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Does Training To Failure Help Increase Muscle Mass?
By Jason Ferruggia
Training to failure has long been a much debated subject amongst
fitness professionals. Many experts tell you that if you really want
to
increase muscle mass you have to go to failure on each and every set
you do while others will warn you to avoid
training to failure at
all
costs. At different points in my career I have been on both sides of
this fence as I am continually experimenting with more efficient
ways
of getting bigger and stronger.
Years ago I recommended that everyone go to failure on a regular
basis if their goal was to rapidly increase muscle mass. I knew that
hard work and high intensity were needed to bring about dramatic
improvements in size and strength. This worked out incredibly well
when I was training all of my clients with low volume workouts.
Eventually I got away from low volume and started experimenting with
a
slightly higher approach for various reasons. The problem, however,
is that you can’t train with high volume and high intensity.
When
you
are doing a large number of sets there is absolutely no way you can
take each of them to failure without severely burning yourself out.
After realizing this I immediately started advising all of my
clients against going to failure. I told everyone to stop their sets
with a rep or
two left in the tank but not to ever take it all the way to a point
of momentary muscular failure.
This worked fairly well but the fact remains that everyone who is
serious about training, and really wants to increase muscle mass
rapidly
loves to train HARD! So what was happening was people were ignoring
my advice and continuing to go to failure on at least 80-90% of
their sets. The honest truth is that I ALWAYS go to failure, or very
close to it, no matter what volume of training I am using. I don’t
know
any other way to train and could never stand to give it less than
100% effort when I’m in the gym. To me, and everyone I know who
lives
to lift heavy weights, that way of training is a lot more fun than
going in and trying to hold back. I don’t want to hold anything
back, I
want to lay it all on the table and give it all I have.
Because of this fact I have steadily lowered my training volume recommendations over the last few years. Nowadays I rarely ever
advise
doing more than 12 sets per workout if your goal is to increase
muscle mass. When you keep your volume this low you can train as
hard
as you want and safely go to failure on every set without ever
worrying about frying your CNS or overtraining. This makes your
workouts
more fun and more productive. Not to mention, shorter, for all of
you who are pressed for time.
When I say you can go to failure on every set I mean that the set
should end when you can no longer complete another rep in good form.
I don’t want you to literally fail in the middle of a rep as this
can be potentially dangerous, especially if you do it on a squat or
a bench
press when you don’t have a spotter around. What I want you to do is
work as hard as you can but stop the set after you grind out one
last slow, brutal rep that requires all the effort you can muster
without causing yourself to have a nervous breakdown or having your
eyeballs pop out of your head. At that point the set is over; do not
attempt another rep because that is when you get into overtraining
territory.
That’s all there is to it. Remember, low volume plus high intensity
is the exact formula needed to increase muscle mass rapidly.
Jason Ferruggia is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for
his ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly possible.
He
is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness Magazine where he
also has his own monthly column dedicated to muscle building. For
more
Training to Failure tips, check out
http://www.musclegainingsecrets.com/
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