Fadi
...
Are you guilty of it? Come on, you can tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone. Which were you guilty more of; saying it or doing it? I confess to you right here and now that I was more guilty of doing it than saying it. I could not help myself you understand; the feeling of reaching that pinnacle point drove me wild. I craved the stimulus it gave me, I was so hooked on it; my body could not recover for days on end. It caused me severe trauma and pain, but I mistook it for pleasure. Oh what a fool I’ve been!
Thank God I came to my senses in time. For had I not done so; pain would’ve been my frequent friend. Now I’m here asking...no, pleading with you my friends, to join me in leaving this joint wrecker, this inhibiter of your recovering ability...what did you think I was talking about? You’ve got to be kidding, right?! It’s failure that I’m talking about. Going to failure on every set of every exercise of every workout and on and on and on...That's the “F” word.
Going to failure results in more muscle fiber microtauma, which in turn serves to delay your recovering ability and ultimately muscle growth. Once a muscle is stimulated with few sets (2-3), it can not be more stimulated. Have you ever gone for a muscle pump; achieved it, loved it, then thought one more for the road since “I’m in heaven right now”, only to have your muscles deflate before your very eyes? Basically what you have done here was that you have annihilated what you have earlier stimulated. All in the name of “no pain no gain”, or “I have to go to failure otherwise I won’t grow.”
Well, I don’t know of any sport where its athletes employ such tactic in training; not even in weightlifting or powerlifting. So why it is those bodybuilders think they are the exception to the norm? I know, I’m a bodybuilder like you and believe that we are a bunch of very unique athletes indeed. However, I sincerely believe that we are causing more harm to ourselves by choosing to be isolated rather than included in the whole realm of scientific literature that is at our finger tips. But no, we somehow know better. I ask you, were you given a different program than I was given 25 years ago? The answer is more than likely the same old rubbish: “Do 3 to 4 sets of 10 reps and know that no pain is no gain, Ok Charlie!” All of us at one point or another felt our chest, pressed slightly and went: Ouch, yeh I must’ve had a good workout last night! We mistakenly understood deep pain or inflammation to be some sort of positive indication of a good workout that we had had the night before.
That my dear brothers and sisters, was nothing more than the result of some excessive microtrauma. Delayed recovery is another by-product of this die-hard habit of going to failure with high volume training. Had the results been a guarantee of more muscle growth, I’d be the first one to continue with it. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I mentioned above that weightlifters do not go to failure; however as a former weightlifter, I did just that for about two weeks back in 1984. Training to failure with low reps and heavy weights is much more taxing on the CNS than training to failure with higher reps and lighter weights. I must say, all ten weightlifters at the AIS at the time broke down simultaneously. We were literally begging our two coaches for mercy. I kid you not! We began to loose interest and our recovering ability went through the floor. Looking back at it now, I believe we were been used as guinea pigs to find out our CNS threshold.
That was a single two weeks occasion in a span of 3 years, (not bad). Bodybuilders on the other hand seem to be consistently going on a roller coaster ride of feeling great one week, and crashing not long after. Bodybuilders need to look at the periodisation system employed by their cousin sports: weightlifting and powerlifting. No bodybuilder should ever have to suffer the yo yo effect of an unscientific training protocol. We all deserve the very best science has to offer, NOW!
Fadi.
Thank God I came to my senses in time. For had I not done so; pain would’ve been my frequent friend. Now I’m here asking...no, pleading with you my friends, to join me in leaving this joint wrecker, this inhibiter of your recovering ability...what did you think I was talking about? You’ve got to be kidding, right?! It’s failure that I’m talking about. Going to failure on every set of every exercise of every workout and on and on and on...That's the “F” word.
Going to failure results in more muscle fiber microtauma, which in turn serves to delay your recovering ability and ultimately muscle growth. Once a muscle is stimulated with few sets (2-3), it can not be more stimulated. Have you ever gone for a muscle pump; achieved it, loved it, then thought one more for the road since “I’m in heaven right now”, only to have your muscles deflate before your very eyes? Basically what you have done here was that you have annihilated what you have earlier stimulated. All in the name of “no pain no gain”, or “I have to go to failure otherwise I won’t grow.”
Well, I don’t know of any sport where its athletes employ such tactic in training; not even in weightlifting or powerlifting. So why it is those bodybuilders think they are the exception to the norm? I know, I’m a bodybuilder like you and believe that we are a bunch of very unique athletes indeed. However, I sincerely believe that we are causing more harm to ourselves by choosing to be isolated rather than included in the whole realm of scientific literature that is at our finger tips. But no, we somehow know better. I ask you, were you given a different program than I was given 25 years ago? The answer is more than likely the same old rubbish: “Do 3 to 4 sets of 10 reps and know that no pain is no gain, Ok Charlie!” All of us at one point or another felt our chest, pressed slightly and went: Ouch, yeh I must’ve had a good workout last night! We mistakenly understood deep pain or inflammation to be some sort of positive indication of a good workout that we had had the night before.
That my dear brothers and sisters, was nothing more than the result of some excessive microtrauma. Delayed recovery is another by-product of this die-hard habit of going to failure with high volume training. Had the results been a guarantee of more muscle growth, I’d be the first one to continue with it. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I mentioned above that weightlifters do not go to failure; however as a former weightlifter, I did just that for about two weeks back in 1984. Training to failure with low reps and heavy weights is much more taxing on the CNS than training to failure with higher reps and lighter weights. I must say, all ten weightlifters at the AIS at the time broke down simultaneously. We were literally begging our two coaches for mercy. I kid you not! We began to loose interest and our recovering ability went through the floor. Looking back at it now, I believe we were been used as guinea pigs to find out our CNS threshold.
That was a single two weeks occasion in a span of 3 years, (not bad). Bodybuilders on the other hand seem to be consistently going on a roller coaster ride of feeling great one week, and crashing not long after. Bodybuilders need to look at the periodisation system employed by their cousin sports: weightlifting and powerlifting. No bodybuilder should ever have to suffer the yo yo effect of an unscientific training protocol. We all deserve the very best science has to offer, NOW!
Fadi.
