• Keep up to date with Ausbb via Twitter and Facebook. Please add us!
  • Join the Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

    The Ausbb - Australian BodyBuilding forum is dedicated to no nonsense muscle and strength building. If you need advice that works, you have come to the right place. This forum focuses on building strength and muscle using the basics. You will also find that the Ausbb- Australian Bodybuilding Forum stresses encouragement and respect. Trolls and name calling are not allowed here. No matter what your personal goals are, you will be given effective advice that produces results.

    Please consider registering. It takes 30 seconds, and will allow you to get the most out of the forum.

Train to failure or failure at training?

TheGiftToLift

New member
I was just wondering how you guys draw the line between keeping one or two reps in the tank, and not going hard enough? I find it hard to progress without really exerting myself, in fact since I have stopped training to failure my lifts have stalled. I guess due to the fact that I am not going as hard?

Also, a random side questions - what weight would you consider to be average for a 6ft guy? 80kgs? big being 90+?
 
i think you need a bit of both in your training. it shouldn't always be to failure, but at certain time you need to push the limits in order to progress.

im 6'2 and weight 87. i still look skinny. 90+ for sure.
 
I used to train to failure every session, every exercise, every set.

I stalled pretty quickly/
 
You need to learn your body and your limits. Just train hard and play with it, it ain't rocket science.

True. Different body parts also seem to respond differently. I train my chest to failure and it blows up. I train legs to failure and they get smaller.

Who here trains to failure and who doesn't?
 
I train to momentary muscular fatigue on every exercise except the squat and dead lift.

I've done this for the last twenty or so years, intensity of work?
I'm not sure but I always work as hard as I possibly can on the day.
 
Do you have a preferred rep range for those two exercises or do you mix it up?
 
Do you have a preferred rep range for those two exercises or do you mix it up?

Earlier on in the piece I enjoyed squatting 5x5 with a back off set of twenty in the squat DKD, as I've aged I'm enjoying the higher rep scheme, a jones favorite is the; 12, 10, 8... At the minute;12x72, 10x92 and then 8x115kg, no rest and a back off set of 60kgx20, pre fatigue the quads with a set of 20 leg extensions to fatigue, after my squat leg curls to fatigue.
the leg curls are or have made quite a difference, the machie I have is a unique one, as in you are lying on your side, no pressure on the lumbar, it isolates the hamstring very well.

Dead-lifts 5x5

Trap-bar 30 rep's

I do the low rep's with squats very seldomly now.
 
Last edited:
I very rarely ever take a set to failure, and continue to progress.
Although I have never trained continuously for long enough to hit plateaus.

What is hard exercise anyway?

Since this is in the bodybuilding section, I'll use this example.
I can bicep curl 10kg dumbbells for 12 reps and make it hurt so much my arms are shaking and burning at the end of the set.
And I can also curl a 50kg barbell for 12 reps, a little quicker and maybe only 90% strict form, but won't feel it as much in the biceps as with the lighter weight.

Most will say heavier weights will make bigger muscles, but is this always the case?
 
I very rarely ever take a set to failure, and continue to progress.
Although I have never trained continuously for long enough to hit plateaus.

What is hard exercise anyway?

Since this is in the bodybuilding section, I'll use this example.
I can bicep curl 10kg dumbbells for 12 reps and make it hurt so much my arms are shaking and burning at the end of the set.
And I can also curl a 50kg barbell for 12 reps, a little quicker and maybe only 90% strict form, but won't feel it as much in the biceps as with the lighter weight.

Most will say heavier weights will make bigger muscles, but is this always the case?

Intensity is speculative, results are tangible.
 
Earlier on in the piece I enjoyed squatting 5x5 with a back off set of twenty in the squat DKD, as I've aged I'm enjoying the higher rep scheme, a jones favorite is the; 12, 10, 8... At the minute;12x72, 10x92 and then 8x115kg, no rest and a back off set of 60kgx20, pre fatigue the quads with a set of 20 leg extensions to fatigue, after my squat leg curls to fatigue.
the leg curls are or have made quite a difference, the machie I have is a unique one, as in you are lying on your side, no pressure on the lumbar, it isolates the hamstring very well.

Dead-lifts 5x5

Trap-bar 30 rep's

I do the low rep's with squats very seldomly now.


Your squat and dead rep amounts sound pretty sensible to me Andy. I wasn't sure what to do with trap bar reps. ATM my frozen shoulder has deteriorated to the point where I can't even maneuver my shoulder under the bar to do a single back squat, even with bar only. I'll have to use TB "Squatlift" as my squat substitute and work out a rep range accordingly.
 
I dont train to failure, but i would always finish bench with press-ups to failure / or pull-ups to failure after working my back.

This has worked for me
 
The spotter should always help you in every rep in doing this it will keep the tension
on working the muscles through the whole set.
 
Kidding, You should stop just before you fail but you want to get as close as
possible to fail.

Its up to you to judge this because you do not want to miss a lift or stop a rep short
 
Top