Failure; When is Enough, Enough

Hi Paul,

There are a lot of schemes regarding going to failure, whether it’s reps or time, but when do you stop? I often see the phrase “going beyond failure”, but it seems to be an oxymoron. For example, drop sets; an exceptionally strong person can keep dropping for quite a while; or 6 second reps for between 8 to 12 reps; rest a minute, do it again; then again etc. At what point are there diminishing returns?

Thanks.

Man that’s a good question. True failure means you can’t do another rep. I personally save that stuff for single joint movements, as they aren’t taxing. I don’t generally train to failure on the compound movements, and I honestly don’t think there’s much difference in terms of growth by leaving a rep or two in the tank or going into bezerker mode.

I have an article about this soon.

I appreciate it, Paul; I/we look forward to the article. At this point, looking over the the past few years, the simplest method for me for hypertrophy across all single joint exercises was your 3/50 method; 3 sets, 50 reps, hit the target and move on.

Thanks for that!

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Can you let me know when you post article. I won’t bite, I promise. Just want more knowledge :hugs:

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