Training to Failure
According to Men’s Fitness magazine (April 2008, page 18) it’s safe to train to failure as long as your training volume is low. That is, you’re not doing more than 12 sets per workout.
For those of you who are new to the world of muscle building, training to failure is when you get to the point where you cannot complete another repitition of a particular exercise without sacrificing good form.
If you’re doing more than 12 sets per workout you are risking serious damage or injury. So, although training to failure can get those muscles pumping you need to exercise caution and make sure you’re not putting yourself at risk for injury.
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I would also recommend only training to failure on the last set of any given exercise. For example, if you are performing 4 sets of bench press, train to failure on the 4th and final set. If you lift to failure on the earlier sets you are less likely to get the number of reps you are shooting for on your later sets.
Thanks Muscle Post! That’s a good tip. If you do lift to failure on earlier sets, you can decrease the weight on your last set and churn out as many reps as you can to get a good “pump.”
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