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21.02.2021

Again: going to failure in strength training is not necessary for optimal results

The leg muscles of experienced strength athletes develop just as quickly through to failure workouts as through workouts in which athletes do not make reps to the point of failure. That's the conclusion of a Brazilian human study published in Biology of Sport.

Study
In Biology of Sport, Brazilian sports scientists at the Federal University of Sao Carlos describe an experiment in which 14 trained trained male students participated. The subjects trained their legs twice a week for 10 weeks. During this period the men trained one leg to failure, the other leg not. The not to failure training involved subjects voluntarily discontinuing their sets before reaching the point of muscle failure.

Using scans, before and after the study, the researchers measured the muscle mass in the leg muscle vastus lateralis of the subjects. In addition, they determined the maximum strength the subjects could develop during a leg press.

Results
The subjects built up the same amount of muscle mass [CSA] in both legs. The same was true for the maximum strength the subjects could develop during a leg press.

During the sets, the researchers recorded the electrical activity in the muscles. They saw no difference between the activity in the leg that the subjects trained to failure and the activity in the other leg.

More coming soon.

Source:
Biol Sport. 2020 Dec;37(4):333-41.

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Building muscles with low loads? Train them to failure 13.09.2020
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Just started with strength training? Training to failure isn't necessary, making enough sets is... 05.01.2018

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Study: strength training just as effective without doing sets to failure Australian sports scientists published this study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.	Strength athletes don't need to-failure sets to achieve growth Even if strength athletes don't squeeze all the reps possible out of their sets they can still give their muscles the growth stimulus they need, and build up strength and muscle mass.	Eleven weeks' not to-failure training just as effective as eleven weeks' to-failure Athletes that do two months of weight training, without sticking it out to the last rep in their sets, make just as much progress as the athletes that do all their reps.