December 4, 2019

Should you train to the point of muscle failure?

Solltest Du bis zum Muskelversagen trainieren?

Imagine a scenario where two identical twins start training together. Their training programs are the same, which also applies to the exercises. They eat the same things, they get the same amount of rest and recovery and basically have the same lifestyle.

Now let's say that one of them puts more effort into their training and goes to muscle failure (or close to muscle failure) more often.

Which of the two do you think would make faster progress? Intuitively, you will probably think that it will be the brother who trains harder. Ultimately, we get out of something what we put into it. In the case of training, more effort would therefore lead to better results.

So how did it get to the point where people ridicule training to muscle failure and call it counterproductive? The fact is that this is a complex issue and there are many different things we need to look at. We can't give simple black or white answers, because they don't exist.

However, we can look at the big picture (both anecdotal and scientific evidence) and come to an accurate and unbiased answer.

By the end of this article, you'll have a much better idea of what training to muscle failure is, what the science suggests, what the benefits of such training are, what some potential drawbacks may be, and how you can use all of this to your advantage.

What is training to muscle failure?

Training to muscle failure is the process of moving a given weight until you can no longer produce enough force to move that weight correctly. In other words, you have reached the point of muscle failure when you have to reduce the range of motion or use momentum to move the weight.

Keep this in mind throughout this article as it will have an impact on everything else we will cover today. In addition, many people have a misconception of what training to muscle failure really means.

The muscle failure you experience at this point is relative to a specific weight. You can no longer move this weight without first giving yourself a break, but you can reduce the weight slightly and continue training. This is a common technique called descending sets.

For example, let's say you're doing bench presses with 130 kilos. You reach the point of muscle failure after the 8th repetition, stand up, remove a pair of weight plates, lie back down and continue the set.

In other words, your muscles are not completely exhausted, but their performance is significantly reduced for a while.

Training to muscle failure: the latest study (and what older studies have found)

Over the last few years, training to muscle failure has attracted more and more attention. We now have several well-designed studies that have looked at this issue and are trying to find a definitive answer.

Before we examine the study situation, it should be emphasized that scientific investigation of training to muscle failure is difficult, as scientists must primarily rely on subjects to provide accurate information. However, a 2017 study highlighted that subjects tend to inaccurately estimate how much effort they put into their training sessions (1).

In this study, subjects were told to choose a weight that was close to their maximum weight for 10 repetitions. Only 35 of the 160 study participants reached the point of muscle failure on the 10th to 12th repetition. All others performed 13+ repetitions before reaching muscle failure.

The first paper on training to muscle failure comes from the Australian Institute of Sport (2). The subjects were 26 elite male soccer and basketball players between the ages of 16 and 18. All subjects had at least six months of training experience with weights. The study participants were divided into two groups for a bench press test:

Group 1 performed 4 sets of 6 repetitions to muscle failure
Group 1 performed 8 sets of 3 repetitions, but not to muscle failure

Both groups trained bench presses three times a week for 6 weeks. After these 6 weeks, the scientists tested both groups and found that the group that had trained to muscle failure had built up to 5% more strength and speed than the group that had not trained to muscle failure.

The second study comes from the University of Tsukuba in Japan (3). In this study, the scientists investigated the effects of metabolic stress on hormones and muscle adaptations. However, this study also provided some insight into the influence of training to muscle failure.

The scientists had the subjects perform three exercises:

Lat pulldown
Shoulder press
Bilateral knee extensions.

They divided the 26 men into two groups:

Group 1 performed 3 to 5 sets of 10 repetitions (to muscle failure) on each exercise and paused for one minute between sets, which corresponded to a typical standard training program.
Group 2 performed the same amount of training volume, but paused for 30 seconds in the middle of each set to relieve some of the metabolic fatigue. Thanks to these short breaks, the subjects in this group never reached the point of muscle failure.

So both groups performed the same number of repetitions and sets, but group 1 was able to build more muscle and more isometric strength, saw significant increases in their maximum weight for a repetition and increased their muscle endurance more.

Finally, a 2016 paper set out to use the existing data to give us a definitive answer on training to muscle failure (4). The scientists felt that training to muscle failure is not necessary for beginners, but seems to have benefits for more advanced exercisers.

This idea is quite plausible as beginners can indeed make significant progress with relatively light training as they are not used to the demands and stresses of training. As we become more advanced, new muscle growth occurs more slowly and we have to push the limits further and further to continue to make progress.

Here is a quote from this paper:

On the other hand, repetitions to muscle failure in low-intensity resistance training appear to be essential for increases in muscle strength and mass of similar magnitude to those in high-intensity resistance training. When it comes to trained individuals, the data shows greater gains in muscle strength with high-intensity resistance training performed to muscle failure than with training not performed to muscle failure.

Is training to muscle failure good for muscle hypertrophy?

How does muscle growth occur? Do we politely ask for it? Do we wish for it to happen? Do we stumble around the gym half-heartedly to stimulate new growth?

Or do we ask for it?

Intuitively, we all know that muscle growth requires effort. We can't expect to just go through the motions and make good progress.

Your body doesn't care about your desire to bench press 120 kilos or build rock hard abs for the beach. It only cares about one thing - keeping you alive. And he will do everything in his power to achieve this.

The fact is that if you want to achieve positive changes (be it more muscle or more strength), you have to force your body to do so. Your training must be demanding enough to disrupt homeostasis and send your body the signal that there is an external stressor.

If you can achieve this over and over again, then you will slowly build more muscle. But what role does muscle failure play in this?

Training to muscle failure is an eloquent way of forcing your body to improve and adapt. When you push yourself to near your limits, you recruit the greatest number of muscle fibers and cause more muscle damage and more metabolic stress. If the weight is heavy enough, you also put more mechanical stress on your muscles.

All of these factors are crucial for muscle growth.

On the other hand, if you don't challenge yourself during training, your body will see no reason to adapt and improve. In other words, if you always train within your limits, your body will be better able to cope with stress, which means it won't have to devote resources to building new muscle.

And as we have seen in the studies reviewed above, these logical conclusions are in line with what the scientific literature shows us - more effort and training to (or close to) muscle failure resulted in more muscle growth (3, 4).

Is training to muscle failure good for strength gains?

Similar to muscle growth, we need to challenge ourselves if we want to build strength. In this context, we should take the time to look at training to muscle failure and its relationship to strength gains on multiple fronts.

The benefits
The potential dangers

Before we look at the benefits, here's a quick primer:

Strength gains can occur independently of muscle growth. This is known as neuromuscular adaptation and is also the reason why some people can move enormous weights with relatively little muscle mass.

However, at a certain point we have exhausted our neuromuscular capacity and need to build more muscle if we want to get stronger. This is one of the reasons that heavier powerlifters and weightlifters tend to be stronger too.

We have already seen that training to muscle failure is beneficial for muscle growth. And if we consider that larger muscles also have greater strength potential, then we can speculate that training to muscle failure will also lead to greater strength gains over time.

The second factor for strength gains - neuromuscular adaptations - also appears to be directly influenced by training to muscle failure. The greater the shock and the closer we get to muscle failure, the stronger the stress response will be.

If you look at most strength programs, you will notice that they use different methods of training to muscle failure. Two notable examples include performing sets with as many repetitions as possible (AMRAP, or "as many reps as possible") and overreaching blocks.

It's also important to emphasize a potential danger - especially when we try to abuse a workout to the point of muscle failure - the issue of technique.

Multi-joint exercises such as squats, bench presses and deadlifts are very demanding when it comes to proper technique. There are a lot of moving parts and you need to pay careful attention to each of them if you want to perform these exercises safely and effectively.

Training to muscle failure will exhaust different muscle groups, which can lead to a decline in technique and an attempt to overcompensate. Of course, this is not set in stone. You need to be aware of the potential danger and avoid it at all costs.

Typical examples include rounding your back too much on deadlifts, lifting your glutes on bench presses and performing squats as modified good mornings when your legs get tired.

A 2014 study investigated the effects of fatigue from high repetition training on the biomechanics of squats (5). The researchers found that the subjects began to lean forward more due to fatigue, increasing the risk of injury.

So if your goal is purely strength gains and you're not doing too much hypertrophy training, then using training to muscle failure is a good idea. However, you should also perform lighter and less demanding workouts where you use less weight, perform fewer repetitions and focus on correct technique.

Benefits of training to muscle failure vs. volume training

Over the last few years I have learned that there is a bell curve relationship between volume and muscle growth. In other words, this means that the number of sets we perform in each training session directly correlates with the progress we make. More work means better results.

Of course, there comes a point of diminishing returns at which more work no longer leads to better results, but instead increases the risk of overtraining. This was demonstrated in a study using modified German Volume Training (6).

In this study, subjects were divided into two groups that performed either 10 sets of 10 repetitions or five sets of 10 repetitions of basic exercises. Both groups followed a split program three days per week. The scientists found that the subjects did not experience better results in terms of gains in strength or muscle mass when doing more than 5 sets. In fact, the exact opposite was the case:

To maximize the effects of hypertrophic training, 4 to 6 sets per exercise are recommended, as gains will plateau at the upper end of this range and may even regress due to overtraining.

In a recent study, scientists divided 37 volunteers into four groups who performed 5, 10, 15 or 20 weekly sets per muscle group (7). All subjects showed significant improvements in their maximum strength for 10 repetitions, as well as in their muscle gains after 12 and 24 weeks. The lower volume groups (5 and 10 sets) built significantly more strength over the course of the study.

So we can see that more is not always better. And we have also seen the effects and benefits of training to muscle failure. Putting more effort into your training set after set seems to deliver better results (3, 4).

There are many reasons why this is the case, but two possible explanations at this point are focus and energy management. More work leads to more exhaustion. Over time, as exhaustion builds up, we can't recover well enough and regress instead of progress.

It is quite possible that less work but more effort leads to superior results. The scientific data definitely supports this.

In addition, we need to focus on fewer things (in our case, exercises), which allows us to get better at those things. Instead of doing 5 or 6 back exercises and not really making significant progress on any of them, doing fewer exercises will free up more energy and focus that you can use on those exercises to master your technique and ultimately get better results.

Training to muscle failure also takes significantly less time than volume training. Instead of spending 60 to 90 minutes in the gym, you can do fewer but more intense sets in half the time.

Should you do every set to muscle failure?

So far, it looks like training to muscle failure is the best option. With the amazing benefits it has to offer and the important role it plays in gains in strength and muscle mass, one would assume that we should train to muscle failure as often as possible.

However, as with many other things, too much of a good thing can be harmful. Just as is the case with training volume (where too much volume leads to overtraining), the same applies to training to muscle failure. Yes, it is beneficial and has been shown to lead to better progress, but at the same time it is also a tool that should be used with caution.

Here are four reasons not to perform every set to muscle failure:

The ATP problem

Remember that your goal is to stimulate your muscles through training - not destroy them. If you continually push your muscles to their limits, the latter will happen.

First, there's the issue of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the body's primary energy currency. ATP molecules allow us to perform physical tasks - running, lifting weights, etc.

In the case of a demanding workout with weights, the ATP reserves of our muscles are usually sufficient for less than 30 seconds - depending on how heavy the weights are.

A moderately demanding set depletes more than half of the muscle's ATP reserves and it takes several minutes for this ATP to be resynthesized. If, on the other hand, you perform a set to the point of muscle failure, you completely exhaust your muscle ATP reserves. It then takes even longer for the ATP reserves to be fully replenished.

In one study, scientists found that sets performed to muscle failure deplete our muscle ATP reserves and speculated that the ATP deficit contributes to exhaustion (which sounds logical) (8).

The problem of muscle protein depletion and the onset of overtraining

We have long known that muscle and strength gains come from a carefully balanced training stimulus - neither too little nor too much.

Performing sets to muscle failure helps us to generate a sufficiently strong stimulus. But if we go all out and go to muscle failure all the time, we risk causing too much damage, increase the rate of muscle protein breakdown and reach a state of overtraining.

Some research supports this (9). Here is a quote from this study:

When incorporated into an exercise program, training to muscle failure should be used sparingly to limit the risk of injury and overtraining.

Research has also found that constant training to muscle failure reduces the rate of muscle protein synthesis - a critical factor in the growth and development of muscle mass (8). In addition to muscle damage, another possible reason for this may be the rapid depletion of glycogen reserves (10).

Accumulated depletion can lead to a decline in technique and increase the risk of overtraining

As we mentioned above, fatigue affects the biomechanics of different exercises (5). This is due to the fact that different muscle groups involved in an exercise fatigue at different rates. And as soon as one muscle is too fatigued, other muscles have to take over and compensate for the loss of strength.

In the case of squats, overly fatigued quadriceps will force the posterior chain of muscles to become more active and compensate, resulting in the aforementioned good morning squats. This can lead to poor technique, which can dramatically increase the risk of injury.

In other cases, such exhaustion means a reduction in range of motion (e.g. quarter squats), which defeats the purpose of the workout. At such a point, you are training nothing but your ego.

A set to muscle failure here and there is excellent. But if you do several of these in a row, the accumulated fatigue - especially with multi-joint exercises - will ruin your technique.

It's very demanding on the mind and nervous system

Training to muscle failure on each set may look great at first, and you may well be able to keep it up for a while if you're still motivated and energized. But after a few training sessions, you'll probably be so exhausted that you'll dread the next exercise.

Pushing yourself to the absolute limit can work for a while, but sadly it's not a good long-term strategy.

The bottom line on training to muscle failure

Its simplicity hides its complexity. Yes, it's not difficult to perform each set to muscle failure, but we should also keep in mind the potential downsides - diminishing technique and overtraining if we overdo it with training to muscle failure.

Like most other techniques, training to failure should be viewed as a tool that can be used strategically to make better progress in the gym. Training to muscle failure can also save time by eliminating the need for high volume.

However, like most other techniques, it should not be abused as the many benefits can quickly turn into potential risks that can include overtraining and injury.

As scientific research has shown us, training to muscle failure works amazingly well and many studies have been able to replicate these results. Set after set, those who put more effort into their training achieved better results.

We can also argue that if you never train to muscle failure, you probably won't be able to provide your body with sufficient stimulus to progress.

So train hard, but train smart.

References:

Source: https://pumpsomeiron.com/should-you-train-to-failure/

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