Failure doesn't sound good to anyone. But in bodybuilding, failure is essential. Or is it?
Failure is the point at which whatever muscle/body part you are working on can't complete another repetition. Training to failure increases your lactic acid production, which is critical for muscle growth as they increase the growth factors in our body.
Although they may have their own benefits, it also comes with certain risks. Since training to fail taxes your central nervous system, the following sets will be performed at a much lower capacity. It may also result in using the improper form when performing exercises. If you’re struggling with a move while using a challenging weight you may not focus on the correct technique.
But how do you avoid serious injuries and maximize your muscle/strength using failure as a tool?
- Technical failure:
It is important to know when to give up. Unlike with absolute failure, when you can’t lift that barbell and do that curl at all, technical failure is when you perform a set with the correct form on each repetition until you’re unable to maintain the proper form.
2. Don't fail in compound movements:
It’s not so much of a problem with exercises like the leg extension or dumbbell curl, which don’t require a great deal of skill to perform. But training to failure on big compound lifts like the squat and deadlift, where technique is paramount, isn’t a great idea. Your form can break down before you hit failure, increasing the risk of tears, strains happening to your body.
3. Use failure to improve your muscular endurance:
Building endurance alters your muscles at the microscopic level, which improves your recovery between heavy sets at the gym.
Conclusion:
Periodize your workouts and focus on cycles where you work on training intensity and lifting to failure and then cycles where you focus more on volume and avoid working to complete failure. Remember that you’re still doing something good for your body when you lift weights even if it means you don't go till failure.
