Quote:
Originally Posted by chaddukes
I'm a bit puzzled about a certain concept. There seem to be a broad spectrum of opinions about the quality of reps. On one hand you have those who advocate going to failure all the time, they believe in pushing out partials, heavy eccentrics, and fighting with the iron. But, on the other hand you have people who tell you to stop a set as soon as your form degrades even in the slightest. So, you might only perform five or six reps of your 8RM.
I was in the Army and trained to failure constantly for four years. It got me nowhere. So, I have no desire to follow that course of action. I'm not trying to start a debate about HIT training and training to failure. I know its not for me and thats all that matters.
But, the other end of the spectrum seems to advocate never grinding out a challenging rep. As though every rep should be pretty and perfect. How do you follow this protocol and still push the envelope?
My question is where do you fall on this spectrum? And how do you make it work for you? If you advocate never "grinding out" a rep then how do you force yourself to grow and overcome obstacles? Help me understand this idea and how to use it.
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I'm sure it wasn't failure training itself that stopped your advances, it was probably poor program design, no progression, overtraining/lack of rest, undereating, etc.
Your program design and the different methods that you describe (from failure ALL the time down to never going to failure) need to work together for the program to work. You CAN go to failure in your programs, but then you need less volume, more rest, more days before you hit that muscle group again, etc. Never going to failure can work, too. Different rules. Even Chad Waterbury's deal where you stop when the bar slows works, but it's because the program accommodates his methods.
Plus, everything works, it's more a matter of how does it work for your physiology, your psychology, your schedule, your diet plan (fat loss, muscle gain), your goals (strength, size, bodybuilding), etc.
Also, everything works for a while, just not always forever. When it stops working for you depends on all the things above.