Muscle Failure
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DizzyMissIzzy
Posts: 168 Member
I feel like I ask so many questions on here... please don't judge me, haha. Trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible!
I've been trying to do my own research, but I wanted to see what the community thought about this:
Is training until muscle failure beneficial or harmful?
Example: every day when I worked out this week I hit muscle failure on almost every single exercise I did. I am still somewhat of a beginner, but I was given a weight that would purposely be incredibly heavy for me and worked down from there using dropsets and supersets with other exercises.
Is this an appropriate way to burn fat and gain muscle? My goals are to drop my body fat percentage down to 20% by losing 25lbs and tone up to be lean and fieeerce! (I'm currently 149 at 63").
I've been trying to do my own research, but I wanted to see what the community thought about this:
Is training until muscle failure beneficial or harmful?
Example: every day when I worked out this week I hit muscle failure on almost every single exercise I did. I am still somewhat of a beginner, but I was given a weight that would purposely be incredibly heavy for me and worked down from there using dropsets and supersets with other exercises.
Is this an appropriate way to burn fat and gain muscle? My goals are to drop my body fat percentage down to 20% by losing 25lbs and tone up to be lean and fieeerce! (I'm currently 149 at 63").
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Replies
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Let's start with a question. Is your muscle failure happening after 2 reps? 20 reps? 200 reps?0
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If that's the case, it sounds like your trainer is working you too heavy to actually accomplish your goals. Based on your other post regarding calorie burns, I'd seriously consider working with a different, more knowledgeable trainer who doesn't seem to be giving cookie cutter advice and will create a functional plan that will accomplish your goals.
ETA: you also mention the trainer is "guiding your reps" meaning they are assisting you with lifts. While, in some cases that would be beneficial such as the last few reps of a series of sets, just to finish it off... if it's starting as early as the first or second set, what that means is that the trainer is doing some of the work for you, which means you are not reaping optimal benefit of the program they have set, which seems to be generally too heavy for you at your current level of strength.0 -
What he said^^^ I'm not a fan of going to complete muscle failure. Technical failure yes, but not picking the bar up off your chest type of stuff. And certainly if you are attempting 3 x 15 and are failing at 8-9 of the second set, you are going too heavy.0
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DizzyMissIzzy wrote: »
Absolute failure NO
Failure YES
You want the last rep of your set to be the last rep you could do with proper form
Ideal Hypertrophy rep range is between 6-15 reps if your first set is at 15, second lets say 10 and third 8 your doing pretty good!0 -
DizzyMissIzzy wrote: »
Going to failure is fine, but it shouldn't be happening so early in your sets.
Time to deload a bit.0 -
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So for optimal fat burn and muscle toning, do you all recommend sticking with the limited breaks and supersets and dropsets and just lowering the weight?
Or is that not the most efficient plan?
Before I got the trainer I was still lifting at my comfort zone and doing 30 min of cardio a day (burning about 400-450 calories) and although I lost 2 pant sizes I didn't lose any weight from the scale. I went down from 32-28% body fat, but I really want to get to the 20-22% range. I've changed my diet to a very healthy structured macro-counting diet which has made me feel much better in my skin, so that's probably the biggest change, but everyone is right, I need to sit down and talk with the manager about either a better plan or a new trainer (I'm with the company for 5 more months as per the contract I signed with them).0 -
Limited rest and supersets work well, drop sets bring you beyond failure which can make hard to recover from on a caloric deficit, might want to stay away from those.0
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AshesToBeast wrote: »Limited rest and supersets work well, drop sets bring you beyond failure which can make hard to recover from on a caloric deficit, might want to stay away from those.
That's very helpful!
Thank you. At what point should I go up in weight? When the last rep of the set is still okay? 0 -
You got it, I'd suggest when you can hit around 10-12reps on your last set go for it, but don't stay in a comfort zone, get comfortable with being uncomfortable.. If that makes any sense
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DizzyMissIzzy wrote: »So for optimal fat burn and muscle toning, do you all recommend sticking with the limited breaks and supersets and dropsets and just lowering the weight?
Or is that not the most efficient plan?
Before I got the trainer I was still lifting at my comfort zone and doing 30 min of cardio a day (burning about 400-450 calories) and although I lost 2 pant sizes I didn't lose any weight from the scale. I went down from 32-28% body fat, but I really want to get to the 20-22% range. I've changed my diet to a very healthy structured macro-counting diet which has made me feel much better in my skin, so that's probably the biggest change, but everyone is right, I need to sit down and talk with the manager about either a better plan or a new trainer (I'm with the company for 5 more months as per the contract I signed with them).
Cardio is not necessary to lose fat, although it can be used to make a bigger deficit or eat more food, but is not needed to lose fat. Fat is burned from eating less calories than your TDEE not by exercise alone.
Toning isn't something most people believe in now a days. It was a marketing word made up to sell products. If there is a true definition for toning in my opinion, its the lost of fat while retaining as much muscle you can. This is done once again with your diet, hitting your macros, while using a progressive lifting program. If you are not losing weight over a long period of time, its either your eating more food than you thought, or your not burning as many calories and should make adjustments.0 -
What he said^^^ I'm not a fan of going to complete muscle failure. Technical failure yes, but not picking the bar up off your chest type of stuff. And certainly if you are attempting 3 x 15 and are failing at 8-9 of the second set, you are going too heavy.
This. Technical failure. Once your form is affected it's time to rest0 -
DizzyMissIzzy wrote: »So for optimal fat burn and muscle toning, do you all recommend sticking with the limited breaks and supersets and dropsets and just lowering the weight?
Or is that not the most efficient plan?
Before I got the trainer I was still lifting at my comfort zone and doing 30 min of cardio a day (burning about 400-450 calories) and although I lost 2 pant sizes I didn't lose any weight from the scale. I went down from 32-28% body fat, but I really want to get to the 20-22% range. I've changed my diet to a very healthy structured macro-counting diet which has made me feel much better in my skin, so that's probably the biggest change, but everyone is right, I need to sit down and talk with the manager about either a better plan or a new trainer (I'm with the company for 5 more months as per the contract I signed with them).
Cardio is not necessary to lose fat, although it can be used to make a bigger deficit or eat more food, but is not needed to lose fat. Fat is burned from eating less calories than your TDEE not by exercise alone.
Toning isn't something most people believe in now a days. It was a marketing word made up to sell products. If there is a true definition for toning in my opinion, its the lost of fat while retaining as much muscle you can. This is done once again with your diet, hitting your macros, while using a progressive lifting program. If you are not losing weight over a long period of time, its either your eating more food than you thought, or your not burning as many calories and should make adjustments.
^This... this is great advice. Training will help with fat loss, but not be the major factor... your diet and eating less than you burn will be. Start by accurately logging all food using a scale for all solids and appropriate liquid measure for all liquids... then you will be on your path to success. Logging everything accurately makes it easier to make adjustments when needed.0 -
You guys are so amazing, thank you for all your help and advice! I really appreciate it!0
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There are days when I gym I will rep to failure, I'll use a comfortable weight but nothing too easy and set my self a minimum number of reps... Next set up I'll up the weight and beat that set. I don't like to do fast reps but I'll use slow controlled with active tension really gives you a good pump.0
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