“The necessary muscle stimulation to force adaptation occurs in the last few reps of a set.”
That’s a quote from my free book Total Anabolism. There’s more to this and if you want to MAXIMIZE increases in muscular size, it’s important for you to understand. We’ll look at muscle fibers, evolution, and the ‘anaerobic window’. Let’s get stuck in…
There is a point in a set where the ‘growth mechanism’ is activated, below which no muscular growth is stimulated.
You can liken this to a switch that’s flipped when you cross this threshold. I contend that this point is ‘failure’. When you reach the point in a set where you cannot possibly complete another positive repetition unassisted, you can say you’ve reached failure.
Muscle growth is actually a defense mechanism by the body. Much in the same way that a blood clot or a suntan is. Of course, a sufficient stimulus is required to produce this type of adaptation. Unfortunately for us humans, our bodies would much rather we built NO muscle whatsoever.
For evolutionary reasons the body doesn’t want to add more muscle!
Why not?
Muscle is metabolically active tissue i.e. the more of it you have, the more calories are required to keep you alive. Our bodies have adapted to expect long periods of hunger. They are also very efficient at storing/synthesizing body fat in anticipation of these periods.
Modern man is faced with the dilemma of wanting to be lean and muscular, while his body wants to have no ‘excess’ muscle (beyond normal levels) and a ready supply of fat for when famine strikes!
It should therefore be abundantly clear that without a really good reason, the body will not readily enlarge upon its existing muscle mass. Except for the neophyte or genetic freak, that reason is ‘failure’.
2B or Not 2B
Our most powerful muscle fibers, and the ones that respond most to weight training, are our type 2 fibers. These are our fast-twitch, anaerobic, power fibers. Specifically, there are Type 1 fibers (slow twitch) and type 2a, 2ab, and 2b fibers (fast twitch). (No. 4 in the illustration is a muscle fiber).
Here’s the interesting thing about muscle fibers: They are recruited SEQUENTIALLY. This means that as a set increases in intensity and muscle fibers fatigue, more fibers are recruited from the NEXT fiber type in the following order:
- Type 1
- Type 2a
- Type 2ab
- Type 2b
Logically then, if we want to recruit and fatigue our type 2 fibers, we have to bring our set to a point where sufficient intensity is occurring to call into play the relevant motor units for the type 2b fibers.
In everyday life, the brain will not send out this signal unless there is some sort of emergency situation at hand. However, muscle hackers can voluntarily recruit these fibers by working to a point of muscular failure.
If, for example, a guy does a set of 10 reps, the tenth rep being the last rep possible, he won’t be involving his type 2b fibers until the 9th or 10th rep. All other reps build up to this point as fibers were recruited sequentially, and deeper inroads were made into starting strength levels through ever-increasing intensity.
It is that last, most uncomfortable, rep where the ‘growth switch’ is flipped. Bring a set to this point and you can rest easy knowing that you’ve done enough stimulate growth.
The ‘Anaerobic Window’
An incorrect interpretation of this may be to say that very high rep ranges can stimulate as much growth because if you fail at rep 30, you’ve still progressed through the sequential recruitment, right?
Not really. It is well agreed upon in the fitness world that sets lasting between 60-90 seconds or less will produce more in the way of anaerobic adaptations than aerobic ones. As I’ve stated before, because our ability to recover from mechanical work is not unlimited, sets lasting more than 1.5 minutes will SPLIT adaptations between both the aerobic and anaerobic systems.
While there is nothing magical about a certain repetition number, a good rep range and cadence should have you terminating a set around the 1 minute mark. Therefore training systems that advocate very high rep ranges, or even the SuperSlow ™ movement, are not optimal for those prioritizing muscular growth.
A question I often get is, “How do I know when I’ve reached failure?” I thought about it and came up with the following…
When you think you may have reached failure, try another rep. If you get that rep, try another one and so on. Basically, a set doesn’t end when you decide, it ends when your muscle(s) fails. If you find that you can hammer out 3 or 4 more reps every time you use this method, you are using weights that are too light. Often when people complain that they can’t reach failure, it’s simply a case of submaximal loads. So increase the weight, there’s nothing mysterious about failure, you’ll know it when you hit it.
Training ‘not-to-failure’ can lead to ‘fake progression’. If I use a weight that represents only 75% of my 10-reps-to-failure weight and lift a 10-rep set, I could ‘progress’ for many months by increasing by a rep here, an incremental weight increase there, and so on. My numbers would be going consistently up but I wouldn’t be progressing in actuality because:
- In a few months time I’ll finally reach the point where I lift 10 reps-to-failure with the weight I actually could have used way back at the start. This ‘fake progression’ ensured that I never pushed through the upper limits of my strength potential.
And I wouldn’t actually be growing because:
- I never forced any adaptation because I trained WITHIN my existing strength levels and never made any demand from my body to increase the size of the muscle fibers.
Of course, training with the requisite intensity to trigger growth does involve a longer recovery period and this can confuse some people. Those bodybuilders who train the same body part 3 times a week will fall into this category.
By the time they perform their second workout of the week (hitting the same muscle groups), they haven’t even recovered let alone overcompensated. Oftentimes, they’ll not be able to even repeat their previous performance let alone beat it. This disappointed guy goes back to his old system swearing never to train to failure again.
This longer recovery is for a very good reason though. Those powerful, type 2B fibers we want to hit, also take the longest to recover and overcompensate. The fact that you’ve flipped the growth switch and NEED that longer recovery time should put the over-anxious gym-goer’s mind at ease when he feels he’s not training enough.
So get to the gym and flip that switch!
Train Intelligently My Friends!
Mark
As ever… interesting and informative.
Not heard of the muscle types before so I’ve learnt something.
I’m taking a week off this week, but next week….. I’ll be going to failure.
Thanks for keeping us all motivated.
Mark, after a good back and bicep work out I finish off by doing weighted chin ups using 40# I can get 5 pull ups I drop 10# and can get 5, drop 10# and I can get 6. This is all done as a strip set (no rest inbetween sets) Is this ok or should I use less weight, take a break between sets, and stay in the 8-10 rep range.
Mark, seeing as I usually train alone does this info re going to failure stress importance on a partner/spotter to push past fail?
Awesome article Mark. I have one little question though.
I’m sure I’ve read it a few times in my weekly read of your free e-book, but I can’t quite recall. Should I train to failure on EVERY SINGLE REP? Or just the last one? For example:
Today I did bicept concentration curls, and i did 10, waited two minutes, 11, then waited another two minutes and then did 11 again. That last time I was really ‘going to failure’ to get that last curl in. So should I go as hard as possible to bring it up on the 1st and 2nd rep too? or just the last?
Thanks
Another great article!
so that you are talking Tony Horton’s method ( he often work in circuit style) cant build muscle…. this cant make any sense because many ppl has report sucess to their company…..)
On the whole evolutionary thing, I’ve recently been thinking why is that lean and muscular seems attractive? Sure it’s an indicator of strength, speed and health (good for providing/proctecting) but it’s very possible to be chubby yet extremely strong and fit.
An ability to store fat is a good survival mechanism, and, in primitive days, being fat would mean being particularly successful in the struggle for food.
Good survival genes are desirable to pass on.
Sure, in modern society being fat is most commonly a sign of being lazy and greedy, eating crap food, generally poor lifestyle, good chance of heart disease etc.
Maybe it is a social thing, being really lean and muscular means dedicating yourself to being in the top few percent which is attractive. Just a random thought.
P.S. Similar question to Ray, what do you think of drop sets and negatives?
Mark,
Would like to get your opinion on maintaning muscle mass. How would you recommend the workouts to be, what rep range to work on? I’ve been struggling to maintain my muscle mass ever since I’ve started to create a daily calorie deficit – it helped in the beginning to bring my fat down to 14 – 15%. I weigh 78kg on 5’10” frame. I started cutting calories at 86kg 4 -5 months ago. Now it seems my weight is droppin n muscle mass is following the trend while body fat% seems to b holding around the same region.
Any tips so that I can go leaner but not sacrificing too much of muscle mass?
Mark,
I’m sure you used to say that you would always aim to do one extra rep each week and even if you felt you could do more you would still only do one extra to make sure you didn’t halt your gains the week after? Surely that’s not going to failure if you can do more but choose not to?
Thanks
Ryan
@Ray. Like I recommend in the book, go to failure, take 2-3 minutes, reduce the weight, and you’ll hit failure again in the same rep range.
@Benny B. I also train alone every single time. ‘Assisted reps’ is beyond failure. You won’t need a partner if you train to POSITIVE failure. However, a rack is required for squats if you’re alone.
@Johnny. I changed my mind on this quite a while ago and updated the book and wrote an article accordingly. Check it out…
https://musclehack.com/should-you-train-to-failure-in-every-set/
@Simon. I don’t think negatives are not required by the majority of people. Once you are reaching the upper limits of your genetic potential they may come in handy to FORCE further adaptations and gain those last few pounds of muscle. If you are still progressing with reps/weight to ‘positive’ failure, there’s no need for this strategy.
Drop-setting is great and actually a part of THT. Going to failure makes inroads into starting strength levels. Even 2-3 minutes isn’t enough for the muscle fibers to recover (not even close for those 2b fibers) which is why we cannot lift the same weight to the same number of reps in successive sets. This is why slightly lighter weights are employed in successive sets. If you notice that you CAN lift the same or even more reps there are only 3 possibilities:
1 – You didn’t actually train to failure the first time around
2 – Your form was much looser the second time around
3 – For some reason you were more motivated the second time around
I made a mistake in the first comment above. The ‘@Johnny’ comment was meant for Ryan but I think that answers your question too Johnny.
So @Ryan. I changed my mind on this quite a while ago and updated the book and wrote an article accordingly. Check it out…
https://musclehack.com/should-you-train-to-failure-in-every-set/
@Jonz. I don’t want this to sound like a sales pitch but that’s why I wrote the ‘Total Six Pack Abs’ book. I consider losing muscle mass a big NO NO when losing fat, the good news is that you don’t have to. Diet is primary, cardio is secondary. Of course you still need to lift and seek ongoing progressions.
Awesome Mark, you answered my question with all the posts you made lol. Cheers.
I like your take on figuring out when you’ve trained to failure. A lot of guys really believe that they train to failure each and every set of every workout, when in reality their leaving a lot on the table! Typically there’s a huge disconnect between actually training to failure and thinking you’re training to failure. Here’s another really easy way to tell if your truly training to failure. If you believe you’re truly training to failure each workout and you know you’ve got your nutrition plan nailed down – then chances are…you’re not actually training to failure!
Beachbody(fake ones):
people get results from their program because they get off their arse and work hard!!! “You can get results from the worst program if you stick to it”(quote Yavor from RelativeStrengthAdvantage)
“People nowadays are hoping for magic pills that will make anything work, we live in a magic pill society”(quote Tyler from RealSocialDynamics)
So many website now says that sit-ups and crunches are bad for you body, and the new hype now is planks, but thousands of years ppl get 6 packs from sit ups and crunches(Ryan Renolds, Nelly, 50cent, musclehackers….)!!
but ppl get results from planks as well(sorry doesn’t have someone famous that come across my mind
So think programs as motivator and guide to stay on.
But remember it is not what program that matters, it is YOU that matter!
hi i perform tht(bicep) monday, tht(shoulder, tricep), tuesday, wed and thurs with cardio, so can i do bodypump workout on friday, can i do that???
@bodypumper. If your goal is to build muscle mass, the added cardio and bodypump class would be counterproductive and ensure that you are spending too much time in recovery and not allowing new growth. However, perhaps your goal is general fitness, in which case it’s a fairly decent plan. If fat loss is your priority, remember that diet is the most important factor in this.
i only have the option of weight training 3 times per week
(because of my whey protein supply,no that rich whatsoever, and my mum dun wan me to take too much of this stuff)
how should i organise???
Hi Mark, what are your thoughts on Hypertrophic Specific Training HST by Bryan Haycock? The reason I am asking is due to your quote ” Training ‘not-to-failure’ can lead to ‘fake progression”
@bodypumper. I posted a 3day workout in this site, have a search for it.
@Luke. Training WITHIN your current strength limits will not increase strength. So performing 6 reps of an certain weight, then 8 reps next time round, then 10 reps, NOT to failure (and so on….) will do little or nothing for growth since increases in strength and mass are a defensive adaptation that only takes place once a critical threshold of intensity is reached. Sure, a progression took place but the body is not interested in the figures you input on your workout log, it responds to the intensity of the work.
Can you comment on his ideeas:
https://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/failure.htm