Yesterday I talked about training to failure and how it can have a negative effect on your nervous system, making each set after the first less efficient at stimulating mass.
A hammered nervous system doesn’t allow enough “juice” to engage the high-threshold motor units, which control the fast-twitch growth fibers.
Solution: Stop a rep or two short.
I’ve been training to failure on almost all work sets for a long time, no doubt selling myself short in the mass-building department.
Even a year ago, the Old Man, Young Muscle workouts motivated me to go to failure on all of sets. Luckily, it was just three to four for each muscle, so my gains were pretty good.
I now stop one rep short of failure on my high-rep set and two reps short of failure on any that follow. And if you’re using the OMYM workouts, I recommend you do that as well…
The exception is if you’re young. Better recovery ability means the last one or two can be all out with excellent results. And if you’re on drugs, you can blitz and blast, using shock tactics to grow plenty of mass…
Speaking of shocking, in a recent article by Tim Patterson, he has a description of how Arthur Jones trained. Jones created Nautilus machines and was considered the father of high-intensity training. He always said that training all out on every set was a must for growth; however…
According to Patterson, Jone’s right-hand man, Ellington Darden, watched Jones train many times. He said that Jones’ form was “machine-like”…
“He gave no outward clues when approaching failure other than ending the set—there was no stopping mid-rep, no grinding to a halt, no grimacing or grunting.” He just stopped…
So from that description, it sounds like he was actually stopping a rep short—at least by the common definition of failure, which usually involves some guttural screams, eye bulging, and earthquake shake and bake.
Jones apparently knew when another rep in perfect form was impossible—and he terminated the set. His writings about carrying out a set until vomit yo-yo-ed up your esophagus must have been hyperbole to get the point across.
Unfortunately, his intensity hype made me, and many others, think that nerve-shattering sets, some including forced reps and sometimes negatives, were indispensable for triggering maximum mass fast.
Actually, just the opposite. In fact, if I hadn’t been young, that training style may have halted my gains completely.
Even so, stopping a set a rep or two short of failure is not easy. The burn will be intense and the muscle should be screaming. That strict machine-like performance will preserve your nervous system for the sets that follow, and you’ll grow like never before.
As Mr. Olympia Lee Haney says, “Stimulate, don’t annihilate.” If you using the Old Man, Young Muscle workouts for muscle size, this now applies.
(Note: Thanks to astute reader Steve for sending me the aforementioned excerpt from Patterson.)
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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