A few days ago a dude in the gym asked me what I meant when I said "people often mistake fatigue for failure," (he was referring to something I had written regarding HIT training). According to him, these were one in the same.
Now, there's no science to support my answer, but I'm pretty sure there is a difference. In my mind, if you're experiencing muscle fatigue through resistance training - no matter how severe - you can still make a muscle contract, or at least resist a negative movement. On the other hand, I define failure as a point where the impulse from your brain to a particular muscle group is momentarily interrupted resulting in a physical inability to either contract or maintain tension on the muscle. No matter how fatigued you are, if someone put a gun to your head you'd probably be able to move, or at least resist. If the gun was employed during failure, chances are you'd have a hole in your head. Most people with whom I've debated this issue can't grasp that concept, so I asked him, "have you ever trained to failure?"
He responded like most do, proudly. "Oh, I train to failure every set... all the time!" He may even have been a little indignant. "I train HIT 6 days a week."
"Really?...." Right there that kinda made me go hmmmmm....., because If he was truly training HIT like you're supposed to train HIT he wouldn't be able to train six days a week. And in the words of Mike Mentzer, 'Why would you want to?'
"Well," I said, "If you're training to failure every set, 313 days a year, then I would imagine you're really good at finding it, right?"
"You know it brother! Dorian Yates warrior-training all the way!" Now, if had five dollars for every time I've heard that answer I'd be buying a bang'n set of new tires for my car right now. But, the very fact that he's asking me the question in the first place, thinks he's able to train every set to "failure"-- every workout, 6 days a week, every week, and that he "trains like Dorian" leads me to believe that this kid doesn't know "failure" from Shinola.
I was waiting for my training partner to arrive so I had a few minutes to kill. "I'll tell you what," I said. "I can best illustrate what I meant if you grab this 50 pound barbell and start doing some curls." I handed him the bar. "Hold it shoulder width, stand up straight, no swinging. Just really strict contractions straight up and down. When you get to failure let me know."
"50 is kind's light." He said.
"Yeah, it is. But do enough of them with tight form and eventually your biceps are going to be pumped with cement, your veins are going to feel like bursting, and the bar will barely be moving, and you'll be yelling about how much it fuckin' hurts! We'll see how light it is then." He started curling. "Come on, man, show me where failure is!" He started repping all cocky at first, like jeez... Romano is an ass... I'm getting board.... this weight is so light..... Then he started doing reps a little more seriously. Pretty soon the weight looked about right. Then it started looking like it might be getting heavy. Somewhere after the 40th rep he grimaced and strained and pulled with all he was worth in order to hoist that thing up without arching his back or swinging it up, but it just would not move. "Don't give up!" I yelled. He strained, pulled, and heaved...
"Aggggggggg!!!" he screamed. Then pulled some more. I helped him finish that rep and he said panting, "that's it, I'm done.... Failure."
"Bullshit! This is where you start working!" and I ordered him to do another rep. I helped him finish that one too, but at an even more excruciating tempo. Then another.... And another. When he started his final rep I could tell he was in the zone. He was red and sweaty and breathing hard - and the weight was hopelessly stuck. Without my help it wasn't going anywhere.
"Come on! Another one!" I yelled.
He began the movement and got stuck half way up. I didn't help him this time. "Pull!!" I screamed in his face. "Pull on that weight!....
It wasn't moving. "I can't.... I'm done" he whined.
"No you're not! Hold it! Fight it! DO NOT let that weight drop!" He pulled and pulled against an invisible wall while I yelled at him like a bitch. There was no way that weight was going up, but when would it go down? How long could he hold it? "Fight it! Come on man, don't let that weight drop... Fight it!" Finally, after what seemed like forever, he had no choice in the matter and the barbell fell from his grip and hit the floor - that was failure.
When the weight dropped to the floor because he couldn't even hold it up anymore, he experienced failure. If he would have let go of it any time before then it was fatigue that stopped him. To the point where you take this, nothing in this world feels better than the following seconds after you have failed. What a rush! If you were Arnold in Pumping Iron, you'd be coh-ming.
For as long as I've trumpeted the training to failure axiom, I have become aware that the term "failure" is as arbitrary as it is misunderstood, not to mention misused. The guy in the example above always thought he was training to failure, but he wasn't. He had no idea what failure was until I showed him! Surely this isn't the first guy I've run across that thought he was training to failure when he wasn't. And that got me thinking about the whole idea behind training intensity and why some people never really experience tremendous gains in the gym. With either approach - volume or HIT - you have to be training intensely enough for your brain to get the message that your body needs more muscle to compensate for the physical stress being exerted. Then, of course, there is adequate nutrition, supplements, blah, blah, blah... But, the first line of attack is training intensity. I see so many guys out there fooling themselves into thinking they train intensely and that their lack of progress is the fault of not taking enough drugs. Let's face it, maximum intensity hurts! It's also what builds muscle.
Employing a "training to failure" philosophy - or close to it (with a volume approach) - from several different angles in any muscle group accomplishes the maximum recruitment of muscle fibers. With maximum fiber recruitment, worked to the point of failure, your brain has no choice but to send the message to your body that it needs to grow in order to adapt to the stress to which it is subject. That's not to say that you won't grow any other way; however, the foregoing is an irrefutable fact. Also irrefutable is the fact that employing such a training philosophy will turn you're workouts into the workouts from hell. They will define hardcore in much the same way Hell Week during BUDS training defines a Navy SEAL. If you're not mentally and physically strong enough you'll wash out. You'll still be able to swim, you might even win a gold medal in the Olympics one day, but you're not going to be a SEAL. The same goes for bodybuilding; with the right genetics you might be able to skate along with minimal intensity and high volume and grow some muscle and look pretty good. But you're not going to win your weight class at the USA. Above all else, intensity is the defining factor. And people will still argue with me....
Whether you care to employ a "training to failure" philosophy or not is really not my point. My point is to differentiate "fatigue" from "failure." It is interesting, however, to seek out your own limits and see what you can inflict upon yourself and still stand it. True failure requires a merciless all out attack on yourself with you playing the role of a cruel and deranged drill sergeant. You take it as far as you can, and then you close your eyes, grit your teeth, and you take it a little further.... Right where you're at the point where you're ready to drop the weight - when you're straining and fighting and nothing is happening - is where you start counting the work. That's where you focus your mind and ask yourself, if I was hanging on a railing 1,000 feet up would I be ready to die right now or could I hold on just a little longer on the chance that someone may come around the corner and haul me in? How much more could your brain force your body to do before your body gives out? When you do let go and drop to your death - whenever that is - I promise you it's not going to be your brain's idea. If you can take it that far in the gym, you're in for a treat...... A masochistic treat, but a treat nonetheless. And it's obviously a strong drink because few ever could take it neat. Think Arthur Jones, Mike Mentzer, Dorian Yates, and a select few others.
Finding failure is more a game of the mind than the iron. You're prime directive is to fail. In a community founded on competing to win, that's a tough idea to wrap your brain around. Especially since the weights are never going to be that heavy. The idea is to find out exactly where your muscle will be momentarily incapable of tensing no matter what your brain tells it; then capitalize on the rush relief brings. You will be fighting pain along with fatigue on your way to failure. Going back to that test set of curls for a moment, it was never the weight that was getting heavier as the reps grew more difficult- it was his mind telling him to stop hurting himself. It yells pretty loudly, too, but don't listen to it because you can't really hurt yourself doing this. But you will be able to answer an age old question.
Subscribe to RxMuscle on Youtube
