Q: I feel as though I need to train all of my sets to failure to get a good muscle-building workout. In Old Man Young Muscle, you take all of your sets to failure, but you’ve backed off of that. Why? [Read more…]
Train to Failure for Mass? (new study)
A few newsletters back I discussed how pushing sets close, but not quite, to failure is best for optimal mass stimulation…
The rationale is that if you always push to all-out gut-busing failure, you over traumatize your muscles and nervous system, causing slow growth, which eventually triggers systemic exhaustion… [Read more…]
Training to Failure: A New View
Q: In Old Man, Young Muscle you say to take every set to positive failure. But recently I think you said to stop short. I’ve always trained to failure because of the few sets I do for each muscle. Are you still avoiding failure even though you are doing only three or four sets per body part?
A: “Training to failure” is hard to define. I can tell you what you should not do, especially if you’re either a high-strung ectomorph or old—or both (like me)… [Read more…]
Train to Failure? Muscle-Building Simplicity
Q: I just got the Size Surge 2.0 e-book. I see the two programs Jonathan used to build 20 pounds of muscle in 2 1/2 months has him using only one or two work sets per exercise, both work sets to failure. What does “failure” mean? Did he used forced reps? Negatives? Or just stop when he could no longer get a full rep?
A: Jonathan trained alone for Phase 1, which was a three-days-a-week mass-exercise anabolic primer. That means he couldn’t do forced reps or negatives… [Read more…]
Train to Failure – Muscle-Building Simplicity
Q: I just got the Size Surge 2.0 e-book. I see the two programs Jonathan used to build 20 pounds of muscle in 2 1/2 months has him using only one or two work sets per exercise, both work sets to failure. What does “train to failure” really mean? Did he use forced reps? Negatives? Or just stop when he could no longer get a full rep?
A: Jonathan trained alone for Phase 1, which was a three-days-a-week mass-exercise anabolic primer. That means he couldn’t do forced reps or negatives… [Read more…]