Should you train to failure?

If you spend any time in the gym or in bodybuilding forums, you have probably come across a number of terms which were initially unfamiliar to you. Often people will throw around these terms casually without really knowing what they mean.

Instead of just throwing around such terms to sound impressive in the gym, shouldn’t you take a moment to truly understand them? Because it’s discussed so often, let’s take a moment to understand the concept of training to failure.

What exactly is training to failure? If you’ve heard this term but weren’t sure exactly what it meant, don’t be embarrassed. There are probably a lot of other new trainees who are confused by this, especially since many tend to use these bodybuilding terms in different ways with different meanings.

The concept is actually pretty simple, but many people make it more complicated than it really is. If you train to failure, you perform a certain exercise on a particular muscle group until that muscle cannot handle it anymore. The muscle is exhausted and fails to lift anymore. It cannot perform another repetition (at least not immediately) on its own.

Expert fitness trainer Vincent Delmonte tells us that training to momentary failure is important, but training to absolute failure is dangerous (or at least unnecessary).

Training to momentary failure means that you do a certain number of reps unto you cannot lift anymore with that particular muscle, and then you move on to another muscle after a certain amount of rest. Absolute failure means that you train until your entire body is completely wiped out from exhaustion.

Working out in this way not only puts a heavy stress on your muscles, but your entire body will feel the effects. Remember that your nervous system, for example, is also feeling the impact and can actually take longer to recover.

I know you’re probably eager to make progress as quickly as possible, but taking the time to learn a few things can go a long way in the future. Learn to take care of your body, and learn when to rest your muscles.