The main reason I train to failure is because when I fail doing a lift, I know I’m done.
This reason alone is, for me, more than enough to use this approach. It is very natural and almost a no-brainer. I don’t have to ask myself “should I do more?”. Or stop at some arbitrary moment, such as “3 sets of 10 reps per body part”.
I have other reasons why I train to failure. With this method:
- Workouts are short (around half an hour)
- And for recovery needs, infrequent (twice per week).
This is perfect because, like anybody, I simply have no time for anything but work and taking care of the little family.
I don’t train to failure on all of my exercises, though. The exceptions are legs exercices, where the poundage is high and dropping the bar can be dangerous or could damage my home gym floor. The other exception is flat bench dumbbell fly, where I would probably get injured because I train alone. So nobody can spot me for that last lift I won’t complete.
With a training to failure approach, I was also able to remove exercices that are just incompatible with it. In the end, I removed many single muscle exercises and I kept only compound exercises, such as deadlift, dip, chin (pull-up).
But training to failure is not easy. The last rep, the lift where the fail occurs, is very demanding mentally. I have to have a clear mind in the gym, otherwise I will under perform.
Finally, training to failure is safe for me. After years of properly using this method, I never got injured during a workout.
Until next post, Lift Consciously 