Comments on: Will You Build More Muscle If You Train To Failure In Every Set?

By: Wayne

Wayne — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 23:47:15 +0000

Hello Mark,
I went back to my T.H.T material to re-read your definition of “training to failure”. I think I now understand what you mean. Somewhere I had gotten the idea that “training to failure” was needing a spot on your last one or two reps of each set. Yeah I feel stupid…

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:49:56 +0000

@Ty. Download and read the THT manual

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:49:11 +0000

@Saurabh. It makes more sense to stick with 1 rep range for 10 weeks as your strength and gains will continue upward in a straight linear fashion this way.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:48:08 +0000

@Siddhartha chowdhur. Yes. You are doing 2 sets, but you get 300% more frequency than the 5-day plan. Please read this post https://musclehack.com/is-3-days-really-enough-to-build-muscle/
and download the full THT manual.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:45:44 +0000

@JaSoN. Exactly.
@Kyle Haupt. Yes, you are fully recovered/overcompensated when you can complete more reps and/or use more weight in your next session. That’s how you know. Please get the full THT manual and read to have all these issues cleared up for you.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:42:20 +0000

@Twitch. In that scenario, keep going until failure.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:40:55 +0000

@Wayne. I train alone and I train to failure every set. You can buy something to rack the bar on for squats. Everything else is easy.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 20:40:01 +0000

@Michael Harnden. The best cadence is about 1 second for a positive and 2 seconds for a negative. The best rep range for growth with this cadence is 8-12 (to failure).

By: Ty

Ty — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 17:01:22 +0000

Mark, I did look at your POP diagram, only thing is under time you don’t state how many days or hours before you should do the next workout for full recovery and over compensation to take place.

By: Saurabh

Saurabh — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 14:27:34 +0000

Also, to add up here when all the folks are reading this content, I would like to mention that in my lifting experience of 3.5 years, I had the best gains using THT program. It might look simple in front of many fancy and advertised programs out there, but it nails it when comes to strength and size gains.

By: Saurabh

Saurabh — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 14:24:12 +0000

Hey Mark,
Appreciate such a detailed reply. Thanks a lot.
One more question is when we are cycling rep ranges in THT like 6-8 reps for weeks, then 10-12 reps for weeks, can’t we merge them in single workout and get benefits of strength and size gains simultaneously. Asking you this because, squatting heavy made my core really strong but because of some injury I had stopped heavy squatting for 2 months and did in 10-12 rep range and suffered from strength loss.
With all respect for your work :
Best regards,
Saurabh

By: Siddhartha chowdhur

Siddhartha chowdhur — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 09:56:53 +0000

mark in yr tht program there are very few sets for each exercise like fr forearms 1 sset etc but i have noticed that in internet max sets for each exercise is 3 or 4??. If i train 3 days a week with these workouts will my body grow rather than using 5 days of plan. Thank u

By: Kyle Haupt

Kyle Haupt — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 09:47:15 +0000

Hey Mark

I assume different people take different amounts of time to fully rest and recover, is there a way to calculate that time or a way to (or signs to) know when the body has completely rested and recovered?

By: JaSoN

JaSoN — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 07:45:47 +0000

This is the NUMBER ONE!! problem in the gym. The guys are training ”hard” but there’s no intensity in their sets. They get to a certain rep range and stop and then hit another 6 sets of the same exercise!! They just don’t fricken get it!!!

By: Twitch

Twitch — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 02:33:50 +0000

Mark, if you hit (say) 12 reps but haven’t reached failure do you keep going or stop there?

By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 21:30:47 +0000

Hello Mark,
Been reading your site for some time now, really good stuff! I have no workout partner or a spotter, over the years I have built my own gym in my home. Training to failure is not an option for me, and others who train alone, on many exercises. How would you handle my situation?

By: Michael Harnden

Michael Harnden — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 21:19:14 +0000

Hey Marc, I was wondering what your thoughts are on ‘time under tension’ training. Ive been doing tht for 18 weeks; however, I feel like my strength levels have gone up so much that Im just ‘lifting weights’ using the tempo prescribed. What donyou think about 8 second reps w lighter weights?

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 19:17:14 +0000

@Norman. Yes I got past failure sometimes. I write about these advanced techniques here https://musclehack.com/6-techniques-to-build-muscle-that-youve-never-heard-of/

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 19:16:25 +0000

@Jamie. They’re not useless by any means. But the latest is the most effective. But feel free to use earlier versions.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 19:15:46 +0000

@Ty. If you look at my POP diagram above. You know if you’ve overcompensated when you go to do the same workout and your performance improves (slightly more reps/weight over the workout).
If you do THT, this is all taken care of automatically.

By: nNorman

nNorman — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 18:10:22 +0000

Hi Mark,
What are your thoughts on taking sets past failure (i.e. using a spotter or “cheating” after reaching failure)? Would it be too much to do that for every set?

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 17:50:54 +0000

Hi Mark
Does the latest THT workouts mean the older versions are now defunct/obsolete? Are they worth holding onto to for future rotation for instance? Or you would view them as “no, don’t use them”.?
Thanks for the good work.

By: Ty

Ty — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 17:32:54 +0000

The question is how do you know you have fully recovered and grown before you do your next workout? Everyone recovers different, age, body type, diet, protein consumption etc. You might squat every 4 days and go up a few pounds or reps but if you gave it an extra day you might even do better.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 16:34:36 +0000

@Saurabh. It certainly does not. This is from my free THT book…
“But Doesn’t Failure “Fry your CNS”?
Don’t you just love it when a phrase is parroted around by people who don’t even know what it means? People that don’t like/want to train to failure pick this phrase up somewhere on their journey and regurgitate when it’s needed to defend their position.
While there is a lot that can be said on this issue, I can summarize it by simply saying that it’s rubbish. You can experience this type of burnout by OVERTRAINING, but taking a set to failure doesn’t “fry your central nervous system”. THT is a fairly low-volume, high intensity approach that works! You will not overtrain with THT.”

By: Saurabh

Saurabh — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 16:28:01 +0000

Hey Mark,
M big fan of your work. Just a question here, I read many times that training to failure everytime fries the central nervous system and hence all the sets should not be taken to failure.
I personally had record gains using THT, so I know how imp is training to failure but still want to understand this relationship between training to failure and CNS.