In recent newsletters I’ve laid out some new theories on training to failure—basically that it can slow hypertrophy.
Not always, but too much creates severe damage, which saps recovery and growth. Doing only one set to failure while stopping others a rep or two short appears to be a better way to stimulate massive amounts of fast-twitch growth fibers (more on that below).
If you’ve been around bodybuilding for a while, you know the name Ellington Darden, Ph.D. He was a competitive bodybuilder and later Arthur Jones’ right-hand man during the Nautilus machine heyday…
He also authored countless books on training, including a couple I read more than once, Super High-Intensity Bodybuilding and The Nautilus Bodybuilding Book.
I met Ellington in Florida when I went for an Arthur Jones seminar at the MedX facility—that was after Jones sold Nautilus. At that point, both men touted all-out muscular failure as the best way to train. And Jones still railed on steering a set very near the puke zone.
While Jones passed away in 2007, Darden has recently discovered that maybe training to failure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Steve, an astute reader of this newsletter, sent me this Darden quote that appeared on the T-Nation web site…
Training to failure was a practice I wish I could’ve stopped in the ’80s… Training to failure actually limits the number of muscle fibers stimulated. I suspected then, and now know, that you can stimulate more muscle fibers and make a deeper inroad by applying specialized loading methods.
One of the staunchest proponents of high-intensity training is now saying that going to failure isn’t the best route for more mass. That’s huge!
During my Old Man, Young Muscle transformation, I was taking all four sets for each muscle to positive failure. And my gains were so good, they shocked even me. I think it worked well because my short 10-to-20-second rests between sets limited the weight I could use, which countered some of the damage.
If you have that ebook, you know that I began each muscle routine with a 20-rep set to get slow-twitch exhaustion, a method designed to kick in fast-twitch fibers faster on the subsequent sets (based on Brazilian research)…
Studies on triggering hypertrophy with lighter-weight high-rep training show that going to failure is necessary, so taking that first set to the limit was effective—but…
My question now is, Would I have made even better muscle gains by taking ONLY that first high-rep set to failure, stopping the remaining three sets a rep or two short?
The deeper I dig, the more I think that’s the case. If you’re using the OMYM 35-minute ideal-exercise workouts, you may want to try taking only the first high-rep set for each muscle to failure. Pull back on all the rest…
It appears that coaxing muscle mass is best.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
And you still get The Muscle-On, Belly-Gone “Diet” ebook FREE for a limited time when you add Old Man, Young Muscle to your mass-building library. Go HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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