train to failure

[Rustam]

do you go to failure with weights or do you leave one in the tank.
i just saw a vid were frank shamrock teaches that he never go to failure when lifting. he lifts every day but always stops before failure. he says that if you go to failure your muscles are still hurt, and having mma class after or the next day will hinder your recovery.
i think it is a good way to gain strenght, but what is about muscle? will the grow when never go to the max?
as i do a lot of mma for me it would be best to have the best recovery.

 

[chia]

Generally you should never try to lift to failure. This doesn't mean that you should always be able to do one more rep, but you should NOT be lifting to a point where your muscles can no longer move any more weight. Usually it is good to leave a rep or two in the tank when you are doing high volume workouts but when you are lifting heavy poundages doing doubles or singles, you should be trying to work up to a challenging weight.

Failure is not always avoidable, some times if you are trying to hit a new PR, you may not be able to do it (always use a spotter just in case). But you should never lift a weight thinking, "I'll just try to do as many as I can." Then you will fail on your last rep. Instead you should be smart about loading and think along the lines of, "I WILL get 3 reps." This kind of attitude will help you avoid failure and will help reinforce your confidence leading to better strength gains.

Training to failure is not only taxing physically, but mentally as well and it is why many beginners plateau very quickly or overtrain. Failure training can be a tool in your arsenal (e.g. planned overtraining) but most of the time, avoiding failure is better in the long run for both hypertrophy and strength gains.

 

[Centaur]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Very well put!! Saves me alot of typing.

 

[xinster]

I can no longer afford as many supplements as i used to, so i find its better if i leave 2, not 1 in the tank. Of course, on low-rep strength days, this is not possible. I end up consistently leaving about 1/2 to 0th in the tank.

 

[abarlament2]

What chia said. Training to failure simply stresses the CNS too much.