STRENGTH TRAINING TO MUSCLE FAILURE, IS IT REALLY NECESSARY?

Muscle failure or training to failure, defined in a simple way, is the point at which it is impossible to keep doing more repetitions of the exercise we are doing. When we do this type of training, it is important to have a partner or trainer to assist us when we cannot bear the load and thus avoid further damage.

Over the years, numerous theories have been written about whether training for muscle failure has positive or negative effects. Authors such as Arthur Jones argued that this type of training produced greater gains in strength, and many athletes trained in this way, believing that maximum effort would result in a greater increase in strength and muscle hypertrophy (Suchomel, Nimphius, Bellon, & Stone, 2018).

It has been shown that training for muscle failure has a high risk even in experienced athletes, which is multiplied in novice athletes, since this type of training requires perfectly executed technique of the exercise being performed.

Good example of Crossfit Weight lifting - In Crossfit Always lift until you reach the point of Failure or you tear something by CrossfitPaleoDietFitnessClasses by CC BY 2.0

In general, all studies and meta-analyses conducted about training for muscle failure agree on the adverse effects that can occur:

1. High fatigue occurs, which requires a high recovery time and does not allow further development of power levels and muscle tension in the following series, therefore performance decreases.
2. Fatigue can interfere with other components of physical conditioning.
3. It can lead to overtraining (Fryl & Kraemer, 1997). 
4. The risk of injury due to loss of proprioceptive capacity is increased (Rozzi, Lephart, & Fu, 1999).
5. Fibers of type IIB are transformed to IIA, which are less rapid and explosive (Fry, 2004).
6. Testosterone and IFG-1 levels are reduced at rest and cortisol levels are increased (Izquierdo et al., 2014).

Although it has been demonstrated that training with high loads does bring benefits in the gain of strength, it has not been demonstrated that training with failure is the best method to increase it. Although it has been demonstrated that there is an evident difference in strength gain between training with low or medium loads and training for muscle failure, different studies agree that the difference between training with high loads (submaximum) without reaching failure and training to failure is very small. In addition, no differences have been found in the recruitment of motor units with respect to non-failure training.

 Although we should also consider many other variables that influence strength training, such as frequency, duration, rest time, speed of execution,... ,to compare results in terms of muscle strength gain.  In the studies analysed in the meta-analysis of Grgic et.al. (2018), it was observed that there were greater increases in strength as the days of training per week increased, but not significantly, so the effect of frequency of training is not significant in muscle failure training.

Responding to the initial question, we concluded that training for muscle failure is not really necessary to improve maximum strength, since the difference in the percentage of improvement with respect to training with submaximum loads, without reaching the failure, is very small and is safer to prevent injuries, as well as requiring less recovery time. Therefore, we would only recommend this type of training in the following cases:

1. Very experienced athletes.
2. If the objective is to improve neural adaptations and hypertrophy.
3. For short periods of time.
4. Progressively, in one or two exercises per muscle group and always in the last series.

In any case, it will always be important that it is very planned and periodized, that it is in experienced subjects and that the objective is to improve maximum strength and hypertrophy.

Here we have a video that explains in a very simple way the subject that we have dealt with in this post:

See you in the next post.

May the force be with you!

REFERENCES

Suchomel, T. J., Nimphius, S., Bellon, C. R., & Stone, M. H. (2018). The Importance of Muscular Strength : Training Considerations. Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0862-z

Davies, T., Orr, R., Halaki, M., & Hackett, D. (2016). Effect of Training Leading to Repetition Failure on Muscular Strength : A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(4), 487–502. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0451-3

Grgic, J., Schoenfeld, B. J., Davies, T. B., Lazinica, B., Krieger, J. W., & Pedisic, Z. (2018). Effect of Resistance Training Frequency on Gains in Muscular Strength : A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0872-x

Fryl, A. C., & Kraemer, W. J. (1997). Resistance Exercise Overtraining Neuroendocrine Responses, 23(2).

Izquierdo, M., Ibañez, J., González-badillo, J. J., Häkkinen, K., Ratamess, N. A., Kraemer, W. J., … Jose, J. (2014). Differential effects of strength training leading to failure versus not to failure on hormonal responses , strength , and muscle power gains on hormonal responses , strength , and muscle power gains, (January 2006), 1647–1656. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.01400.2005

Rozzi, S. L., Lephart, S. M., & Fu, F. H. (1999). Effects of Muscular Fatigue on Knee Joint Laxity and Neuromuscular Characteristics of Male and Female Athletes, 34(2), 106–114.

Stone MH, Chandler TJ, Conley MS, Kraemer JB, Stone ME. Training to muscular failure: is it necessary? Strength Cond J.1996; 18:44-48

González–Badillo JJ, Izquierdo M, Gorostiaga EM. Moderate volume or high relative training intensity produces greater strength gains compared with low and high volumes in competitive weightlifters. J Strength Cond Res. 2006; 20:73-81

Willardson, JM; Norton, L, Wilson, G. Training to Failure and Beyond in Mainstream Resistance Exercise Programs. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 2010;32(3):21-29.