Is Training to Failure Necessary For Muscle Growth?
Many people mistakenly believe that consistently training to failure on nearly every set of every exercise is a must if you’re looking to maximize muscle growth, strength gains, and build your best physique.
You would think that’d be the case, wouldn’t you? Push yourself as hard as you can every day, take every set to failure, and build more muscle and strength, right?
Not exactly.
Training to complete failure early on and frequently in a training session and throughout the week will typically result in less total volume being performed due to the fatigue that quickly builds up. If you’re too fatigued, you won’t be able to lift as much weight for as many reps for your remaining exercises.
If you can’t lift as much weight for as many reps, the total volume of your training sessions decreases (Volume = Weight x Sets x Reps). And volume is one of most important training variables for maximizing muscle growth.
In addition, training to failure nearly every set of every exercise causes much more muscle damage and central fatigue, requiring more recovery time.
If you’re hitting each muscle group twice every 7-10 days, which is ideal for many, you’ll likely have a difficult time recovering if almost every set of every exercise each workout is taken to failure.
Also, it’s just not necessary. Multiple studies have shown that leaving 1-3 reps in the tank can still stimulate as much muscle growth as training to failure, but without the high amounts of stress and strain placed on the body.
Some studies have even shown that training to failure consistently actually resulted in less muscle growth and strength gains. This is likely due to the high amounts of fatigue accumulation that carry over into successive training sessions, which then decreases performance.
If your performance in the gym starts to decline, you won’t be maximizing your muscle-building potential. Your entire body constantly being in a state of excessive fatigue from taking every set to failure isn’t ideal for building your best physique.
Taking every set to failure just isn’t worth it, especially in higher volume training. Besides everything I mentioned above, you also increase your risk of injury since your form is likely to fall apart as you get tired and continue to push sets to failure and beyond, especially on compound movements. If you can’t train because you’ve gotten injured, your progress slows down, or even comes to a complete stop.
Also, if your form falls apart, there’s a good chance you won’t be working the muscle very well anyways since the quality of reps won’t be very good. It’s very unlikely you’ll be stressing the targeted muscle(s) hard enough to promote growth.
However, taking certain sets of certain exercises to failure does have it’s place. Training to failure, or even beyond failure by using forced reps and partial reps, should be used sparingly and wisely.
For example, it wouldn’t be a good idea to take multiple sets of barbell back squats to failure. There’s a high chance of injury as your form and technique break down. It’s such a taxing movement involving so many large muscle groups, so the muscular and central fatigue would be so high. It takes a toll on you and wears you down quickly—both physiologically and psychologically.
Taking leg extensions to absolute failure wouldn’t be so bad. I still wouldn’t recommend taking every set that far, but it could be beneficial to take your last set or two of leg extensions to failure. You can even take your last of leg extensions beyond technical failure by continuing the set with partial or forced reps. The risk of injury is low and it’s not nearly as taxing of an exercise as squats. It’s much easier to recover from four hard sets of leg extensions than it is to recover from four hard sets of barbell squats.
Where you are in your training program also matters. When you first start a phase of training, like after a deload week, you’ll want to leave 3 reps in reserve for most sets of most exercises. As you progress and get deeper into the training program, you’ll train closer and closer to failure.
The week or two prior to a deload week, I’ll push my clients harder. They won’t be taking compounds to failure, but probably 1 rep in reserve, or RPE 9 (Rating of Perceived Exertion = 9).
But on isolation exercises, they’ll probably be taking their last 2 sets, possibly every set, to absolute failure and beyond failure since they’ll have a deload week coming up.
During the deload week, fatigue dissipates as volume and intensity drop. You feel refreshed, you’re extra motivated, any aches are gone, and you’re ready to start up a new phase of training.
Even though you don’t need to train to failure all the time to maximize muscle growth, you still need to make sure you’re training hard enough. And this is where a lot of people miss the mark.
Many people leave more reps left in the tank than they realize. You’ll feel the urge to stop the set as soon as things get uncomfortable, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve reached failure, or even gotten close. This why subjective measurements of the amount of effort you’re putting in, like RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) and RIR (Reps In Reserve), aren’t always very accurate, especially in beginners.
Most people haven’t experienced true failure. So they just don’t know what they’re truly capable of. They don’t know what it feels like to take a set to absolute failure. To ignore the discomfort, use your mind to suck it up, and keep pushing until you can’t even do just one more rep. So it’s difficult for them to gauge how many reps they’re leaving in the tank. For them, and even for many intermediate lifters, what they think is 2 reps shy of failure may actually be 4 or 5 reps shy.
Since many people underestimate what they’re capable of, I often recommend taking the last set of an exercise that has a low risk of injury to absolute failure. Where you truly cannot get one more rep no matter how hard you try. Not on a lift like barbell overhead press, barbell bench, squat, or deadlift, but maybe something like dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, a chest press machine, or leg extensions.
Once you’ve felt what it’s like to take a set to absolute failure, you’ll have a better idea of how hard you’re actually training, and how hard you should be training.
You need to train hard, but you also need to train smart. You need to know what exercises to take closer to failure, to failure, or beyond failure. You also need to know when to ramp up intensity and effort, and when to pull back. You can train as hard as you want, but if you can’t recover well and maintain a high level of training effort and intensity over the long-term, you won’t build much muscle.
Summary:
- Leaving 1-3 reps left in the tank is optimal for building muscle and strength why managing fatigue.
- Going to failure too often will lead to a drop in training volume since you won’t be able to lift as much weight for as many reps.
- You should train closer and closer to failure as you progress through a training program leading up to a deload week.
- Compound lifts should rarely intentionally be taken to absolute failure. The risk of injury is high, and you’ll need more time to recover.
- Taking your last set to absolute failure on many isolation lifts like bicep curls, lateral raises, and leg extensions can be beneficial. The risk of injury is low, and those exercises aren’t as taxing on the body. They’re much easier to recover from.
- The best approach is to avoid intentionally taking the main barbell compound lifts to absolute failure, and leave 1-3 reps in reserve. Leave training to failure for the less taxing isolation exercises. Take those isolation exercises to failure more frequently as your deload week approaches.