Other than eating right and having an adequate amount of protein in your diet. What else can you do to optimize your muscle gains as an intermediate who already has some experience in the gym or lifting weights. Today, we will be discussing why you should  train to failure and how doing so can allow you to build more muscle.

What is training to failure?

Training to failure is when you’re doing a set and come to a point, whether after 10 reps or 8 reps. When  you can no longer lift the weight up and fail. That is a set done to failure. If you have to cheat or break proper form to get the dumbbell or barbell up, you are at the point of failure. This means that you have done all you could for that set and can no longer do a single rep.

Training to failure is an excellent technique you can use with time under tension and mind muscle connection. These three approaches done together can get you significantly more muscle mass than mindlessly lifting weights up and putting them down.

Benefits of training to failure

How can training to failure help someone who is already experienced in the gym? If you have hit a plateau in the gym and, let’s say, you’re stuck at a bench of 70 kgs (154 lbs.) and can no longer progress by adding weights as 70 is your max. Training to failure is not only going to put more stress on your muscles and help you gain more muscle. It will  make you stronger on that bench allowing you to get over that plateau and increase your bench press.

This goes for almost every type of lift that you can do, from bicep curls to triceps pull downs etc. Training to failure is one of the best ways to increase your strength on your lifts to overcome plateaus or build more muscle in general if your muscle growth has gone stagnant.

No matter what your approach is, in order to build more muscle, you need to stimulate your muscles each set for better muscle hypertrophy. Whatever makes you do that best is going to help you build more muscle. Training to failure is an extremely effective style of training to stimulate your muscles and should not be overlooked as its effectiveness ranges from building more muscle to increasing strength without having to lift heavier and heavier and putting yourself at risk of injury.

When should you not train to failure

If your someone who has not lifted a single weight yet or is a complete beginner at resistance training. You should avoid training to failure as no experience can lead to injury or too much muscle stimuli for the body to recover from keeping you out of the gym for longer. That doesn’t mean you cannot train to failure to build more muscle. You just need to be careful not to overdo it as a beginner.

Try to lift weights until your body is used to the muscle stimuli from lifting weights, but do not stay in your comfort zone. You will stagnate your muscle growth once you have gained all your newbie muscle gains.  It goes without saying, but if your injured and planning on training. You need to go easy as training to failure puts maximum stress on your muscles. This is when you should not train to failure when injured or recovering.

Practice proper form

Any sort of resistance training that deals with weights has to be done with proper form and caution. Injuries resulting from mishaps in the gym can put you out for months or be devastating. That is why it is always better to lift weights that you can do with proper form.

Doing partial reps helps in overloading your muscles, but if your someone who is not experienced in lifting weights. Do not attempt to do partials as they are the leading cause of injury in the gym specifically for beginners. Your body is not prepared for the kind of stress, you would be  putting it through, especially as a beginner.

Conclusion

• Here are the top exercises you can either at home or at the gym. Read top-exercises-for-building-muscle-at-the-gym-or-home/
• To build more muscle, you need to put your muscles under stress and training to failure helps you maximize that.
• Do not train to failure if you are a complete beginner at lifting weights. Get some experience with the weights before thinking about pushing yourself to failure
• Training to failure is an effective way to get over a plateau on your bench, curl etc.
• To know more about time under tension and mind-muscle connection.
• Read mind-muscle-connection-how-does-it-increase-muscle-gain  & what-is-time-under-tension-how-does-it-affect-hypotrophy

If you like what you read or have any questions. leave them in the comment box.