Learning from Powerlifters...

Training to failure each set has been a bodybuilding creed for decades.  In the Blood and Guts training video Dorian trains with enough intensity to kill a bull!! In the movie "Pumping Iron" there is a memorable scene where Ed Corney was doing squats and simply would not going to stop until he had reached complete failure. Finally Arnold helped Corney put the weights back up on the rack and Corney collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.  All bodybuilders know that I order to increase muscle hypertrophy, you have to overload the muscle.  Training to momentary muscular failure, the point in a set where no further movement is possible despite one's best efforts, represents the ultimate overload on muscle, however train to all-out muscular failure every workout can be self defeating and ultimately a prescription for failure.  Training to failure each set may also deplete your body to the extent that it does not have sufficient reserves to repair the body and create a situation where super compensation (or an increase of myofibrils) can occur. Training  to failure (and beyond using forced reps and negatives) may lead to overtraining, therefore using a minimum number of working sets, and allowing the body enough time between workouts for both full recovery and super compensation may lead to an enhanced anabolic drive. A possible learning strategy that bodybuilders can learn from is that of competitive powerlifters.  At the national level, the mass of powerlifters is quite impressive yet they never train to failure.   Powerlifter's workout intensity is quite low capered to the high intensity training protocols of bodybuilders. Despite their avoidance of training to failure, many powerlifters grow bigger and stronger despite their less than maximal efforts.  It may be that training to failure each set puts too much of a stress on the body and recuperation and anabolic processes are reduced.  This could have been the reason why the lifters who trained to failure had larger increases in cortisol after the training to failure routine in addition to lower IGF-I levels.    

Stopping yourself before muscular failure is more psychological than anything for bodybuilders.  For so long, it has been ingrained into our heads that training to failure is necessary for muscle growth.   Training to failure is what separates the men from the boy's right?  Training to failure each set may be just too much strain on the body.  In fact, training just short of complete muscular exhaustion may away allows faster recuperation, depletes less of the systems resources, and causes less wear and tear on the body. It's interesting that most people who refer to themselves as "hard gainers" are the ones that train the hardest.  These people can train to failure on every exercise for month after month and never show any sign of progress. So before you dismiss not training to failure as an excuse to not train hard or to downplay failure simply because of lack of courage or motivation, try this type of training for a few weeks...you might get bigger and stronger by training smarter not harder!

Key Points:

• Training to failure for a prolonged period of time can result in reduced serum IGF-I and testosterone responses.
• IGFBP-3 acts a storage pool for IGF-I, it preserves IGF-I functions.  IGFBP-3 seems to be an accurate indicator of overtraining.
• Forced reps cause larger increases in GH than maximal reps, but also cause larger increases in cortisol and reduced maximal strength.
• Training just short of complete muscular exhaustion may away allows faster recuperation, depletes less of the systems resources, and causes less wear and tear on the body.
• IGF-I levels are heavily influenced by total calories and protein intake.