Why you should stop one rep short

This morning I was down at the gym and was doing some pull-ups (an exercise that I seem to make very little progress with). I had an idea in mind of how many repetitions that I wanted to do on each set. I hit that target in the first set. I stopped one repetition short on my second and third sets. And on my 4th and final set I stopped 3 repetitions short.

I probably could have managed the number of repetitions that I initially had in mind. It would have been a struggle and I doubt that I could have done any more, but if I gritted my teeth I would have got there.

Often in life we will train until failure. We'll push ourselves to the limit of our capacity. This is where we physically can't do another repetition and the weight falls to the floor (or hopefully gently back into the rack). That could be in the gym, it might be getting a project over the line, it might be clearing your to-do list, or even trying to keep a clean house with small children while you're doing all of the other things.?

In a society where busyness is placed upon a pedestal, the more we do the better! So going until failure often isn’t a “once in a while” practice, it’s an “all the time” way of life.

When we are looking to improve our health, we set goals and adopt practices that strain our current capacities. The targets we expect ourselves to hit are often at or beyond our "failure" point. We're working until failure in many other areas of our lives, so our capacity to work harder is already reduced.?

Going until failure all the time isn't a recipe for developing consistent healthy behaviours. And that is what improving health is all about, consistent new behaviour over time creates healthy adaptation. If we are not consistent, or we don't allow a sufficient period of time then we won't see any adaptation.

Why did I stop short in the gym today?

These days I lift weights more for my mental health than for the ego driven beach muscles I used to do it for. I like my body to feel strong, I understand the importance of muscle strength for my long term health. Pushing myself to the point of not being able to do any more doesn't add anything to those factors for me.?

Some other helpful factors which influence my decision to stop one rep short

Training to failure does not give extra benefits to stopping a couple of reps short. How often do we spend an extra hour or two on something that doesn't actually yield any greater return for us? We need to put in enough work to get them gains, but is more actually helpful?

Stopping one rep short saves capacity to cope with uncertainty. If I had kept going my energy levels would have been impacted for the rest of the day. It would have made it harder for me to do the tasks I have scheduled. And I would have been less able to effectively navigate challenges that life throws up.

Training to failure reduces the quality of what I am trying to achieve. I could have kept going and squeezed those extra couple of reps. But they would have been ugly. I probably would have had to adapt my movements and may not have been recruiting the muscles I wanted to be working.

Training to failure also requires me to have more recovery time. Getting to that point means that I'm going to have DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) for the next couple of days, which impacts what I can do for the next 48 hours. Pushing to failure reduces our capacity for the next few days, and most of us don't have the luxury of extended recovery times before we need to go again.

I'm not saying that we should NEVER push ourselves to the failure point. Training to failure every now and then is helpful so you know what it feels like, how much capacity you have, and where your limits are. We just shouldn't be doing it all the time.

So think about stopping one rep short most of the time in all areas of your life.

• Stop one rep short when setting health practices
• Stop one rep short in the gym
• Stop one rep short on your to-do list
• Stop one rep short on picking up the toys

You'll still improve and you'll find it easier to be more consistent?

Where do you push until failure?

Where would you benefit from stopping one rep short?

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