Training to
failure?
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| Training to failure works best with steroids. Why take the risk? |
For decades I have listened to those interested in muscular
development speak of training to failure. I have known a few top coaches and
athletes, world champions, and none of them pursued failure. Ed Coan, Kirk
Karwoski, Fred Hatfield, Marty Gallagher, Jim O’Malley, all Olympic
weightlifters, to name a few. All of these athletes train to succeed not fail.
If they did miss a lift, and we all do sooner or later, all efforts were devoted
to fixing the problem and avoiding another failure.
Bodybuilding dogma is where this training to failure
philosophy was born. It may work for a short while but training to failure is
negative thinking. This would serve an athlete who needs more muscle in an area
to support the biomechanics. It would be used very infrequently. When the
nervous system realizes we stop exerting ourselves when we cannot perform
another repetition it adjusts homeostatically, holistically. All systems are
dedicated to conserving energy. Future sets and repetitions are disturbed if we
failed on previous work. Only in the most basic way will the organism adapt to
this type of “training”. When the systems realize we lower the weight
(intensity) after failure occurs it facilitates failure. Being conservative is
what homeostasis is all about.
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| Patience is a common trait amongst elite athletes. |
We must apply work in a systematic, scientific, approach to
avoid failure. Always raising the baseline level of exertion over time. This
takes patience. It may take longer to gain muscle this way. Performance is a
matter of much more than just muscle. Any muscular gains will be more permanent
when gains are made from a positive feedback loop. Negative feedback works too.
Negative feedback gains are more temporary. The resultant adjustments which
allow work to continue are injurious more frequently than training permits. When
performance is the goal we must train to succeed not fail. Biology is rather
explicit in this way.
Experienced athletes train to succeed. Train to succeed. Do
not train to fail. Knowing what not to do is important. Failure must be avoided
not requested. The science has been done for a while now. Find a coach who has
studied science beyond, yet inclusive of, the university level. Learn to train.
Working out is easy. Training is adaptive.
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