lifting to fail.

mrty

What the hell does lifting to fail mean?

Alf Veedersane

mrty wrote: »

What the hell does lifting to fail mean?

To failure.

Lifting until you can no longer lift with proper form.

mrty

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

To failure.

Lifting until you can no longer lift with proper form.

AW okay. A bit like me after ten reps then. Thanks.

syklops

mrty wrote: »

AW okay. A bit like me after ten reps then. Thanks.

If you are failing after ten reps, you need to choose a lighter weight.

I am partial to my drop sets though by the end of which im failing on the 1kg weights after only a couple of reps. Agony the next day but I do see gains.

Roll on a fortnight from now when I can go back to them.

deadlybuzzman

syklops wrote: »

If you are failing after ten reps, you need to choose a lighter weight.

.

? You do know this is a strength forum and not a conditioning/ chasing the pump forum?

syklops

deadlybuzzman wrote: »

? You do know this is a strength forum and not a conditioning/ chasing the pump forum?

And so the debate on "how to get strong" begins.

deadlybuzzman

syklops wrote: »

And so the debate on "how to get strong" begins.

It's probably fair to say there's not many strength programmes that involve drop setting to the point of failure especially with a 1 kg weight

Mellor

syklops wrote: »

And so the debate on "how to get strong" begins.

Sure why not, debate is healthy.

If you are failing after ten reps, you need to choose a lighter weight.

I disagree. A 10RM weight is in no shape or form too heavy. If you are learning form, its close to perfect imo. If anything, 10 reps is too light, in terms of strength training. Virtually all strength training programs will work with heavier loads.

Last week, my top set consisted of pulling 5 reps. I had maybe 1 in the tank. Even, though this is half the number of reps that you labelled "need to choose a lighter weight", I'll in fact be add weight and aiming for 5 reps today.

I am partial to my drop sets though by the end of which im failing on the 1kg weights after only a couple of reps. Agony the next day but I do see gains.

Being in agony the next day isn't really a training goal I actively seek. I'd actually try to avoid it where possible so I can keep training at my normal frequency.
I'm sure drop sets like that achieve quite a burn. And even encourage growth. Neither of these are direct goals when training for strength. Initially, you will of course get stronger, but that will plateau very quickly with that training.

Training for strength with lower reps is self fulfilling as each week you increased the loads.

Hanley

deadlybuzzman wrote: »

It's probably fair to say there's not many strength programmes that involve drop setting to the point of failure especially with a 1 kg weight

Depends where you are in your training cycle tbh.

A lot of guys will cycle periods of volume and intensity.

Volume = muscle gain / body recomp

Intesnity = taking new muscle and "learning" how to use it for increased 1RMs

Strength athletes (the good ones) don't just train with 2s, 3s and 5s all year around.

That being said - the OPs approach sounds excessive.

.ak

I personally like an 8 rep set. Each to their own, but I feel at 8 I can maintain very good form and a heavier weight. Going to 10 or 12 reps requires a bit more patience to keep the form clean.

But whatever amount of reps you pick (can be anywhere from 5 to 12 really for most weights) always make sure you fail on the last rep of the last set. If you feel you can do more then do, do another set, just make a note of it and up your weight next time. If you fail before the last rep of the last set then you drop the weight.

Alf Veedersane

.ak wrote: »

But whatever amount of reps you pick (can be anywhere from 5 to 12 really for most weights) always make sure you fail on the last rep of the last set. If you feel you can do more then do, do another set, just make a note of it and up your weight next time. If you fail before the last rep of the last set then you drop the weight.

There's a note of caution there in that if you always go to failure and you train regularely, you're at risk of overtraining.

No harm in leaving one on the tank. Doing 10 proper reps instead of failing on the 11th or 12th is likely to have very little difference.

.ak

Yeah, well generally that's how I tell myself how to progress with a weight. I generally won't bump it up unless I've done it a few times and have a couple left in the tank as you say.