There are many controversies about training to failure, whether it is because of safety concerns or supposed excessive fatigue accumulation. In this blog post, we will be discussing the reason why taking at least one set to failure per exercise is so important to maximally reap the benefits of that exercise.
So-called hypertrophy experts argue that training to failure in the gym should be avoided, claiming you can get a better exercise stimulus by accumulating a greater training volume through multiple sets taken close to failure. There are several problems with this methodology which, in a practical fitness setting, make it ineffective and cause it to hinder lifters from achieving their goals better and faster.
The first problem with this approach comes from a scientific finding from the mid-20th century, Henneman’s Size Principle. It states that muscle fibers are activated based on the intensity of effort required. The higher the effort, the more muscle fiber activation and therefore growth stimulation we get on an exercise basis. In order to recruit all muscle fibers and stimulate them maximally, we must reach the highest possible effort exertion, which is failure. This means that if you don’t take an exercise to failure at least once, the muscles worked are never exercised to their fullest potential.
The second problem with this narrative comes from the individual’s perception of effort. In the previously described approach, where you take multiple sets short of failure, it is necessary for the lifter to assess what “short of failure” actually is. This assessment is often grossly distorted and inaccurate, especially in individuals new to lifting. This usually causes them to exert a level of effort that cannot be accurately tied to meeting the requirement of stimulating enough fibers to generate progress. It is necessary for a trainee to train to failure at least on a somewhat regular basis to be able to tell whether they are close to failure or not. Even then, we still have inferior muscle stimulation according to Henneman’s Size Principle.
The above issues with non-failure training are generally well reflected in the hypertrophy literature. There are countless contradicting studies on the topic of exercise volume, especially when those studies utilize non-failure training and rely on lifters’ or researchers’ assessments of failure.
The takeaway from this blog post should be that no matter the training system you are using, training to failure at least once per exercise is, in a practical sense, necessary for lifters to best reap the benefits of the exercise itself in terms of strength and size gains.