Training to Failure

Hi, What do you guys think of training to failure. I know that Charles Staley does not think too much of it.
Also is training to failure more appropriate when training for Hypertrophy or maximum strength? I know that in the past when I trained for Max strength I used a 2, 3, or 4 RM and tried to do as many as possible. And when training for hypertrophy I would do 3 sets of 8-10 reps and either only fail on the last exercise and use the same weight for all the reps or go to failure on all the sets and have to sacrifice either reps form or weight. Is this the wrong way to go about my training? I’m only now learning about periodization and % based programs.

It’s not always necessary to train to failure in either strength or hypertrophy training. In the past I’ve had success with Ian King’s method or periodizing intensity within a mesocycle. A submaximal load is used during the first time or two through a workout, before progressing to your current limit and then finally supramaximal loading in the final microcycle. Currently I’m making good mass gains on GVT. I keep loading the same throughout the workout and only go to failure on a few of the sets.

I avoid going to failure very often. I pick a rep range and use it for three weeks, increasing the weight every week. By the third week it’s a struggle, but i usually don’t reach failure. In the past I went to failure quite often. Since I have adopted this new method my progress has been much quicker. Hope this helps.

don’t do this very often, but after an extended period of no failure training do two to three weeks of modified HIT, for hypertrophy, I found this gives great results, 4-5 day split over 7 days, try not to train more than two days in a row. perform 2-3 body parts per workout. perform 2 exercises per body part. Make sure you warm up good for each exercise. perform 2 work sets per exercise. the first to about 1 to 2 reps before failure. the second set should be performed to ABSOLUTE failure. try to keep rep schemes between 4 and 10 reps. again don’t do this very often and it but it is excellent for finishing up a periodization program and then taking a week of active rest.