Why You Should Train To Muscle Failure

One of the best parts of the gym is the ability to grunt and make faces like a real brute and get away with it. This usually happens when you’re pushing through some pain and yelling at your muscles not to fail on you.

In this article today, I’m going to be explaining the importance of muscle failure and how to achieve it.

Pushing your muscles to the limit is the biggest reason we go to the gym.

I was on the incline bench yesterday lifting a lot heavier weight than usual. On my third set, as I was coming down, my muscles reached their limit. If I didn’t have a spotter, 85 lbs dumb bells would’ve come crashing onto my face.

I knew I’d reached my limit on my chest so I moved on the next muscle, unlike most, that continue to pound away.

If you train to muscle failure, you’ve recruited just about every fiber of muscle you have and they’ve all failed. When your muscles oxidize (do work) they produce lactic acid. When that acid builds up, they don’t move anymore.

Micro-tears to most of your muscle allows for maximum growth.

If you damage 60% of your muscle, that 60% will repair itself. But if you damage 98% of your muscle, you leave room for much greater repair. When more muscle repairs itself, you’ll see greater and faster growth. The time added to this growth is minimal compared to the extra gains you will see.

Your tempo should remain constant throughout the exercise. Your technique shouldn’t waver either. Keep a positive attitude and push through the pain until you can’t perform the exercise anymore. Make sure it’s muscle failure and not joint failure.

With that being said, it’s a good idea to have a spotter with you when you do this. Either your training partner, or someone else. This can be dangerous as I’ve pointed out above, but if you want to see greater growth, this is a great strategy.

Of course, you need to know when you’re close to failing and communicate that, and your spotter needs to be vigilant.

No pain, no gain, isn’t exactly correct, so train hard and train smart.

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