Training To Failure
For some people there's nothing better than getting into the gym and going hell for leather, challenging themselves to set new personal bests and leaving the gym knowing that they've given it everything they could. I would definitely fall into this category myself as would many of my clients in that the fun is the physical challenge of trying to push yourself to your own individual limits as well as the immense positive feelings that you have when you see yourself progressing. The fulfilment comes from the journey more so than reaching the destination but it's still important that you're seeing continuous progress. Training to failure becomes the norm for many of these people as it allows them to really give every ounce of effort to everything that they do whilst in the gym but this type of training has potential pitfalls.
Rather than a debate on whether training to failure works as well as staying further away from failure I want to discuss the variables that I think about when planning the training for someone who enjoys training to failure. For the record I do believe that this method of training, with some adjustments, can be made extremely effective for the people who have the mindset of wanting to train super hard.
1) What is failure? One of the issues is that 'failure' is very subjective. Does it mean actually failing a rep or does it mean stopping when you feel like there's no more reps left in the tank? I'll start by saying that I tell people to use the latter and stop the set when they believe that they have no reps left in the tank rather than go for another rep that they're sure they'll fail (which seems dangerous and rather pointless from a risk reward perspective).
But it's not that easy. What failure means to an advanced lifter with 15 years of experience is generally not the same as a beginner with a year or so of experience. In fact studies have found that people stop a failure set with up to 12 reps still left in the tank! That's a very easy set compared to an advanced lifter who could pretty much wipe themselves out for 10 minutes with a failure set of squats for example.
To further complicate matters is intra set rests. If you have to take a 5 second rest before the next rep just to squeeze it out your probably then hitting two or more points of failure if you keep extending the set in such manner.
For people who enjoy this style of training it's more common to try and squeeze out the extra reps versus leaving too many reps in the tank. I think performing reps in a continuous manner and stopping the set when you can't do any more reps this way rather than resting at lockout to extend the set is usually the most optimal way as it causes a little less fatigue and allows a little more work to be done over the course of the session. This isn't a hard and fast rule I use but more of a generalisation in that the extra muscle damage from extending the set might not provide a great deal (if any) extra stimulus.
2) Exercise Selection. Some exercises lend themselves better to going to failure than others. The more technical a movement is the more cautious I'd be in taking it to failure as these exercises become easier to misgroove due to fatigue which could have disastrous consequences (one of the issues with crossfit). You also need to be sensible with which exercises to take to failure and the reasoning behind it. For instance if your goal is to build strength such as a powerlifter aiming to build a bigger squat then going to complete failure is probably not ideal under most circumstances. Chances are reps will get sloppy which won't do much for ingraining optimal motor patterns, you'll risk injury, and might not be able to then get enough work in on them due to fatigue. Don't misunderstand that as saying they should be easy, for an intermediate or advanced lifter a set of 5 reps at 2 reps in reserve is a damn hard set, it's just not completely all out.
If we take leg press for example that is an exercise that lends itself well to going absolutely all out. There's much less technical emphasis and it's far safer so this is the type of exercise that you can really give it everything you've got and go HAM. This could be said for machines in general and most isolation based exercises but true failure sets on deadlifts could ruin you for the full week especially if you're an advanced lifter hoisting big iron. Good luck squatting in three days if you've absolutely annihilated yourself with multiple failure sets of deadlifts!
We can also get into psychological stress as far as exercise selection goes. It takes far more resources to get in the right place mentally for a failure set of a compound exercise versus an isolation exercise. You probably don't need to be too fired up to knock out a failure set of pushdowns but a max effort set on the hack squat is a different story. The more draining an exercise is the less sets you'll probably be able to recover from and vice versa - again especially as you get stronger.
3) Learn to switch 'on' and 'off' quickly. Get focused for the set - flip the switch, get amped up whatever you want to call it but as soon as the set's done, switch off. If you're training to failure utilising hard exercises then you'll need decent rest periods and spending these rest periods psyched up for the next set will be excessively draining. Learning to relax and then get focused again when it's time for the set can help massively with fatigue and what you're able to recover from.
4) Last set to failure. One of the methods that I often use is to take the final set of an exercise to failure. This is usually cycles up to taking each set of the exercise to failure over the course of three to four weeks - so it starts hard and gets harder each week. For example if someone has a 10RM of 150kg on a plate loaded press then the first week may look something like 150kg 3s x 8r (8+ 3rd set) meaning that they'd perform 150kg for 8 reps, 8 reps, 8+ reps (failure). Each set is very hard but only the final set is to failure which may be followed by 155kg 3s x 8r (8+ 3rd set) the following week, and then a new 8RM with down sets to failure the final week of the cycle before dropping the loading or changing the rep scheme and going again.
5) Use a log book. If you're going to train to failure with a lot of your sets then use a log book to track your loading/reps/sets and then try to beat it next time. This can be achieved by adding extra weight, squeezing out an extra rep at the same weight as previously, or if you're less advanced then maybe a combination of the two. One thing I would mention is that the people who have the most success with failure training continuously battle to add a little bit more weight or an extra rep consistently week after week rather than going in hoping for big weight jumps. As a beginner that might work but when you're more advanced and lifting heavier weights adding an extra 2.5kg and achieving the same reps as last time is a win. Do this often enough and you'll build up to very impressive numbers.
6) Gain weight. Ok so this isn't about failure training as such but it's so common amongst all trainers that I'm going to mention it. To keep beating your log book you're going to need to get stronger which is a product of gaining muscle (partly neural but if you've been performing an exercise long enough muscle gain will provide the most scope for increasing load) and unless you're a beginner, added in a new variable such as drastically improving nutrition or starting to use PED's it's highly likely that gaining muscle will mean an increase in bodyweight. I've had countless conversations with people who'll be dismayed that they haven't gained any size on their arms in a year - when I ask how their bodyweight compares to this time last year the answer is generally 'it's the same'. The stimulus to build muscle might be there but without enough food it's pretty irrelevant.