go
to failure on a regular basis if their goal was to rapidly
increase muscle mass. I knew that hard work and high intensity
were needed to bring about dramatic improvements in size and
strength. This worked out incredibly well when I was training
all of my clients with low volume workouts. Eventually I got
away from low volume and started experimenting with a slightly
higher approach for various reasons. The problem, however, is
that you can’t train with high volume and high intensity. When
you are doing a large number of sets there is absolutely no way
you can take each of them to failure without severely burning
yourself out.
After realizing this I immediately started advising all of my
clients against going to failure. I told everyone to stop their
sets with a rep or two left in the tank but not to ever take it
all the way to a point of momentary muscular failure.
This worked fairly well but the fact remains that everyone who
is serious about training, and really wants to increase muscle
mass rapidly loves to train HARD! So what was happening was
people were ignoring my advice and continuing to go to failure
on at least 80-90% of their sets. The honest truth is that I
ALWAYS go to failure, or very close to it, no matter what
volume of training I am using. I don’t know any other way to
train and could never stand to give it less than 100% effort
when I’m in the gym. To me, and everyone I know who lives to
lift heavy weights, that way of training is a lot more fun than
going in and trying to hold back. I don’t want to hold anything
back, I want to lay it all on the table and give it all I
have.
Because of this fact I have steadily lowered my training volume
recommendations over the last few years. Nowadays I rarely ever
advise doing more than 12 sets per workout if your goal is to
increase muscle mass. When you keep your volume this low you
can train as hard as you want and safely go to failure on every
set without ever worrying about frying your CNS or
overtraining. This makes your workouts more fun and more
productive. Not to mention, shorter, for all of you who are
pressed for time.
When I say you can go to failure on every set I mean that the
set should end when you can no longer complete another rep in
good form. I don’t want you to literally fail in the middle of
a rep as this can be potentially dangerous, especially if you
do it on a squat or a bench press when you don’t have a spotter
around. What I want you to do is work as hard as you can but
stop the set after you grind out one last slow, brutal rep that
requires all the effort you can muster without causing yourself
to have a nervous breakdown or having your eyeballs pop out of
your head. At that point the set is over; do not attempt
another rep because that is when you get into overtraining
territory.
That’s all there is to it. Remember, low volume plus high
intensity is the exact formula needed to increase muscle mass
rapidly.
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is
renowned for his ability to help people build muscle as fast as
humanly possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s
Fitness Magazine where he also has his own monthly column
dedicated to muscle building. For more Training to Failure
tips, check out Muscle Gaining
Secrets.
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