Quote:
Originally Posted by 0311
From 0311's post 6 months ago, "A Training Philosophy For Solid Mass Gain by Kelly Baggett"
Snip
25. Is failure necessary?
A muscle does not have to be trained to failure to be stimulated either. Microtrauma results from any increase in tension beyond what a muscle is fully adapted to. Failure and forced reps don’t do much, if anything extra for strength or size gains, yet they do create a lot of fatigue and prolong recovery time. How many 135 pound bench pressers have you seen doing forced reps with spotters saying, “It’s all you?” How many 400 pound plus bench pressers have you seen doing forced reps period?
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I have a question about training to failure. I've seen the above philosophy in a few different posts here on bb.net, and I'm a little confused.
I am currently training using Rippetoe's Starting Strength. I am adding weight each workout and from what I understand I should keep adding weight until I start missing reps. But the only way I'll know I'm missing reps is to try to squeeze out those last really hard reps and ultimately I will reach failure and not finish a rep. But to do this, I can not adhere to the quoted advice above.
I take the recovery aspects of training very serious and I really need to at my age (I turn 50 this week). So there is my confusion. Am I jeopardizing my recovery by pushing out those last reps that I can barely do? If so, how do I miss reps to know when to reset?
As an example, yesterday I Benched a PR for 3x5. I did the last rep out of shear determination that I was going to do it no matter what, and I feel like it fell under the forced rep category. So technically I didn't miss a rep, but it was forced. If I read the above quote correctly, I shouldn't need a spotter, I'll know not to do that last one or two forced reps.
I normally would have posted this question in my journal, but I think this topic will get better visibility for all to see if I post it here in the Training Forum.