I agree with baptiste on the full body split, it seems like it would be more effective for you if you are only training 3 times per week. A couple of problems with training to failure

- If you train to failure on your first exercise, e.g. incline bench press, you won't be as strong for your other exercises, say if you had decline db press also in your push day, and this isn't as efficient for overall volume.

- As you approach failure, form starts to decline and you aren't contracting the muscles as well as the earlier reps. Also you risk injury for some lifts. I don't think it would be wise to squat till failure.

- Like you said above, recovery time is longer. The overall goal is to get your muscles to adapt to greater loads/tension over time. This is how you grow and get stronger.

- How do you track progress when going to failure? You could do a lightweight 50 times till you can't do it anymore. You could do a really heavy weight 3 times and on the third rep have the spotter do most of the work. Next time you go, are you aiming for 4? 51? Not a very effective progression scheme that is easy to track. More effective would be if one day you hit 3x8 and the next you hit 4x8 or if you hit 3x8 with 5 extra pounds. See what I'm getting at?

Training to failure works for some people, but I would argue that it isn't optimal.

I'll occasionally hit failure on an assistance movement like pushdowns or pushups or curls.
But I don't see the point in training till failure on the main barbell movements. Form breaks down and failing a rep isn't the safest thing ever. I try to never miss reps. I'm not saying to not work hard, but if your 7th rep was an absolute grinder, rack the bar. Getting a few inches of your 8th rep then having to have a spotter pull the bar off your chest isn't helping you.

1000 times this.

It also depends how much you're lifting with respect to your genetic potential.

Generally speaking novice lifters can handle going to failure more than more advanced lifters (though the safety concerns for failing as a novice lifter are greater) since they're moving less weight and can recover more from it.

I think a good rule of thumb is to push your limits as a beginner lifter and grow more conservative as you become more advanced, while still trying to program such that you rarely, if ever, actually miss a rep. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean advanced guys should coast through their workouts, but rather that I think a solid workout session where you hit your main moves explosively and with good speed through all of the sets is going to do more for you than having a bunch of sh*tty feeling sets where everything is a massive grinder. You also get the benefit with the fast explosive version of not feeling like recycled dog a** walking out of the gym.

My failure is crapping myself to get the last rep out - i dont believe i truly train to failure as I dont use a spotter - but when I have 8 reps to get and hit 7 and my bodys screaming no more and i push the last set and i barely get the last one up without becoming the next BB disaster vid.

Since I cant really train to failure - i do drop sets

I am the same as this

you should train every muscle group to failure once a week. since it seems you only do each once then you should train to failure. I would suggest one exercise to failure and beyond and then one or two more exercises to near failure

http://www.lift-run-bang.com/2013/01/base-building-part-2.html

you should train every muscle group to failure once a week. since it seems you only do each once then you should train to failure. I would suggest one exercise to failure and beyond and then one or two more exercises to near failure

http://www.lift-run-bang.com/2013/01/base-building-part-2.html

Once I drop down to 1-3 reps for 2-3 weeks, I'll drop the weight down and go back to high reps and volume again.

I'm not sure you got the same thing from that post that I did. Once you pass beginner stages of lifting, maxing out isn't necessary to get stronger.

Other than technique improvement, what would it be?

Can you clarify what you mean by this?

I'm not sure you got the same thing from that post that I did. Once you pass beginner stages of lifting, maxing out isn't necessary to get stronger.

Can you clarify what you mean by this?

In the early stages of lifting, in addition to basically anything halfway reasonable working, you can get away with lifting balls out at high % of your RM without consequence since you're moving such little weight. As you get more advanced, those high % sessions take more out of you and you pay for the ego boost by needing a lot more time to recover. That kind of pink-sock, aneurism inducing session is not necessary to get stronger. My favorite example of this is sheiko. Guys get brutally strong on this and stay in the low percentages.

The same goes for repping out. You don't need to be crapping your pants from pushing with a guy hovering over you, lifting 90% of the weight and shouting "it's all you, bro!" to make progress. If you lift consistently at moderate percentages while leaving a rep or two in the tank on your sets, you'll get stronger. If you're not training for a meet, there's really no need for an rm test other than to stroke your ego. If you are training for a meet, that display of strength should be at...well...the meet, not at the gym trying to impress chicks (or dudes) that don't care. Some people have seen a lot of success going balls out and killing themselves every workout. I never did, that just got me a torn oblique and horrible low back spasms.

Again this is after beginner stages of lifting and when training for strength. Going for mass is different. The best compromise I've found is training the strength moves (for me that's the big 3 and the press) for strength and going balls out on accessory work when I'm feeling punchy. That doesn't work for most gym rats because apparently hitting a 225 sldl for 30 doesn't bring the ladies running (but then again benching 500 doesn't either).