Tag: Beginners

Training to Failure

A good friend emailed me a while back asking if he should train to failure.  Some of the websites/forums he was reading gave him the impression it was necessary in order to get big and strong.  I thought I’d share my views on this somewhat controversial topic in the iron game.

Let me first define the term: training to failure means you perform a certain exercise until you literally cannot continue.  This means you either drop the weight or (more commonly) require the assistance of a spotter to do more repetitions.

I hardly ever train to failure, and I don’t recommend it for other trainees.  Here are my reasons:

1.  The majority of the experts I follow don’t recommend it.  By “expert” I mean guys who have years of training experience and/or an impressive personal resume of competitive powerlifting.

2.  It burns out the central nervous system (CNS). Training to failure tends to take its toll on the CNS, which will hurt your progress, delay your recovery, and may make you weaker in the long run.

3. It sets you up for injury.  Here’s a typical scene I’ve seen played out in the gyms:  A young guy can only do four good reps on bench press with a given weight.  But he’s determined to do 6-8 reps, so his spotter ends up doing a lot of pulling on rep number 5.  “Two more,” the eager trainee grunts.  The lifter and spotter end up being at risk for injury in this situation.

4.  It doesn’t make sense from a psychological perspective.  In other words, you want to teach yourself how to successfully perform every repetition with good form.  The goal is to lift the weight–not drop it or hand it to a spotter.

What I do:

I normally stop once I know I will be unable to do one more repetition with good form.   I was advised to train this way years ago, and it has served me well.  My own personal strength records came from smart training (like periodization); not going to failure.

Having said all this, there are times when you may want to try certain specific (advanced) techniques that require training to failure or near failure (drop sets, rest-pause training, etc.).  But I think these instances should be exceptions, not staples, in your workouts.  Just be sure there is a specific strategy involved in everything you do.

 

Cardio and Weights

Most trainees should integrate some kind of cardio in with weight training.* This will keep your heart healthy and help you burn additional calories. As I’ve mentioned before, resistance training and cardio is a winning combination for fat loss (see: Weight Training and Weight Loss).

I’ll divide cardiovascular training into two basic categories for the sake of simplicity:

1. Steady-state Training—going the same speed on a treadmill, exercise bike, etc. This type of training is usually more moderate (aerobic) in intensity—the trainee would not be huffing and puffing.

2. Interval Training—Hill sprints, burpees, jumping rope, etc. These kinds of exercises can be done for short periods (usually around 30 seconds to 1 minute), followed by periods of rest (usually 1-3 minutes).

Steady-state training has the advantage of being low-risk (in terms of injury) and “easy” compared with other forms of training.

Interval training has some serious advantages to consider: 1). Time efficient—burning more calories in less time 2). More practical for most athletes—almost all sports are anaerobic in nature (soccer, basketball, MMA, and the list goes on). 3). More interesting than running/walking on a treadmill.

Interval training and weight training are both efficient ways to lower glycogen (glucose stored in the muscle and liver).

The simplest way to integrate cardio is to do it on a day you don’t train with weights. But time constraints may not allow this, or you may just prefer the convenience of doing everything while you are at the gym.

I’d highly recommend you do your cardio training after your resistance training if you want to do both in the same day/session. It just makes sense to lift weights when your energy and glycogen levels are still high. Warming up on the treadmill for a few minutes is OK, but lifting weights when you are already tired seems like a setup for injury.

Interval training after you lift could be used as a “finisher” to your workout—a way to improve your overall conditioning and increase the calorie deficit created by your workout (Renegade Cardio would work very well here).

Steady-state cardio can burn fat by taking advantage of low glycogen levels created during resistance training (another reason I suggest doing weights first).

Either strategy could be used help you reach your goal of fat loss and better overall health. But I’ll remind you again: fat loss only happens when you have created a negative calorie balance through diet.

*About the only exception I can think of here is super-skinny types who are struggling to put on mass. They may want to avoid cardio for their first few months of training. But even they should eventually consider adding it in some form eventually.