Does your exercise program include sets of exercises where you keep going until you cannot physically complete another rep?
No?
Training to failure increases motor unit activation and the secretion of muscle-building hormones, like HGH and testosterone.
There are two ways in which people try to train till failure. One is a proven technique for anabolic growth; the other is a surefire way to compromise your gains and become more prone to injuries. Learn the difference between them!
When it comes to training till failure, it is not an invitation for bad form and technique. It’s about getting as many reps as possible while maintaining great form.
The instant your form deteriorates, you have to stop. Your motor control and muscular strength will disconnect and make your results worthless.
Bad form and technique while exhausting your muscle fibres will make you easily prone to injuries.
The right approach to enable anabolic effect includes strategizing which set you will perform till failure.
Training to failure every set drastically increases the catabolic hormone cortisol and suppresses anabolic growth factors such as IGF-1. This puts us at risk of hindering long-term growth.
In the short term, being a catabolic hormone, increases in cortisol are associated with a decrease in protein synthesis. The reason behind this is that one of cortisol’s actions is to provide alternative fuels for the body when there isn’t enough glucose. This occurs during starvation or fasting, but also during intense exercise. Cortisol mediates muscle breakdown so that the amino acids in muscle tissue can be used to create sugar, via gluconeogenesis.
It is also found that failure training increases the levels of the nucleotide adenosine monophosphate (AMP) quite dramatically. AMP is responsible for the activation of AMPK which results in the enhancement of glucose utilization. The activity of AMPK is regulated by AMP and ATP ratio.
This indicates that the cell is drained of energy, and when this occurs, protein synthesis decreases.
Once you train to failure, you develop “central fatigue.” Once your nervous system is fatigued, all the following sets will be performed at a much lower capacity.
So to avoid hindering the performance plan to hit failure in the last sets.
Additionally, strategically training to failure will exhaust all of your smaller muscle fibres. Faced with the continued challenge of lifting a heavy weight, your nervous system is forced to use your body’s larger fast-twitch muscle fibres which increases the overall muscle usage.
So the results which you get from training to failure largely depend on strategy.
It can be anabolic if done sparingly and catabolic if done too often. And don’t forget to give your body adequate rest and sleep to help you recover!
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