POWERED BY TRUCKS: Fail Safe

   Performing a lift to the point of failure can be a good thing — if you know when you’re failing.  

Powered By Trucks : Anthony Trucks

   There are so many ways to train, and one of the most underused forms is failure sets. 

   Failure sets are just what they sound like, sets where you move to failure — when the muscle can no longer continue. The benefits can be huge when used in either an area of strength or endurance. The simplest way to explain how the body improves is that it adapts to the stressors placed upon it so that it will be able to handle it easier in the future. That’s why muscles grow, endurance increases and so forth. 

   So failure sets can push the body to its maximum limit with the desired result of increased physical output ability.

   The gains can be great. However, if performed incorrectly, the negatives can be just as great. When you get to the end range of your muscular limits for a paricular movement, the only way to continue that movement is to compensate somewhere in your body. This leads to contortionist looking movements just to keep the weight moving. That’s bad.

   When you compensate during the movement, it degrades other parts of the body that aren’t responsible for the movement. In order to avoid that issue you need to simply focus on one thing: your postural pattern. Fight to maintain the correct posture and range of motion. The MOMENT you feel yourself start to fall out of the right pattern when the muscle fatigues, is the moment you need to stop. At that point, the muscle you want to train is failing.

   So, when working to failure, don’t be a failure and hurt yourself.

Anthony Trucks is an IYCA-certified trainer who covers weight training for SportStars.