May 21, 2004, Newsletter Issue #103: Working Out to Muscle Failure

Tip of the Week

You have reached "failure" on your set of an exercise when you cannot complete another repetition with good form. Let`s say you are doing lat pulldowns. You complete 8 good repetitions, bringing the bar to your collarbone, but on the next rep, you can only lower the bar a few inches from the top position. You reached failure with 8. You might be able to do another rep by bouncing, using your body weight and momentum, but that doesn`t count. It is not necessary to go to complete failure on every set in order to get best results. There can be a safety problem (never go to failure on a bench press unless you have a good spotter; squats and the like can hurt you if you can`t maintain total control). You can probably go to failure on a biceps curl or that pulldown, as long as you quit when you`ve failed and don`t do various body contortions to try and complete the rep. Best approach? Stop 1 or 2 reps short of failure (listen to your body) and do multiple sets. Always consider safety first!

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