Training

Dec 13, 2019

Tips of the week Perform purely negative curls for more bicep growth

Load the barbell with a weight with which you can only perform 4 repetitions of curls.
Put the weight down after the fourth repetition and increase the weight by about 20%.
Pick the weight up again immediately and then curl the weight upwards with the help of a training partner. Your training partner will have to help you a lot here. You yourself will do very little during the concentric phase of the movement.
After your training partner has helped you to move the weight upwards, slowly lower the weight over a period of 8 seconds. Repeat this purely negative repetition one more time.
Perform a total of 3 of these descending sets with 4 minutes rest between sets.

Tip: Improve your technique with wall squats

Improve your squat and deadlift technique with a simple exercise you can do at home

By Chad Waterbury

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-hone-your-technique-with-wall-squats

Most bodybuilding magazines extol the virtues of classic squats for building muscular thighs. The problem, however, is that classic squats are usually not an effective muscle building exercise for the quadriceps unless you have a specific skeletal structure (short hamstrings, long torso) and sufficient mobility. Here's a simple test to find out if classic squats are right for you or not.

Stand in front of a mirror. Start with your arms crossed in front of your chest and your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Get into a full squat position while keeping your torso as vertical as possible. If your knees are fully bent in the lowest position, your heels are on the floor and (and this is crucial) your torso has an angle greater than 75% relative to the floor, then your body is built for classic squats.

Tall people with long femurs, or those who lack mobility, will have a torso that is too bent forward in the deepest squat position to properly overload the quadriceps. This doesn't mean that squats won't have benefits, but you need to understand that if you can't achieve the position described above, squats won't build big strong thighs as quickly as other exercises.

Assuming that you are shorter than 190 cm and don't have the long hamstrings of a professional basketball player, it may well be that you just need to work on your technique and flexibility. Wall squats, also known as wall squats, are an effective exercise for this(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VIm3eZaA5I)

Wall squats

Stand facing a wall with your nose and toes touching the wall. Your feet should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, with your toes pointing slightly outwards.
Descend as far as you can into the squat position with your arms hanging between your legs in front of your body or raised above your body. You should be able to go down a little further with each repetition.
Do 3 sets of 15 repetitions per day until you can lower your hips to below your knees.

Those who are unable to lower their hips lower than their knees even after two weeks of performing wall squats daily should focus on front squats and one-legged squats for their quadriceps development.

Wall squats, on the other hand, are a great exercise for everyone. They will improve your squat and deadlift technique regardless of your skeletal structure and stature.

Tip: Make hip thrusts even better

Hip thrusts are perhaps the best gluteus exercise on the planet. Here's an easy way to make this exercise even more effective

By Bret Contreras

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-make-the-hip-thrust-even-better

The upper range of motion in hip thrusts is the most difficult part of the movement, and many exercisers cheat on this part of the movement when trying to perform as many repetitions as possible. They go less and less far up with each repetition. Combat this tendency by performing a 10 second isometric hold on the last repetition of a set.

This will keep your form solid while you build strength. Additionally, this technique will create a killer muscle burn in the gluteus. After 6 to 8 seconds of holding, you will notice that your hips want to drop. When this happens, push the hip up by contracting the gluteus hard, ensuring that the last few seconds of the isometric hold are maximally effective.

Even if you are performing a heavy single repetition or a max repetition, try to hold the highest position for a few seconds.

Tip: Perform javelin presses for your shoulders

Start your next shoulder workout with this unique exercise to activate your nervous system

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-javelin-press-for-shoulders

This exercise is simple but challenging. Simply perform one-arm shoulder presses using a barbell instead of a dumbbell. The grip position will be similar to that of a javelin thrower.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t5shgOhKyE)

Javelin presses have several benefits that make them an excellent pressing exercise

The neutral grip reduces stress on the shoulder joint.
The use of a barbell increases the need for stabilization of the weight, which leads to activation of the nervous system. Although Javelin Presses are perhaps the best exercise for building raw strength, when performed at the beginning or early in a training session, this exercise can increase the productivity of subsequent exercises.
The triple balancing action (hip, trunk and shoulder joint) makes Javelin Presses an effective exercise for building the body's capacity to adapt to external forces that can throw the body off balance. This makes this exercise a highly effective injury prevention tool.

Tip: Take on the plank and push-up challenge

It's time to add variety to your training. Challenge your friends (or foes) and see who can last the longest

By Dan Blewett

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-take-the-plank-and-push-up-challenge

The rules are simple:

First, perform a set of push-ups through the full range of motion to muscle failure.
Multiply the number of repetitions by 2.5.
Then perform push-ups with this new number as your target...without allowing your knees to touch the floor. You can "pause" in the highest position for as long as necessary, essentially holding a push-up plank position.

So if you can perform 30 push-ups in a row, your goal is to perform 75 push-ups (30 x 2.5). Only about 10 out of 100 athletes manage this challenge. Are you one of them?

Tip: Activate your latissimus for better deadlift performance

Bringing the latissimus into play will change everything in heavy deadlifts By Tony Gentilcore

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-fire-up-the-lats-to-deadlift-better

The latissimus dorsi is the largest back muscle, attaching to the humerus, scapula, rib cage and pelvis. It provides your spine with a ton of stability under heavy loads. Use these two cues to activate your latissimus more:

Protect your arm flexors
Squeeze an orange with the crook of your arm

Both work well, but sometimes it's beneficial to take it a step further to let someone feel what it feels like to activate the latissimus. Try the following:

Learn to build tension in the latissimus using deadlifts:

(https://youtu.be/-J1E3IEc3b8)

Simply attach a resistance band to a barbell bar and perform deadlifts, keeping the barbell close to your body the whole time. Once you've done this exercise, you'll immediately understand what we're talking about.

Tip: Hunt for the pump for more muscle growth

The pump is more than a temporary cosmetic effect - it's essential for muscle growth. Here's the science behind it.

By Bret Contreras, Brad Schoenfeld, PhD

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-for-muscle-growth-chase-the-pump

Arnold was a big advocate of training aimed at achieving a pump. The pump is a phenomenon in which the muscles are pumped up with blood after resistance training. This is primarily achieved by performing multiple sets of moderate to high repetitions.

Here's the short version: During a set with a moderate number of repetitions, the veins that carry blood away from the working muscle are compressed by muscle contractions. However, the arteries continue to supply blood to the muscle, causing an increased amount of intramuscular plasma to accumulate. This causes the plasma to leak out of the capillaries into the interstitial space - the area between muscle cells and blood vessels.

This accumulation of fluid in the interstitial space, together with the osmolytic properties of lactate, generates an extracellular pressure gradient, which in turn causes a push of plasma back into the muscle. The net result is blood that builds up in your muscles and causes them to swell. Scientists also refer to the pump as cell swelling.

Where the prophets of doom are wrong

Many see the pump as a temporary condition that is purely cosmetic in nature. This is a little too short-sighted. Studies have shown that a hydrated cell stimulates protein synthesis and inhibits proteolysis (protein breakdown).

Muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth) is ultimately a function of protein balance - synthesize more protein than you break down and you will build muscle mass. So the fact that cell swelling simultaneously increases protein synthesis while reducing protein breakdown is a big win for muscle building.

What drives this cell swelling-induced hypertrophy response? An increased amount of fluid in the muscle fibers leads to a stretching of the cell membrane. You can imagine the whole thing like a balloon overfilled with water. The muscle perceives this as a threat to its integrity and responds by initiating an anabolic signaling cascade that ultimately serves to reinforce its ultrastructure.

Usually, targeted exercises that keep the muscle under constant tension induce a pump. The occlusion and hypoxia that results from training with the goal of a muscle pump leads to a long list of hypertrophy-stimulating mechanisms. One of these includes increased satellite cell activity, which enhances the muscle cell's ability to grow.

So if muscle growth is your goal, don't shy away from including a few pump sets in your workout.

Tip: Build triceps with mechanical descending sets

Increase the pain to boost your gains. Try this smart technique to build those lagging triceps

By Ben Bruno

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-build-triceps-with-mechanical-drop-sets

Descending sets are a proven muscle building technique. You use a weight and perform as many repetitions until you reach the point of muscle failure. Then you reduce the weight and go to muscle failure again. You then reduce the weight again and continue the set until muscle failure. Basically, you reduce the weight as a way to continue the set.

Mechanical descending sets follow a similar concept, but instead of reducing the weight when your muscles become fatigued, you keep the weight the same. You simply move on to a lighter exercise or a lighter variation of the same exercise to continue the set.

The key is to use exercises that can easily be performed one after the other, without too much transition time, so that you can move from one exercise to the next with minimal disruption, without unnecessarily breaking the flow of the set. There are many different and effective ways to use mechanical descending sets for upper and lower body training. Try the following for your triceps.

Triceps: mechanical descending set

Here we will use lying tricep presses and then move on to close bench presses. Start by performing lying tricep presses with a weight that allows you to perform 8 to 12 repetitions. Then go straight to close bench press for the same number of repetitions as the first exercise.

This version of a mechanical descending set involves the transition from an isolation exercise to a multi-joint exercise. Start with an isolation exercise and, as soon as you can't do any more repetitions, go straight to the multi-joint exercise that trains the same muscle.

Another example of this technique is to start with flying movements with dumbbells and finish the set with dumbbell bench presses to train your chest muscles.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-for-biceps-growth-do-negative-only-curls

From Charles Poliquin

Dec 11, 2019

The 10 best biceps training tips Say goodbye to your skinny arms

We asked 10 experts for their best tips for building bigger biceps. Here are their answers:

Perform 100 reps with an empty barbell bar

Most exercisers who struggle with growing their biceps use really heavy weights and a lot of momentum when doing curls. They perform reps in the low range, which ultimately results in the biceps not doing much work and not getting much tension. The upper back helps with the initial deflection at the beginning of the concentric movement and the eccentric or negative part of the movement is basically dropping the barbell back down.

However, even if you train sloppily at 100 reps with an empty bar, just reaching the 100 reps limit will make your biceps scream. If you can't do the 100 reps in one go without a break, then work towards this goal.

Doing this twice a week without any additional bicep training has made my biceps grow tremendously in just two months. However, like any training stimulus, there will be a time limit at which it loses its effectiveness. By the time I was able to do 200 repetitions without rest, I could no longer see the growth I had experienced during the first 8 weeks. However, if your biceps growth has reached a plateau, then you should try this type of training.

- Paul Carter - Weight training and bodybuilding coach

Take your time with curls

There are many ways to build biceps. And sometimes the "best" way to stimulate new muscle gains is simply to do something new...something you've never done before or haven't done in a long time.

For the biceps, here's something you can try. Next time you do a set of curls, keep an eye on the clock or have a training partner time you. How long did it take you to complete the set?

If you typically train heavy, then you'll probably be under 60 seconds. Let's say you did a fairly heavy set of 8 reps and it took you roughly 1 second to move the weight up and about 2 seconds to lower it in a controlled manner for each rep. Do the math. That's 24 seconds per set. And if you consciously tense the muscles again for 1 second at the highest point of the movement, that's 32 seconds.

That's fine, heavy weights, low reps and therefore less time under tension also builds muscle. But you could miss out on a few muscle fibers and you could miss out on some of the potential hypertrophy if you only ever do short sets.

Now do another set and let it last for at least 60 seconds - maybe even 90 seconds. Yes, you will have to reduce the weight and yes, it will hurt in a whole new way. In fact, in many ways it's harder than doing fewer reps with a heavier weight - which is why many people avoid such training. But you'll also activate other muscle fibers and stimulate a new set of biological responses that signal your body to build some new muscle.

Keep the stopwatch handy or watch the gym clock the next time you train biceps. You might be surprised to see that you never get close to the 1 minute mark. Add a few 60 to 90 second sets to your heavy workout or use an entire training block on higher time under tension. Your biceps will grow faster than the US national debt.

- Chris Shugart

Chase the pump

I compete in IFBB competitions and I don't really care about strength. "How much is this athlete curling?" That's a question you won't find on the judges' scorecards. Interestingly enough, over 20 years of training has also taught me that moving heavy weights will do very little for mass gains, especially in terms of arm training.

Sure, it might impress other guys at the gym while giving you inflammation around your elbows and wrists, but you're not going to get results that will blow up your shirts on your arms. Therefore, by far the best tip for building bigger biceps is to train for a pump. This is best achieved with lighter weights and intensity techniques. My favorite intensity techniques include reps focused on the eccentric phase, descending sets, rest-pause sets and isometric holds.

Drive up the volume, pair the exercise with an intensity technique and save the heavy weights for your leg day. Your sleeve-blasting pump will do more for your mass gains than the sore joints that will follow training with excessive weights.

- Mark Dugdale - IFBB Pro Bodybuilder

Use moderate weights, higher reps and more cumulative metabolic stress

Some exercisers get carried away trying to train their arms with pure strength, but the arms don't respond as well to heavy weights.

Yes, that's right, the days of swinging around 40+ kilos with an ugly compensation scheme that looks more like back stretches than Culrs are over. In now (at least for smart exercisers) is the pursuit of a painful, skin-bursting pump to achieve not only gains in strength and muscle mass, but also increased upper arm resilience, which protects joints.

Once you've put together your program, it's all about execution. Contract the biceps as slow and hard as humanly possible on each repetition to maximize tension and increase total time under tension. More importantly, this strategy will improve your mind-muscle connection.

Working at an intentionally slow pace will increase the hardness of the contraction at the highest point of each repetition, while an extended movement throughout the range of motion from a stretch is the perfect recipe for massive biceps. Leave your ego at the bar, move the weights slowly, perform more repetitions and maintain perfect form to maximize the effectiveness of each repetition. This way, you'll achieve gains you can brag about in a tank top without pain or injury.

- Dr. John Rusin - Doctor of Physical Therapy, Performance Expert

Focus on full body strength first and then use an isodynamic contrast

Without building a foundation first, you'll never have the fundamentals you need to specialize and maximize isolation training. However, if you are already strong, then you will need isolation training to build bigger and stronger biceps.

One of the biggest obstacles that exercisers have to overcome when trying to build lagging areas in their development is a poor mind-muscle connection. Once you get past the beginner gains, you'll have a hard time building your biceps until you can actually feel your muscles working. This is where the isodynamic contrast method comes into play.

Curls with isodynamic contrast

Take a weight with which you can perform 15 repetitions.
Curl the weight up to the point where you cannot go any further in an exhausted state, which should correspond to an angle of around 90 degrees. Contract the biceps as hard as possible against the resistance to generate a radiating stimulus and improve muscle fiber recruitment. Hold this tension for 15 to 20 seconds.
After holding, perform 8 to 12 repetitions or go to technical failure. This generates a lot of metabolic stress, a lot of mechanical tension and improves the mind-muscle connection for building bigger and stronger biceps. Perform three to four sets this way twice a week.

- Eric Bach - Strength coach

Do you want to grow your biceps? Then maximize the effort.

Ten years ago, I would have recommended a pyramid scheme with barbell curls. Five years ago, I would have recommended heavy pull-ups with an underhand grip and additional weight. Today I have a different opinion.

A recent training study by Brittany Counts and colleagues came up with some fascinating results. The subjects completed three training sessions per week for six weeks. Each subject used two training protocols: one where the arms were moved without load and the other where the arms were moved with heavy weights.

In the no-load protocol, subjects moved their arms into elbow flexion and extension while attempting to contract their biceps through the full range of motion with maximal force. They were given EMG biofeedback that encouraged them to contract their biceps as hard as possible throughout the training session. They performed 4 sets of 20 repetitions with 30 seconds rest between sets.

In the high load protocol, the subjects performed 4 sets of dumbbell curls of 8 to 12 repetitions with 70% of the 1RM weight and 90 seconds rest between sets. The weight was increased over the course of the 6 weeks of the study.

Unsurprisingly, the group that used dumbbells was able to increase their strength to a greater extent than the group that trained without weights. But here's the crazy thing - both groups experienced the same amount of muscle hypertrophy. This should show you that weight doesn't matter that much when building biceps, as long as you contract your biceps as hard as possible.

For biceps growth, you could perform barbell curls, dumbbell curls, Scott curls or concentration curls with heavy weight and moderate reps, light weight and high reps or a combination of both and see similar muscle growth with all variations as long as the effort is high and the volume is sufficient.

However, when it comes to biceps strength, specificity matters. A study by Scott Dankel and colleagues found that performing 1RM biceps curls every day for 21 consecutive days resulted in the same strength gains as performing the same 1 RM sets with additional curl volume.

So if you want to maximize your strength, then you should perform plenty of heavy training with low reps on the exercise you want to increase. For example, if you believe that the best way to test your biceps strength is to perform a strict set of SZ curls with your back against a wall, then you should perform this exercise frequently during your workout.

- Bret Contreras - Strength coach

Improve your ability to recruit and contract your biceps

When it comes to the biceps, a strong focus on the biceps can often make it harder to get them to grow, as this can shift tension away from the biceps. An intense contraction of the target muscle is much harder to achieve when using heavy weights.

So if you want to grow lagging biceps in their development, the first thing you need to do is work on constant tension to maximize the mind-muscle connection. The time you spend on this is an investment that will be worthwhile for any subsequent bicep training you do.

So my recommendation is not a specific exercise, but a specific way to perform your repetitions. For four weeks, each repetition of your bicep workout should look like this:

Tighten your biceps as hard as you can before you even start moving weights. This is the "principle of first tension" - the muscle that is contracted the hardest is the one that will receive the most stimulation during the set.
Then, as you move the weight up and back down, use a slower tempo - about 3 seconds for the up and down movement. This will allow you to contract the biceps as hard as possible during each inch of the movement (both during the upward movement and the downward movement). If you perform the movement faster, it will be harder to maintain maximum tension.
During the lowering phase of the movement, you should also tense your triceps. This may sound strange, but this makes the eccentric (lowering) phase even harder, emphasizing the eccentric part of the movement.

The benefits:

This is the best way to get really good at recruiting and contracting your biceps and you will program your nervous system to do this, which will make your future heavier bicep workouts more effective.
It stimulates muscle growth via growth factor accumulation and mTOR activation, while causing very little muscle damage. You can (and should) therefore perform this type of bicep training several times a week - preferably on 3 to 4 days. This will allow you to get even better at recruiting your biceps. Remember that regular practice is the key to motor learning.

After you have spent some time training your biceps in this way, you will be able to move on to heavier training, where now the tension will not shift away from the biceps as you have improved your capacity to recruit the muscle and your ability to keep that muscle under tension.

- Christian Thibaudeau - Strength coach

Perform at least one biceps exercise standing and then manipulate it

Choose SZ curls or barbell curls because these exercises tend to be the most efficient and then try one or all of the following:

Use different ranges of motion including partial repetitions.
Try using variations with a fat grip (thicker bar) which will help the biceps to contract better and as an added bonus will increase the size of your forearms.
Use tempo manipulations such as a 2 to 3 second pause at maximum contraction.

- Amit Sapir - IFBB Pro, world record holder in powerlifting

Develop a mind-muscle connection

Focus on tensing the muscle throughout the movement and achieving maximum contraction at the highest point of each repetition of each set. Making a conscious effort to activate the target muscle before and between sets while visualizing this activation and the desired appearance during the movement will help you develop this powerful connection.

This is an extremely effective method and the mind-muscle connection is a very real phenomenon that influences neuromuscular dynamics during resistance training. When you curl, you should make it your goal to feel every inch of the movement from the stretched position to maximum contraction and back. The strong connection between your nervous system and your muscles will help you contract as many muscle fibers as possible during each repetition.

Try incline bench curls, alternating seated dumbbell curls and spider curls. Rotate your forearm outwards (as if you were turning a doorknob) and turn the side of your hand where the little finger is on the upward movement inwards to target your biceps.

- Michael Warren - Strength coach

Perform more pulling exercises

Trainers treat their biceps as primary muscles when performing curl variations and pull-ups with an underhand grip, but don't respect their role as stabilizers in exercises such as rowing, loaded carries, deadlifts and similar exercises. Certainly, increased volume is important in biceps exercises, but the overall tensile volume will make a cumulative difference that will result in thicker upper arms.

Speaking of thicker upper arms - performing exercises with bulky objects beyond traditional dumbbells (like kettlebells, pulling with a thick rope, using a thick bar) can make the biceps work harder and grow. For starters, you can wrap a towel around your pull-up bar or Farmers Walk equipment.

Add extra weekly volume to your training by adding an extra set of all of the above to each weekly training session. You'll see the difference.

- Lee Boyce - Strength coach

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/the-10-best-biceps-training-tips

Dec 09, 2019

The 7 smartest training tips of all time

1 - Train your muscles more often

Forget splits by muscle group. You know, those training splits where Monday is chest day and you don't train that muscle group for 7 days afterwards. The variable overlooked in this common split is the frequency of exercise execution.

If you are the typical exerciser who uses a split by muscle group, then you change your exercise selection, your weights and your repetition ranges on a semi-regular basis, but you only train each muscle group once a week.

In terms of intramuscular adaptations, strength and hypertrophy, you will reach a plateau if you train each movement pattern only once a week. The plateau-breaking potential of increasing frequency will shock you.

To increase training frequency, you should move to a push-pull split while decreasing overall daily training volume.

Here is an example:

Day 1: Pull muscles

Leg curls
back
biceps

Day 2: pressing muscles

quadriceps
chest
shoulders
triceps

If you can train four to six days a week, then you will train each movement pattern two to three times a week. Is that too much to be able to recover sufficiently? No, it is not. The reduction in daily volume makes this possible. Not only will you be able to recover well - your strength will also go through the roof as you double or triple the training stimulus.

Ditch the split by muscle group and increase your training frequency. Or at least give push-pull training a chance for a few months and see what happens.

2 - Perform metabolic finishing sets

There is one muscle that strength and muscle mass focused exercisers often don't think about enough and that is the heart muscle. It needs regular attention and adequate stimulation. There are few things that will get your heart pumping (and therefore strengthening) as much as 10 to 20 minutes of metabolic finishing sets.

At the end of your regular training session, get your metabolic fire burning with EMOMconditioning. EMOM stands for "every minute on the minute". Load up a weight sled or trap bar for Farmers Walk. You should use a heavy enough weight to last 25 to 30 seconds without breaking.

You will have to adapt to the space available, but for every full minute you carry, pull or push the weight for 25 seconds. Take the rest of the minute to recover. During round two, carry, pull or push the weight back to the starting point. The distance you have to cover for each round remains the same, but your rest periods will become shorter as you become more exhausted. Repeat for a total of 10 to 20 rounds. Feel free to curse between deep breaths.

3 - Use time under tension

Slow down! When it comes to stimulating gains in muscle mass, most of the muscle damage required for growth comes from the eccentric or lowering phase of the movement. If you let the weight bounce off your chest or drop like a stone into the lowest position of the movement during squats, then there is essentially no eccentric component, just gravity. Always control the weight.

Yes, there is a time for fast, explosive movements and that is the concentric (lifting) phase of the movement. Increase the time under tension with slow, controlled eccentric movements much more often and grow.

4 - Train the posterior muscle chain

Your posterior chain consists of the muscles at the back of your body from the neck to the Achilles heel. With all the time we spend sitting and all the time we exercisers spend pushing, the posterior chain needs more attention than you are currently giving it. There are two specific exercises for the posterior chain that you're probably not doing, or at least not doing often enough:

Face Pulls

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAzJ7EGrM0E)

There may well be no more important exercise for shoulder joint health and posture than face pulls. This exercise is amazingly effective when it comes to counteracting the three deadly things of the 21st century: sitting, hunched back and staring at a monitor.

Don't think of face pulls as a strength exercise. Keep the weight relatively light and the rope quite high. Focus your attention on the movement of your shoulder blades. They should be pulled back evenly as you pull the rope towards you. Hold the maximum contraction for one to two breaths.

Alternate between an overhand grip and an underhand grip from set to set, or perform 8 to 10 repetitions with one grip first, immediately followed by 8 to 10 repetitions with the other. The difference of a few degrees of external rotation will change how the retractors of the shoulder blades are activated. Aim for 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 20 repetitions.

Hip Thrusts

Hip thrusts are probably the best exercise you can do to activate your gluteus. Apart from filling the back of your pants, you need to maximize the strength and engagement of your gluteus to increase your weights on squats and deadlifts.

A powerful backside will also help you prevent back pain. Get over the initial shame and make hip thrusts a regular part of your training.

5 - Be consistent

Any trainer will answer the question "What is the best program for building muscle or strength or developing a specific muscle group?" with "The program you follow consistently".

There is no substitute for hard work done consistently over an extended period of time when it comes to achieving your goals.

6 - Use techniques to extend your training sets

If we're really honest, it's quite rare for most of us to perform a set to muscle failure. True muscle failure involves skipping the last repetition - something we want to avoid for a number of reasons, with injury being high on the list.

Far more often, we end the set as soon as we reach a target repetition count. At best, we go to voluntary failure (the last repetition I want to perform) or technical failure (the last repetition I can perform without my technique deteriorating).

Ending a set prematurely means giving up potential growth. You may have nothing left to give on that weight or exercise, but that doesn't mean the set has to be over. This is where extensions to the set come into play. But don't overdo it with these techniques. Using them on the last set of an exercise is enough.

The best techniques for extending your training sets:

Descending sets

In a descending set, you continue the set beyond voluntary and/or technical failure by reducing the weight by 10 to 20% and performing more repetitions. Exercises performed on machines with weights or dumbbells are the most convenient for descending sets.

So-called "run-the-rack" sets have long been very popular for side raises and bicep curls. Here you start with a set of dumbbells with which you can complete 8 to 10 repetitions and continue the set with 2.5 to 5 kilos lighter dumbbells, with which you again go to the point of failure. Continue this until you have reached the lightest pair of dumbbells.

Devil's drop sets (devilish descending sets)

My personal favorite approach to descending sets is an approach I call devil's drop sets, which means devilish descending sets. These descending sets provide a good balance between strength and hypertrophy by using relatively heavy weights and relatively high reps. This approach is quite simple: 6-6-6.

Use a weight that is in the range of your 8RM weight and perform 6 reps (meaning you finish the set a few reps before reaching muscle failure). Reduce the weight by just 10% and perform another 6 reps. Then reduce the weight by 10% again and fight through the pain to perform another 6 reps. If you have chosen the weight correctly, you should reach the point of technical failure on the last set.

Mechanical descending sets

Rather than reducing the weight to extend the set, move to a lighter modification of the exercise, usually using the same weight. An excellent growth-stimulating mechanical descending set can be performed with pull-ups:

Perform as many wide-grip pull-ups as you can. Use a weight vest or weightlifting belt with a weight plate hanging from it if you can do more than 15 reps.
Next, for eccentric pull-ups, go to the point of failure. Jump to the highest position and lower your body as slowly as possible.
Finally, get under a bar and perform as many repetitions of horizontal rowing (feet on the floor or elevated depending on your level of fatigue) as possible.

Rest-pause

In a rest-pause set, you perform your set to the point of failure, put the weight down for 10 to 15 seconds and then perform as many more repetitions as possible with the same weight. Then repeat this one more time.

Two rest-pause rounds are usually sufficient. Choose a weight with which you can perform a solid 6 repetitions. You should be able to do 3 to 4 reps on the second mini set and 1 or 2 reps on the last mini set.

7 - Perform your mobility training

At the end of your training session, when your muscles are flooded with blood and your joints are well lubricated, perform mobility training. Take a few minutes to do these flexibility exercises and stretches. You should hold each of these for a good 10 to 30 seconds.

Child's Pose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMp3MlTz9fA

Sit on your heels and move your chest towards your thighs to stretch your lower back, pelvis and groin.

Deep squats without additional weight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wzrgyAurT8

If necessary, hold on to something and go as deep as possible into a squat position. Make subtle weight shifts from one foot to the other and from heel to toe. Tense your spine and relax it again.

Calf stretch

Stand with one foot on a platform inclined at 45 degrees or on the edge of a step if this is the best you have. Shift your weight around your foot in a clockwise rotation for 2 or 3 rotations and then repeat clockwise. The movement should be so subtle that someone watching you should barely notice that you are moving. This is a great help for ankle dorsiflexion mobility.

Hang low

Grab a pull-up bar with a shoulder-width grip, keep your shoulders down and back in a solid position and enjoy the decompressing effect on your spine. Ideally, look for the highest pull-up bar you can find. Stretch out your entire body to get the most benefits. If you are too tall or the bars in your gym are too low, extend your legs slightly forward with your feet above the floor instead of bending your lower legs backwards.

Hip flexor stretch

Your hip flexors, which are chronically shortened from too much sitting, will thank you. Use the following stretching exercise:

Elevated Pigeon Stretch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh78KiTOpjs

Use a box or other horizontal surface that is approximately at the height of your knee or up to mid-thigh height. Place one leg on this surface so that your lower leg is across in front of your body. Bend over the leg and carefully oscillate forwards, backwards and to the right and left. This exercise is excellent for hip mobility.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/the-7-smartest-workout-tips-of-all-time

From Dean Graddon

Dec 06, 2019

Tips of the week More muscular legs

Train heavy or go home?

What is the best repetition range for optimal leg development? We know that heavy training is an excellent way to stimulate the nervous system, which is especially the case with heavy multi-joint exercises. Stimulating the CNS helps to induce greater activation of high threshold motor units and rapidly contracting muscle fibers, while also releasing more growth hormone and more testosterone to support muscle growth.

This is all well and good and I wholeheartedly agree. However, a number of coaches are promoting the idea of a more lactate-stimulating, less anaerobic approach to stimulating quadriceps growth.

From a physiology perspective, the quadriceps need to be quite active throughout the day in activities such as walking, standing and basically any activity where you are on your feet. For this reason, these muscles are designed more for endurance and it's fair to say that they therefore contain a higher proportion of slow contracting muscle fibers.

In addition, athletes such as speed skaters, skiers and cyclists - or athletes in other disciplines where the legs are active for long periods of time - often have a huge quadriceps musculature. What is going on here?

Higher repetition numbers for the legs

It's safe to say that increased time under tension, higher reps, higher lactate production and even an aerobic touch to leg training can drive quadriceps growth, which is why you should consider performing sets with higher reps on leg day.

Breathing squats, for example, are grueling sets where you use a weight with which you can perform a maximum of 10 to 12 repetitions in a row, but complete 20 repetitions with it (you can pause between repetitions and take a deep breath, but you must not put the weight down). The energy expenditure is high, but the reward is worth it. Use this technique with squats or leg presses.

If this is too brutal, then try performing more repetitions by using ladder sets. These allow a trainee to perform 20 reps with their 10 RM weight with short rests of 10 to 15 seconds - just enough time to recover some ATP.

As an empirical example, look at the bodybuilder whose leg development has defined the standard by which all others are measured: Tom Platz. His leg development was unique and his training regularly included very high repetition ranges for lower body exercises such as squats with 100 kilos for 10 minutes at a time - and no, that's not a typo.

Take a cue from this and add more sets, higher volume and more time under tension to your leg workout to grow your thighs.

Tip: Be negative to achieve positive results

Sometimes a kick in the butt works better than a pat on the back - especially when it comes to fat loss.

By Chris Shugart

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-go-negative-to-get-positive-results

Get angry

Watch any TV show about weight loss and you'll hear a lot of crying, a lot of hugs and corny one-liners about having a positive attitude and "releasing the rainbow love in your heart..." - whatever that's supposed to mean. In the real world, however, successful people often get angry to drive positive change.

Chris Bartl, who successfully lost a lot of weight and became famous in the media for doing so, describes his experience as follows: "I didn't like how I looked, how I felt or how I was living my life. I was fat and really pissed off about it."

Chris didn't feel sorry for himself and he didn't stand in front of the mirror repeating positive affirmations and he certainly didn't participate in a group where others patted him on the back and told him that fat was a beautiful thing. He got pissed off ... and he accomplished something.

"People who get sore and fed up with being out of shape experience the most amazing and longest-lasting transformations," says Olesya Novik. "They feel like they have nothing left to lose, so they push themselves and keep going."

Why does anger work? Well, humans are predators. They don't hunt and kill their prey because they somehow want to. Reaching a goal is not a marathon - it's a sprint. You have a short, intense window of time to break bad habits and smash obstacles.

"Successful people are willing to leave their comfort zone," says Alwyn Cosgrove. This applies to their training, diet and lifestyle. How does a self-pitying crybaby deal with something unpleasant? Well, that person will blame others. And what does someone who is willing to channel some good aggression do? That person will fight through this situation and win.

Become selfish

Anger isn't the only politically incorrect emotion that comes into play. "Significant change comes about when you become a little selfish," says John Berardi, Ph.D. "It doesn't have to be a bad thing, even though some of our friends and family may think it is."

Even though it may feel a little strange to set aside time for yourself and your own improvement, this is the only way to go through with it. You need to become a little selfish and take some of your time. This will allow you to avoid distractions while you focus intensely on a single goal.

Feel superior

Another thing you will often see in success stories is a certain feeling of superiority. You don't have to despise people with weak willpower around you, but it helps to remind yourself that you are stronger and more determined than people who skip workouts and prefer to answer the call of fast food and sweets instead. If you feel guilty about your newfound arrogance, remind yourself that this is only temporary. Use it, achieve what you want to achieve with it and then drop it like a bad relationship.

The lesson

Positive change often comes from using a negative attitude. Being an angry, self-absorbed creep with a superiority complex helps people who want to transform their bodies achieve their goals. However, you should make sure to stop this when you have reached your goal.

Tip: Use the back bridge

A surprising number of people have been able to alleviate their back pain by incorporating this wrestling exercise into their training program.

By Mike Mahler | 01/24/16

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-back-bridge

Fed up with your back pain and stiff, weak neck? This is not only the best exercise for your neck, but it will also keep your back pain-free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VheTGg_T4c&t=29s

Lie on your back and place your hands next to your head.
Push yourself off the floor with your feet and simultaneously push your chest back. Your upper body should rest on your forehead on the floor.
Then roll back and forth, reducing the distance between your legs and your head.
Keep your body under tension and tense every muscle from your chest, neck and back to your legs and feet.

Goals and progression

In the beginning, simply work on becoming more confident and flexible in this position. If you can touch the floor with your nose, try to hold this position for 30 seconds. Once you can do this, try to extend this to one minute, then two minutes and finally three minutes. Once you can hold this position for three minutes, take your hands off the floor and fold them in front of your chest.

Try not to relax any part of your body during the bridge and consciously concentrate on keeping your body under tension. The longest I have seen someone hold a bridge for was 15 minutes. A number of people with back problems report that their pain has disappeared since doing this exercise.

Tip: Train your abdominal muscles with anti-extension exercises

A true core workout for athletes involves more than sit-ups and crunches. Try these two killer exercises.

By Mike Robertson

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-hit-the-abs-with-anti-extension-exercises

The "anti-extension" category of core exercises includes any exercise where you actively resist extension of the lumbar spine. These exercises are great for developing core, lumbar spine and pelvic stability. If you perform these exercises correctly, they will really work the external obliques hard and also engage the rectus abdominis to some extent. You can use TRX bands, blast straps or gymnastic rings for these exercises. Here are two exercises from this category:

Fallouts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0llE86ZjRwU

Miyagis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aC0IzgF0-g

Some people will say that these exercises feel easy, but usually these people just don't perform these exercises correctly. To get the most out of these exercises, you should focus on the following:

Keep your chest up throughout the entire exercise. Do not allow yourself to lean forward. If you do, you are using the rectus abdominis too much instead of relying on the lateral obliques to stabilize your body.
Remember to keep the lateral obliques tight throughout the exercise. Focus on your obliques instead of pulling your navel towards your spine.
For exercises where you are fighting a full extension, you should not only focus on tensing the lateral obliques but also contract your gluteus. This will increase the intensity.

Note: If these exercises are really hard for you, don't lose hope. Years of training with crunches and variations of these exercises have made most people rectus abdominis dominant, which means you have to work extra hard to keep your chest up and your neck in a neutral position.

Training mistakes

Using weights that are too heavy. This will cause you to neglect the form of the exercise and start leaning forward.
Performing the exercise too quickly: keep the pace slow and controlled. Make sure you maintain tension in the muscles.

Tip: only eat organic potatoes

Even if you're not on the organic trip, you should still only eat organic potatoes. Here's why

From TC Luoma

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-dont-eat-non-organic-potatoes

Most movie fans have seen the movie "The Martian". In this movie, Matt Damons is stranded on Mars and his only hope to survive is to survive the situation with his scientific knowledge. He only has a limited amount of supplies, which includes a pack of potatoes. He avoids starving to death by sowing these potatoes in soil made from Martian dust and his own feces.

But even if this worked in the movie, it is unlikely that growing potatoes on Mars would have been possible if NASA had not stocked its spaceship with organic potatoes. If this had not been the case, he would have starved to death while waiting forever for the potatoes to finally germinate.

The scary thing is this: If a counterpart of his living on Earth had eaten as many non-organic potatoes as he did over the course of a year, it could have caused serious health problems. Here's why.

The Martians don't want eyes

What makes Damon's situation so unrealistic is the fact that the vast majority of potato farmers bombard their potatoes with chemicals while they are still germinating in the soil - and again after they have been harvested. These chemicals are not intended to kill pests. Rather, they are designed to prevent the potatoes from forming "eyes" so that they keep longer. And if these potatoes don't sprout, then they can't be sown on Mars to survive.

Even worse than these semi-sterile potatoes, however, are the chemicals used to achieve this effect. One of these is maleic hydrazide, which is used while the potatoes are still growing. The current guidelines prohibit the use of this chemical during the last 7 days before harvest. However, these seven days give the chemicals enough time to penetrate the inside of the potatoes while some of the chemicals remain on the leaves of the potato plant, from where they enter the bloodstream and fat deposits of any animal that nibbles on these plants.

Once the potatoes have been harvested, they are cleaned and sprayed with another chemical called chlorproham, which is also designed to prevent the potatoes from sprouting.

Here's the problem

The problem is that these two chemicals prevent cellular mitosis or cell division in plants. Interfering with cell division within the plant may still be acceptable, but you certainly don't want to be ingesting chemicals that are harmful to humans.

To be fair, it should be mentioned that it is not certain whether these chemicals affect cell division in humans, but there is at least evidence that they can at least affect mitosis of human lymphocytes, which is not good.

Additionally, even the agricultural authorities seem to have some concerns about these chemicals. Although they insist that chlorproham is not carcinogenic, they admit that it may have unspecified risks and that the tolerated level in potatoes should be lowered from 50 PPM (parts-per-million) to 30 PPM.

You may think that you can simply wash or peel your potatoes to be safe. This may work in the case of chlorproham, which is simply sprayed on the surface of the plants, but this will not work for maleic hydrazide, which is absorbed by the potatoes. There is at least one study that shows that the maleic hydrazide content of cooked potatoes is no different from that of raw potatoes.

How you can protect yourself

Wash your potatoes with tap water and rub them well with your hands. A study conducted by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found that tap water significantly reduced the levels of 9 out of 12 pesticides and worked as well as soap.

Peel the potatoes. This will remove some of the chemicals, but in return you will also lose almost 50% of the nutrients in the potato.

Spend a little more money and buy organic potatoes.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-for-big-legs-increase-tut-and-volume

From Lee Boyce

Dec 04, 2019

Should you train to the point of muscle failure?

Imagine a scenario where two identical twins start training together. Their training programs are the same, which also applies to the exercises. They eat the same things, they get the same amount of rest and recovery and basically have the same lifestyle.

Now let's say that one of them puts more effort into their training and goes to muscle failure (or close to muscle failure) more often.

Which of the two do you think would make faster progress? Intuitively, you will probably think that it will be the brother who trains harder. Ultimately, we get out of something what we put into it. In the case of training, more effort would therefore lead to better results.

So how did it get to the point where people ridicule training to muscle failure and call it counterproductive? The fact is that this is a complex issue and there are many different things we need to look at. We can't give simple black or white answers, because they don't exist.

However, we can look at the big picture (both anecdotal and scientific evidence) and come to an accurate and unbiased answer.

By the end of this article, you'll have a much better idea of what training to muscle failure is, what the science suggests, what the benefits of such training are, what some potential drawbacks may be, and how you can use all of this to your advantage.

What is training to muscle failure?

Training to muscle failure is the process of moving a given weight until you can no longer produce enough force to move that weight correctly. In other words, you have reached the point of muscle failure when you have to reduce the range of motion or use momentum to move the weight.

Keep this in mind throughout this article as it will have an impact on everything else we will cover today. In addition, many people have a misconception of what training to muscle failure really means.

The muscle failure you experience at this point is relative to a specific weight. You can no longer move this weight without first giving yourself a break, but you can reduce the weight slightly and continue training. This is a common technique called descending sets.

For example, let's say you're doing bench presses with 130 kilos. You reach the point of muscle failure after the 8th repetition, stand up, remove a pair of weight plates, lie back down and continue the set.

In other words, your muscles are not completely exhausted, but their performance is significantly reduced for a while.

Training to muscle failure: the latest study (and what older studies have found)

Over the last few years, training to muscle failure has attracted more and more attention. We now have several well-designed studies that have looked at this issue and are trying to find a definitive answer.

Before we examine the study situation, it should be emphasized that scientific investigation of training to muscle failure is difficult, as scientists must primarily rely on subjects to provide accurate information. However, a 2017 study highlighted that subjects tend to inaccurately estimate how much effort they put into their training sessions (1).

In this study, subjects were told to choose a weight that was close to their maximum weight for 10 repetitions. Only 35 of the 160 study participants reached the point of muscle failure on the 10th to 12th repetition. All others performed 13+ repetitions before reaching muscle failure.

The first paper on training to muscle failure comes from the Australian Institute of Sport (2). The subjects were 26 elite male soccer and basketball players between the ages of 16 and 18. All subjects had at least six months of training experience with weights. The study participants were divided into two groups for a bench press test:

Group 1 performed 4 sets of 6 repetitions to muscle failure
Group 1 performed 8 sets of 3 repetitions, but not to muscle failure

Both groups trained bench presses three times a week for 6 weeks. After these 6 weeks, the scientists tested both groups and found that the group that had trained to muscle failure had built up to 5% more strength and speed than the group that had not trained to muscle failure.

The second study comes from the University of Tsukuba in Japan (3). In this study, the scientists investigated the effects of metabolic stress on hormones and muscle adaptations. However, this study also provided some insight into the influence of training to muscle failure.

The scientists had the subjects perform three exercises:

Lat pulldown
Shoulder press
Bilateral knee extensions.

They divided the 26 men into two groups:

Group 1 performed 3 to 5 sets of 10 repetitions (to muscle failure) on each exercise and paused for one minute between sets, which corresponded to a typical standard training program.
Group 2 performed the same amount of training volume, but paused for 30 seconds in the middle of each set to relieve some of the metabolic fatigue. Thanks to these short breaks, the subjects in this group never reached the point of muscle failure.

So both groups performed the same number of repetitions and sets, but group 1 was able to build more muscle and more isometric strength, saw significant increases in their maximum weight for a repetition and increased their muscle endurance more.

Finally, a 2016 paper set out to use the existing data to give us a definitive answer on training to muscle failure (4). The scientists felt that training to muscle failure is not necessary for beginners, but seems to have benefits for more advanced exercisers.

This idea is quite plausible as beginners can indeed make significant progress with relatively light training as they are not used to the demands and stresses of training. As we become more advanced, new muscle growth occurs more slowly and we have to push the limits further and further to continue to make progress.

Here is a quote from this paper:

On the other hand, repetitions to muscle failure in low-intensity resistance training appear to be essential for increases in muscle strength and mass of similar magnitude to those in high-intensity resistance training. When it comes to trained individuals, the data shows greater gains in muscle strength with high-intensity resistance training performed to muscle failure than with training not performed to muscle failure.

Is training to muscle failure good for muscle hypertrophy?

How does muscle growth occur? Do we politely ask for it? Do we wish for it to happen? Do we stumble around the gym half-heartedly to stimulate new growth?

Or do we ask for it?

Intuitively, we all know that muscle growth requires effort. We can't expect to just go through the motions and make good progress.

Your body doesn't care about your desire to bench press 120 kilos or build rock hard abs for the beach. It only cares about one thing - keeping you alive. And he will do everything in his power to achieve this.

The fact is that if you want to achieve positive changes (be it more muscle or more strength), you have to force your body to do so. Your training must be demanding enough to disrupt homeostasis and send your body the signal that there is an external stressor.

If you can achieve this over and over again, then you will slowly build more muscle. But what role does muscle failure play in this?

Training to muscle failure is an eloquent way of forcing your body to improve and adapt. When you push yourself to near your limits, you recruit the greatest number of muscle fibers and cause more muscle damage and more metabolic stress. If the weight is heavy enough, you also put more mechanical stress on your muscles.

All of these factors are crucial for muscle growth.

On the other hand, if you don't challenge yourself during training, your body will see no reason to adapt and improve. In other words, if you always train within your limits, your body will be better able to cope with stress, which means it won't have to devote resources to building new muscle.

And as we have seen in the studies reviewed above, these logical conclusions are in line with what the scientific literature shows us - more effort and training to (or close to) muscle failure resulted in more muscle growth (3, 4).

Is training to muscle failure good for strength gains?

Similar to muscle growth, we need to challenge ourselves if we want to build strength. In this context, we should take the time to look at training to muscle failure and its relationship to strength gains on multiple fronts.

The benefits
The potential dangers

Before we look at the benefits, here's a quick primer:

Strength gains can occur independently of muscle growth. This is known as neuromuscular adaptation and is also the reason why some people can move enormous weights with relatively little muscle mass.

However, at a certain point we have exhausted our neuromuscular capacity and need to build more muscle if we want to get stronger. This is one of the reasons that heavier powerlifters and weightlifters tend to be stronger too.

We have already seen that training to muscle failure is beneficial for muscle growth. And if we consider that larger muscles also have greater strength potential, then we can speculate that training to muscle failure will also lead to greater strength gains over time.

The second factor for strength gains - neuromuscular adaptations - also appears to be directly influenced by training to muscle failure. The greater the shock and the closer we get to muscle failure, the stronger the stress response will be.

If you look at most strength programs, you will notice that they use different methods of training to muscle failure. Two notable examples include performing sets with as many repetitions as possible (AMRAP, or "as many reps as possible") and overreaching blocks.

It's also important to emphasize a potential danger - especially when we try to abuse a workout to the point of muscle failure - the issue of technique.

Multi-joint exercises such as squats, bench presses and deadlifts are very demanding when it comes to proper technique. There are a lot of moving parts and you need to pay careful attention to each of them if you want to perform these exercises safely and effectively.

Training to muscle failure will exhaust different muscle groups, which can lead to a decline in technique and an attempt to overcompensate. Of course, this is not set in stone. You need to be aware of the potential danger and avoid it at all costs.

Typical examples include rounding your back too much on deadlifts, lifting your glutes on bench presses and performing squats as modified good mornings when your legs get tired.

A 2014 study investigated the effects of fatigue from high repetition training on the biomechanics of squats (5). The researchers found that the subjects began to lean forward more due to fatigue, increasing the risk of injury.

So if your goal is purely strength gains and you're not doing too much hypertrophy training, then using training to muscle failure is a good idea. However, you should also perform lighter and less demanding workouts where you use less weight, perform fewer repetitions and focus on correct technique.

Benefits of training to muscle failure vs. volume training

Over the last few years I have learned that there is a bell curve relationship between volume and muscle growth. In other words, this means that the number of sets we perform in each training session directly correlates with the progress we make. More work means better results.

Of course, there comes a point of diminishing returns at which more work no longer leads to better results, but instead increases the risk of overtraining. This was demonstrated in a study using modified German Volume Training (6).

In this study, subjects were divided into two groups that performed either 10 sets of 10 repetitions or five sets of 10 repetitions of basic exercises. Both groups followed a split program three days per week. The scientists found that the subjects did not experience better results in terms of gains in strength or muscle mass when doing more than 5 sets. In fact, the exact opposite was the case:

To maximize the effects of hypertrophic training, 4 to 6 sets per exercise are recommended, as gains will plateau at the upper end of this range and may even regress due to overtraining.

In a recent study, scientists divided 37 volunteers into four groups who performed 5, 10, 15 or 20 weekly sets per muscle group (7). All subjects showed significant improvements in their maximum strength for 10 repetitions, as well as in their muscle gains after 12 and 24 weeks. The lower volume groups (5 and 10 sets) built significantly more strength over the course of the study.

So we can see that more is not always better. And we have also seen the effects and benefits of training to muscle failure. Putting more effort into your training set after set seems to deliver better results (3, 4).

There are many reasons why this is the case, but two possible explanations at this point are focus and energy management. More work leads to more exhaustion. Over time, as exhaustion builds up, we can't recover well enough and regress instead of progress.

It is quite possible that less work but more effort leads to superior results. The scientific data definitely supports this.

In addition, we need to focus on fewer things (in our case, exercises), which allows us to get better at those things. Instead of doing 5 or 6 back exercises and not really making significant progress on any of them, doing fewer exercises will free up more energy and focus that you can use on those exercises to master your technique and ultimately get better results.

Training to muscle failure also takes significantly less time than volume training. Instead of spending 60 to 90 minutes in the gym, you can do fewer but more intense sets in half the time.

Should you do every set to muscle failure?

So far, it looks like training to muscle failure is the best option. With the amazing benefits it has to offer and the important role it plays in gains in strength and muscle mass, one would assume that we should train to muscle failure as often as possible.

However, as with many other things, too much of a good thing can be harmful. Just as is the case with training volume (where too much volume leads to overtraining), the same applies to training to muscle failure. Yes, it is beneficial and has been shown to lead to better progress, but at the same time it is also a tool that should be used with caution.

Here are four reasons not to perform every set to muscle failure:

The ATP problem

Remember that your goal is to stimulate your muscles through training - not destroy them. If you continually push your muscles to their limits, the latter will happen.

First, there's the issue of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the body's primary energy currency. ATP molecules allow us to perform physical tasks - running, lifting weights, etc.

In the case of a demanding workout with weights, the ATP reserves of our muscles are usually sufficient for less than 30 seconds - depending on how heavy the weights are.

A moderately demanding set depletes more than half of the muscle's ATP reserves and it takes several minutes for this ATP to be resynthesized. If, on the other hand, you perform a set to the point of muscle failure, you completely exhaust your muscle ATP reserves. It then takes even longer for the ATP reserves to be fully replenished.

In one study, scientists found that sets performed to muscle failure deplete our muscle ATP reserves and speculated that the ATP deficit contributes to exhaustion (which sounds logical) (8).

The problem of muscle protein depletion and the onset of overtraining

We have long known that muscle and strength gains come from a carefully balanced training stimulus - neither too little nor too much.

Performing sets to muscle failure helps us to generate a sufficiently strong stimulus. But if we go all out and go to muscle failure all the time, we risk causing too much damage, increase the rate of muscle protein breakdown and reach a state of overtraining.

Some research supports this (9). Here is a quote from this study:

When incorporated into an exercise program, training to muscle failure should be used sparingly to limit the risk of injury and overtraining.

Research has also found that constant training to muscle failure reduces the rate of muscle protein synthesis - a critical factor in the growth and development of muscle mass (8). In addition to muscle damage, another possible reason for this may be the rapid depletion of glycogen reserves (10).

Accumulated depletion can lead to a decline in technique and increase the risk of overtraining

As we mentioned above, fatigue affects the biomechanics of different exercises (5). This is due to the fact that different muscle groups involved in an exercise fatigue at different rates. And as soon as one muscle is too fatigued, other muscles have to take over and compensate for the loss of strength.

In the case of squats, overly fatigued quadriceps will force the posterior chain of muscles to become more active and compensate, resulting in the aforementioned good morning squats. This can lead to poor technique, which can dramatically increase the risk of injury.

In other cases, such exhaustion means a reduction in range of motion (e.g. quarter squats), which defeats the purpose of the workout. At such a point, you are training nothing but your ego.

A set to muscle failure here and there is excellent. But if you do several of these in a row, the accumulated fatigue - especially with multi-joint exercises - will ruin your technique.

It's very demanding on the mind and nervous system

Training to muscle failure on each set may look great at first, and you may well be able to keep it up for a while if you're still motivated and energized. But after a few training sessions, you'll probably be so exhausted that you'll dread the next exercise.

Pushing yourself to the absolute limit can work for a while, but sadly it's not a good long-term strategy.

The bottom line on training to muscle failure

Its simplicity hides its complexity. Yes, it's not difficult to perform each set to muscle failure, but we should also keep in mind the potential downsides - diminishing technique and overtraining if we overdo it with training to muscle failure.

Like most other techniques, training to failure should be viewed as a tool that can be used strategically to make better progress in the gym. Training to muscle failure can also save time by eliminating the need for high volume.

However, like most other techniques, it should not be abused as the many benefits can quickly turn into potential risks that can include overtraining and injury.

As scientific research has shown us, training to muscle failure works amazingly well and many studies have been able to replicate these results. Set after set, those who put more effort into their training achieved better results.

We can also argue that if you never train to muscle failure, you probably won't be able to provide your body with sufficient stimulus to progress.

So train hard, but train smart.