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Failure not necessary for hypertrophy?

A

arthuroarti

New member
Is failure necessary for Hypertrophy? There were studies that showed that stopping shy of failure is better. What do you think?
 
Failure is not necessary but not a bad thing either.

I think that avoiding failure all the time can lead to soft training and using the avoidance of failure as an excuse to not push yourself very hard.
 
Bazza20 said:
Failure is not necessary but not a bad thing either.

I think that avoiding failure all the time can lead to soft training and using the avoidance of failure as an excuse to not push yourself very hard.
Click to expand...

I have seen a post from Fadi, very he confirms that as long as you go to failure, you can achieve hypertrophy on any rep range. In terms of high reps vs low reps.
 
If you want to get maximum hypertrophy gains then I believe going to failure is the way to go.

If you want to get some reputable evidence from me to support my belief then you'll be waiting a long time. Waiting to failure in fact. :D
 
you have to go to failure every now and then, when you are 100% right, but too often is detrimental. That is my experience. Once a fortnight is all i can tolerate before overtraining.

Others i have observed can do it much more often.
 
Failure training is a bit problematic in that it generally leads to really bad form...

I usually stop very close to failure... Occasionally ill push things a little further... But I don't find it to be mandatory to my training.... And I never do spotted lifts...

Linear progression programs generally lead you up to failure over a much longer period anyway I suppose...
 
I meant to say 'should' go to failure every now and then.

I dont actually believe you have to; so many variables help explain strength gain.
 
I always saw going to failure as meaning continuing to lift as much as you can while maintaining decent form.
 
I haven't gained much muscular weight over the last couple years, but I've trained to failure even less than that. If reaching failure were required for growth, then the few times I have failed would be solely responsible for several kilos of learn body mass.

I used to train to failure all the time. I also used to be a lot weaker than I am now. I've found that stopping just shy of failure ingrains the mental point: "I can do xyz," while regularly going to failure ingrains the message: "I cannot do xyz." On the one hand, this makes it all the more exciting when I succeed at xyz, but it also creates inhibitions that prevent me from doing xyz. So I think, if for no reason other than mental, it would be better to generally stay away from failure.

On the other hand, with the help of spotters, I've gone well and truly past the point of failure (eg doing 3-5 negatives with assistance on the positive after volitional failure) back in the day, and the results of that have mostly been good.
 
In direct answer to the questions I don't think going to failure is necessary for hypertrophey but I am pretty certain helps as it generally shows your pushing yourself during your workout and not taking shortcuts or taking things too easy...
 
Wouldn't failure be where you would continually lower the weight until you physically couldn't lift a kilo?

Failure ..... Really ? Gimme a break.
 
Darkoz said:
I always saw going to failure as meaning continuing to lift as much as you can while maintaining decent form.
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Well said.

From a physiological standpoint, the only difference between going to failure as Dark said it, to total muscular concentric failure or leaving a few reps in the tank is that the highest threshold motor units wont be recruited and therefore not exhausted.

Failure isn't an absolute though, you can go to failure on exercises that require fewer muscle groups more frequently due to the small amount of muscle involved. Tricep Pushdowns vs Leg Press for example.
 
judgey said:
If you do a bit more reading, you'll see that Fadi suggests stopping 1 rep short of failure.
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found that. I was amazed when I read Fadi's explanation on rep ranges. Never thought that 12-20 reps could cause hypertrophy.

But should you fail on every set or only the last set? Volume is important for hypertrophy and as I know majority of bodybuilders have 2-3 ramping sets and the last set is usually a set where they go to failure.
 
I went to failure on close grip bench this week with no spotter.

DC made me do it, I did a kippling bench thingy to get the bar up to the lower pins.

good thing it was close grip.
 
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