By far the best muscle-building method.

The new science of training to muscle failure

Where do the gains come from?

Quick quiz question: Which is better for building muscle mass?

1. Performing technically correct, explosive repetitions of the big basic exercises without forcing repetitions, thereby maximizing strength production and improving both intermuscular and intramuscular coordination. Or...

2. Training to muscle failure with moderate weights.
   
   

Well, choice number 1 has always been the cornerstone of my training philosophy. Why? Because explosive, technically correct repetitions of the big basic exercises stimulate maximum strength development. And an increase in strength is essential for building muscle mass. But I was forced to rethink my position.

When it comes to training to muscle failure, I always thought we should avoid it. But now it's clear that maximizing muscle growth without training to muscle failure might be impossible.

The trigger for muscle growth

A recent study has found that when it comes to hypertrophy (muscle growth), weight doesn't really matter if you go to muscle failure. The same amount of muscle growth and protein synthesis occurred with 3 sets to muscle failure at 30% of maximum weight and 3 sets to muscle failure at 80% of maximum weight.

What does this mean? Training to muscle failure leads to maximum recruitment of muscle fibers regardless of training weight.

Shocked? I was. It's not so much the value of training to muscle failure that surprised me, but rather the fact that when it comes to stimulating hypertrophy, reaching muscle failure could be the main trigger for growth. Not the weight moved or the explosiveness used, but the muscle failure itself.

The science

Here's a closer look at the study:

1. Three sets to muscle failure with 30% of 1RM weight resulted in the same hypertrophy gains as 3 sets to muscle failure with 80% of 1RM weight. This suggests that the weight used is not the main factor in stimulating muscle growth. If it was, then the 80% group would have achieved greater gains.
2. Three sets to muscle failure with 80% of 1RM weight resulted in twice as large gains as one set to muscle failure with 80% of 1RM weight. This seems to indicate that volume is important for hypertrophy. But the fact that three sets at 30% of 1RM weight resulted in the same gains as three sets at 80% of 1RM weight shows that volume itself is not the main reason for hypertrophy.
3. The exercisers who trained to muscle failure with only 30% of the 1RM weight were obviously able to perform many more repetitions per set than the exercisers who trained to muscle failure with 80% of the 1RM weight, and yet both groups showed the same hypertrophy response. Thus, the volume or number of repetitions per set cannot be the reason for the hypertrophy stimulation.

The true trigger of muscle growth

Reaching muscle failure - and not the accumulation of muscle fatigue - appears to be the trigger for growth. So you can't simply do more work to achieve more growth if you never reach the point where you trigger maximal hypertrophy. This means that reaching muscle failure on a set is likely the trigger for optimal growth and protein synthesis.

In the study, reaching three "muscle failure triggers" caused more hypertrophy than just one "muscle failure trigger". And as long as these triggers were present, hypertrophy was the same regardless of the weight used. So if you're training for gains in muscle mass, weight doesn't really matter. And it follows that the burden of increasing the weight in each training session or performing more repetitions to achieve hypertrophy is no longer present as long as you reach muscle failure.

If you are a dedicated strength athlete, then you probably won't want to train at 30% of your 1RM weight. You will either get bored or fall asleep before you reach muscle failure. But being able to choose how heavy you want the weight to be gives you more freedom. If you are performing an exercise primarily to build muscle mass, then you can choose the weight that allows you to feel your muscles working best. You will find an ideal point at which a weight feels just right.

Sure, you can move more weight (sometimes a lot more), but even though you're using more weight, you won't feel it as much in the target muscles, which means you won't feel the same contraction quality. And even if you use a weight that is too light, you won't feel the contractions as well.

Now that we don't have to be fixated on increasing the weight from session to session, we can simply focus on achieving muscle failure with the weight that feels best in the muscle. Even if it takes several training sessions to increase the weight, it doesn't matter as long as you reach muscle failure. Simply increase the weight when it no longer feels right for the muscle.

Muscle failure and not exhaustion

To make sure we're talking about the same thing, let's first define muscle failure: Reaching a point where you try to move a weight up after performing a certain amount of mechanical work (repetitions), but fail to do so despite trying very hard.

It seems that reaching muscle failure is the main stimulus for growth. Something happens when you try to move a weight (that you were only able to move up several times seconds before) that sends a signal to the body that it needs to adapt. The inability to perform a task that you were able to perform seconds before is the trigger.

Now don't ignore the value of mechanical work. What would happen if we took this idea to the extreme? Let's say you use a weight that you can barely move upwards. After the first repetition, you try to do a second and reach the point of muscle failure halfway through. Sure, you reach muscle failure, but it's doubtful that this approach will stimulate maximum hypertrophy. So even though muscle failure is the main trigger for muscle growth, a sufficient amount of mechanical work must be performed on a set before reaching muscle failure to stimulate the best results.

So what is the best weight for muscle gains?

The study compared 30% of 1RM weight to 80% of 1RM weight and concluded that the same amount of hypertrophy occurred when muscle failure was reached. So is there a specific weight you should use or does weight even matter?

First of all, you should not think that using more than 80% of the 1RM weight will help you achieve better results in terms of hypertrophy. In fact, using too heavy a weight will lead to less muscle growth when using the muscle failure model. If you use too much weight, then muscle failure will not be preceded by enough mechanical work (repetitions) to maximally activate protein synthesis.

I also doubt that light weights in the 30% to 50% of 1RM range would be optimal for normal, healthy strength athletes. However, these weights could be a viable way for injured athletes to still train. Healthy, experienced athletes, on the other hand, might find it difficult to get the most out of a weight in the 30% to 50% of 1RM range because the repetitions won't feel right. You won't achieve the same muscle tension as with slightly heavier weights, although in theory at least this doesn't matter as long as you reach muscle failure.

But if the first part of a set doesn't give you feedback quickly enough in the form of a feeling of tension, then it's easy to lose focus. As a result, you may find yourself simply going through the repetitions instead of achieving the same quality muscle contractions throughout the set. This reduces the efficiency of each repetition and the likelihood of achieving true muscle failure. You will achieve psychological muscle failure instead.

For most people, the 60 to 80% range would be optimal when training for hypertrophy using the muscle failure model. This would mean about 8 to 15 repetitions before reaching muscle failure.

And as long as you stay in that zone and reach muscle failure, the hypertrophy results will be the same. So you don't have to find the perfect percentage and you don't have to increase the weight every training session. You could even use 80% of the 1RM weight on the first session, 65% of the 1RM weight on the second, 75% of the 1RM weight on the third, etc. and still achieve maximum muscle growth each time.

The most important factor in choosing the weight is to choose a weight that makes the muscle tension feel right from the first repetition. Heavy enough to feel a lot of muscle tension, but not so heavy that you lose tension in the major muscle groups because you are compensating with other muscles or shifting tension to the connective tissue.

What about strength?

Training to muscle failure with moderate weights can build strength. Even the Westside powerlifters use the repetition method with sets of 12, 25 and even 50 reps per set for some exercises. They wouldn't do this if it didn't do anything for their strength.

If you train to muscle failure with lighter weights, you can increase the strength of the muscles you train, but if you want to be strong in certain exercises, it is essential to train these exercises with heavy weights as well. Moving heavy weights is not only about muscle strength, but also about neural efficiency.

Even if training to muscle failure during the set will recruit the most muscle fibers, this does not mean that intramuscular coordination (better cooperation of muscle fibers to develop maximal strength), pulse frequency rate and rate of activation will be optimal to perform an exercise with maximal or near-maximal weight.

Being able to produce force with a muscle is a general physical quality, but being able to use that capacity to produce a heavy force output is a skill. This must be trained.

The problems with training to muscle failure

1 - It is draining.

Training to muscle failure can be too demanding for large multi-joint exercises. Is it really a good idea to go to muscle failure on squats, deadlifts, standing shoulder presses or power deadlifts?

The total load of performing a set of one of these exercises will be very high for the body. Now imagine three sets, which seems to be the optimal number of sets! The metabolic demands could be enough to ruin your capacity to train hard during the rest of the session and could also affect the amount of training frequency you can use during a week.

2 - It must be performed in isolation

The methods aimed at the nervous system (heavier, more explosive training) and the methods aimed at stimulating muscle growth (training to muscle failure) should not be used at the same time on the same exercise. Training to muscle failure is best used with isolation exercises or exercises on machines, which are much less demanding on the nervous system.

3 - It is not optimal with multi-joint exercises

The big multi-joint exercises are not the best option for training to muscle failure because you will rarely - if ever - reach muscle failure in any of the muscles involved. It's not about not being able to do another repetition of an exercise. It's about not being able to contract a muscle hard enough to continue the set. But people tend to see muscle failure as an inability to continue the movement - the "keep going until you can't do another repetition" muscle failure. They focus on doing as many reps as possible instead of focusing on causing true muscle failure.

What's the difference? Two things: First, you can compensate by adjusting your posture during the set so that you use other muscle groups when the target muscle starts to get tired. You think you are stimulating the muscle more by doing more repetitions, but in reality you are stimulating the target muscle less by allowing other muscles to do the work.

Secondly, you are using the minimum amount of effort for each repetition to be able to perform more repetitions, rather than trying to contract the muscle as hard as possible with each repetition. On the contrary, you should be more proud of being able to achieve muscle failure with fewer repetitions - this means you are doing a better job of contracting the muscle to produce more tension with each repetition.

If we go back to our multi-joint exercises, going to muscle failure doesn't mean you've reached contractile muscle failure. You've just reached the point where you can't perform any more repetitions.

In reality, it is likely that no muscle involved in the multi-joint exercise has reached contractile failure. Instead, it is the ensemble of muscles involved that can no longer produce enough total force to perform another complete repetition. Fatigue is spread across many muscles - it is not just the target muscle that reaches failure. Multi-joint exercises are better for heavier training - practicing producing force against a high resistance, which should be part of any training program.

4 - It's easy to fake muscle failure

There is also a possibility that you are fooling yourself and therefore unable to achieve muscle failure. We've all fooled ourselves when we've "induced" muscle failure, even when it would have been possible to go a little further. And some simply cannot tolerate the uncomfortable feeling of training to muscle failure. If you're using a system based on training to muscle failure and you can't actually achieve it, then you won't get the benefits of that program.

5 - You can't use high volume

Training to muscle failure is much more demanding than stopping just before reaching muscle failure. Thus, you cannot perform the same amount of volume as you would using a regular bodybuilding program where you stop each set just before reaching muscle failure.

Three sets seem to be best for one exercise. A total of six sets for one muscle group might be all a muscle can handle. In most cases, this might even be too much or at least unnecessary - assuming, of course, that you achieve true contractile muscle failure. For this reason, it's easy to overdo it with the amount of work performed and limit your positive adaptations.

What about extending a set?

If muscle failure is the trigger for maximum muscle growth, then it's tempting to perform a set beyond the point of muscle failure. This means that if you reach muscle failure on an exercise, use a method such as descending sets or rest-pause that allows you to continue the set so that you can reach a second or even third muscle failure in the same set.

Would this cause even more muscle growth? Perhaps, but the trigger is reaching muscle failure and not accumulating more and more fatigue. So doing more work during a set doesn't seem to help stimulate more growth, but reaching muscle failure multiple times during a set could make that set more effective.

On the other hand, extended sets are much more demanding than regular sets. If you do something like this during every set during the training session, then you have a good chance of doing more harm than good.

Extended sets are very effective - but only if they are used in the last set of an exercise and not in every training session. And you certainly shouldn't use advanced sets to compensate for not reaching the point of muscle failure. It's much more important to work on your capacity to reach contractile muscle failure than to do more work on advanced sets.

Final reminders

Training heavy with the big basic multi-joint exercises is still important for anyone looking to build both strength and muscle mass. There is no doubt that exercises performed to muscle failure are a valuable extension of hypertrophy training. It is quite possible that optimal muscle growth is not possible without muscle failure. Remember, however, that if you include both types of training in your program, you should not perform them at the same time. They are separate tools that should be used to complement each other.

References

1. Cameron J. Mitchell et al. J Appl Physiol 2012;113:71-7

By Christian Thibaudeau | 11/18/16

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/single-best-muscle-building-method