Less pain same gain?

In order to get stronger and/or build bigger muscles, we need to do strength training. But how hard do we need to train?

Training to failure (the point at which you can no longer perform one single rep, even though you’re pushing as hard as possible) is a common recommendation made by trainers. But is that really necessary?

Although this is definitely a topic that needs further research, there’s a couple reviews (1, 2) investigating the importance of training to failure for improving muscular strength and hypertrophy. They show minimal, if any, advantage to performing sets to failure vs non failure, when the volume (number of sets performed in a week) is equal.

One of the reviews (1) showed that advanced exercisers may get more hypertrophy when training maximally. No differences for beginners and intermediate exercises, and also no differences for strength development, regardless of the participants’ fitness status.

The 2021 review (2) also assessed if different muscle groups responded differently, and there were no significant differences. Also, in studies that did not equate training volume, the exercisers who did not perform to failure improved their strength levels a bit more than the ones who did. Those results are probably explained by differences in volume though, not intensity (the participants who did not exercise maximally, ended up doing more sets, more reps, and/or more sessions per week).

So answering our main question, it seems that training to failure is not necessary to get stronger and more muscular, as long as we get close to that point. Yes, we still need to put a good effort in.

A concept called “Reps in Reserve (RIR)” has become more popular, and it’s a reliable tool for prescribing resistance training load (3). RIR means the number of reps you think you could until reaching muscular failure, with perfect form, of course. We don’t know yet the magical number of RIR to maximize gains, but we’ve seen many clients getting a lot stronger over the years while training around 1-3 RIR.

That being said, we think there’s definitely value in training to failure occasionally, because we can only estimate our RIR with precision, if we know how muscular failure actually feels like.

To increase or preserve muscle strength, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that we train each muscle group 2-3x/wk, 2-4 sets, at moderate to hard intensity for novice to intermediate exercisers, and hard to very hard intensity for advanced exercisers. And that we gradually progress, by doing more reps, more load, or more sets (4).

So the bottom line is that if you push yourself enough during training, even if not maximally, you’ll get stronger and more muscular. As long as you stick to it for a while, of course. Good training!

Willian Alba

1: PMID 36334240

2: PMID: 33497853

3: PMID: 36135029

4: PMID: 21694556