Training to failure

brianthebard

Does anyone know from experience or studies they have read if it is more beneficial to (a) train one's muscles to failure once a week or (b) to train each muscle/group of muscles twice a week at a moderate level both times?

I read an article in Men's Health by a gym owner who studied everyone who went to the gym for about a decade or so, and realised/noticed that those who worked the same muscle more than twice a week did not make any superior gains compared to if they trained it just once or twice a week. Can anyone back me up on this?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Transform

Intensity is more important than going to so called failure - rotate reps, sets exercises every 6-8 weeks.

Those that make the most progress stick to the basics, rotate the basics and have a clean food intake.

Froot

The last weights program I was on involved failing at the 12th rep or each set, for every set.

This was not achieved by just piling on the plates but rather, as transform said, achieved by doing the weights program directly after 45 minutes of cardio and minimising rest periods.

I guess in a nutshell I was aiming to fail due to fatigue rather than the weight just being too heavy for the sake of it.

iregk

Well what a lot of people tend not to think of is muscle recovery. As with all muslce building your tearing fiber that gets rebuilt and hence your muscle gets bigger. This is also the pain you have the following day or two after a good workout. Now when you work a large muscle group such as your chest of your quads the recovery time is greater than that for say your bicep or your tri's. Your chest usually takes 4-5 days to fully recover from an intense workout. This can be sped up by good protein and creatine supps. Usually though if your working out a large muscle group twice a week doing it close together will not give you full benefit as your working muscles that have not yet fully recovered.

I remember watching an interview with Arnie back in the 90's and he was saying he did two workouts a day. A small muscle in the morning and a large one in the evening. He never did the same muslce directly twice in the same week.

brianthebard

Froot wrote:

The last weights program I was on involved failing at the 12th rep or each set, for every set.

This was not achieved by just piling on the plates but rather, as transform said, achieved by doing the weights program directly after 45 minutes of cardio and minimising rest periods.

I guess in a nutshell I was aiming to fail due to fatigue rather than the weight just being too heavy for the sake of it.

I should have made it clearer that I don't pick up the biggest dumbell in the gym and start knocking out 2-3 reps before failing... Like you say I aim to fail at the end of each set...

What I was wondering though is there a noticeable difference between feeling as if you have worked your muscles until they can't do any more, or just moderate lifting on two seperate occaisons during the week? If that makes sense.

Froot

Yes I totally understand.

In my experience doing sets to failure makes the next days workout a lot easier. Failure destroys your muscles and the next time you work out you will notice the difference between working to failure and working moderately two days a week, in my experience.

You really break down your muscle and getting good recovery and nutrition in between workouts can leave you feeling fantastic next time you work out.

I found it much more fun to work out when working to failure as the intensity keeps you fired up and the recovery is all the better because you earned it