Training till failure

I would never recommend to somebody to do one set to failure, as much as we like to think its not, failure is different with everyone, some ppl will 'think' failure when the truth is they got another couple reps there, which is fine but not if your only doing one set. I like to do a few sets to (mental?) failure. not physical cant do anymore type failure. One set to failure gives ppl an excuse to be lazy (IMO)

to me physical failure is when i can no longer push the weight on my own, and require a spotter to help me up? (obviously that is assuming we are doing some kind of press, appreciate this does not apply to some exercies eg. deadlift)
 
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You don't have to achieve total muscular failure to stimulate growth... fatigue during a non failure set is still the same kind failure that occurs when the whole muscle fails, it just hasn't affected a high enough proportion of muscle fibres within that muscle yet to make it fail as a whole. Just do enough in total, be it over one set or ten, and provided you remain progressive, you will grow and adapt with either method.
How much of a difference do you think this makes though? I tend to think of this in my mind as overload in a muscle being a stimulus for growth, and that muscle has a certain capacity to be stimulated. The closer one gets to that limit, the stronger the signal, and as long the rest of one's house is in order, there should be correspondingly better growth in the long term.

That said, I do like going to failure (multiple set failure) on many exercises purely because I find it clears my head and keeps me calm in life. I can't go to failure on everything as I quickly overtrain, but using dropsets, partner assisted and rest-pause for most exercises does seem to work for me.

J
 
How much of a difference do you think this makes though? I tend to think of this in my mind as overload in a muscle being a stimulus for growth, and that muscle has a certain capacity to be stimulated. The closer one gets to that limit, the stronger the signal, and as long the rest of one's house is in order, there should be correspondingly better growth in the long term.

That said, I do like going to failure (multiple set failure) on many exercises purely because I find it clears my head and keeps me calm in life. I can't go to failure on everything as I quickly overtrain, but using dropsets, partner assisted and rest-pause for most exercises does seem to work for me.

J

I think however you train, you have to exert definite neuromuscular effort... am convinced that the biggest adaptive response occurs as a result of working through difficult reps, so yeah - the signal has to be strong for the response to be decent.

Whether it's right to failure or not is less important in that respect, although volume and intensity does impact other adaptive responses than hypertrophy - capiliarization, mitochondrial density, fascia stretching etc... things distinct from hypertrophy that can impact upon it indirectly or through effects on performance and the rate and efficiency at which you can continue to be progressive.
 
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