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RAINING TO FAILURE

Before mentioning any techniques to go beyond failure, it’s important to define how to properly

tax a muscle to get to what is termed “momentary muscular failure.” If you don’t reach that point,

there is no sense in bringing in any additional techniques. A distinction needs to be made

between how a weight trainer in the gym (someone who wants to develop and build his

physique) should perform a rep, as opposed to a weightlifter. A weightlifter’s primary concern is

moving the maximum amount of resistance from point A to point B, by any means necessary. If

that means shortening the range of motion and employing momentum, then so be it. Applying

stress to the muscle is not a concern.

A weight trainer should approach each rep from a totally opposite point of view. The main goal

must be to force the target muscle to work as hard as possible, with as little contribution from

surrounding muscle groups or momentum as possible. That’s why I am such a staunch advocate

of strict, controlled form. It’s the best way to ensure maximum stress on the muscle. I will perform

the positive portion of a rep in an explosive fashion, but in no case would I ever neglect the

contraction or drop the weight, and miss out on the benefits of thenegative stroke. There is

some scientific evidence to support that the negative aspect of the rep actually incurs the most

damage to a muscle. Repairing this damage is how muscles become bigger and stronger. Always

keep in mind that there are three types of strength, and each can be expressed in terms of a

portion of a repetition:

1) Positive— lifting the weight

2) Static— holding the weight in the fully contracted position of the muscle

3) Negative— lowering the weight

This doesn’t apply universally to all exercises, as there are some movements in which there is

very little resistance in the fully-contracted position. Two notable examples would be the end point

of a rep for either squats ordeadlifts. At the lockout, most of the stress is actually borne by the

 joints. However, in most other exercises you can gauge your static strength by whether you are

able to pause at least briefly in the fully-contracted position. If you are unable to do so, it’s a clear

indication that you employed momentum to move the weight rather than pure muscle power.

There was a scene in professional bodybuilderMark Dugdale’s training DVD“A Week in the

Dungeon”  that vividly illustrated the above situation. He completed a set of heavy seated cable

rows and looked to me immediately afterward. Mark was somewhat shocked when I commented,“Fucking piss-poor job.” I explained to him that he had not paused one single rep in the fully-

contracted position where the grip handles made contact with his body. He hadn’t pulled that

weight with pure lat power, but had instead yanked it toward his torso using momentum. In

order to do the reps properly, he had to reduce the weight. This is an extremely easy way to

check your form and be sure that you are indeed taxing the muscle, so that a set only ends when

the muscle itself has truly failed.

One tip I often tell people to facilitate this is to do your best to relax the rest of your body, and

attempt to perfectly isolate only the muscles that you are trying to work. Anything else is usually

wasted or misdirected energy. As much as I am in favor of training as heavy as one can, youmust keep in mind that weight training is not about lifting weights— it’s all about working the

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muscles as hard as humanly possible. Now that you hopefully understand how to properly take a

set to failure, we can discuss techniques to go beyond failure.

2. FORCED REPS

It should be said straight off that forced reps are an art form, and only a good training partner will

have the ability to assist in administering them properly. The intent of forced reps is to apply just

enough help to get past the sticking point of a rep, and complete one or two more past the point

of positive failure.

Of all the intensity techniques out there, in my estimation, this one is by far the most commonly

abused. You can walk into any gym in the world and witness this on thebench press. Guys will

load up the bar with significantly more weight than they are capable of lifting, and recruit a

training partner or spotter to lift part of the weight for them from the very first rep onward. What’s

the bloody point in that? Obviously, this ridiculous practice stems entirely from the ego, as guys

like to delude themselves into thinking they actually did 10 reps with 315, or whatever the case

may be.

This harkens right back to what we were speaking about in regards to weightlifting versus

bodybuilding. Guys like that generally don’t have very much in the way ofchest development,

because they never actually work their pecs intensely enough to stimulate growth. I would much

rather see a trainer do 5 or 6 reps entirely on his own before a spotter or training partner provides

 just enough assistance to allow for 1 or 2 more additional reps. Anything more than 2 forced reps

at the end of a set is pointless, in my opinion.3. NEGATIVES

We mentioned earlier that the negative portion of a repetition is at least as important as the

positive, and perhaps even more so. Back in the early 1970s, Nautilus inventor Arthur Jones

recognized this and advocated “negative only” training, in which spotters lifted the weight and the

trainer would only lower it slowly. This proved impractical. Not only would this often require the

services of two very strong spotters (picture the logistics of trying to lift a 500-pound barbell for

someone doing squats, so that he only has to lower it), but it’s potentially dangerous. That’s

because we are all weakest in the positive part of a rep and strongest in the negative. If you can

lift 300 pounds in the bench press, chances are that you are probably capable of lowering

something like 400 or 450 pounds. That’s a terrific amount of stress on the joints, tendons and

ligaments, especially if you make it a routine practice.

A far more practical and safer way to incorporate negatives is to reach failure with a given weight,

and then have a training partner assist you in moving it to the fully-contracted position two or

three more times so that you can lower it very slowly— thus exhausting your negative strength,

the last of the three (positive, static, negative) to give out on you.

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Another less common way to employ negatives is something called “negative accentuated

training.” In this, you lift the weight using two limbs but lower it with just one. A couple of

examples where this could be done areleg extensions, machine curls, machine rows with a

chest support, leg press, or a seated bench press machine. Essentially, you would only be able

to perform negative-accentuated sets on machines in which both limbs move one movement arm.

It would not be possible on a unilateral machine such as most of the Hammer Strength series.

4. REST-PAUSE

Rest-pause has enjoyed renewed popularity in recent years thanks to DC Training. They

borrowed it from me, I borrowed it from Mike Mentzer, and Mike had borrowed it from Arthur

Jones! The basic premise is to take several brief rests during a set, so that a heavier weight can

be used. For example, you may be able to use 300 pounds for a total of 8 reps in rest-pause

fashion, whereas otherwise you would only manage 4 reps. You might do something like 3 or 4

reps, put the weight down for 10 seconds or so, do another 2 reps, rest, and finish with a final rep

or two. In this way, you hit positive failure three separate times during one set. A very real benefit

of rest-pause is that it gives your muscles a chance to adapt to much heavier loads, and that

strength will carry over into your normal straight sets.

5. DROP SETS

Drop sets have been around for many decades, and the principle makes sense. When you fail

at 8 repscurling 100 pounds, it doesn’t mean yourbiceps can’t curl any weight at all. Should

you immediately reduce the resistance to 70 or 80 pounds, you could continue the set with

several more reps before hitting failure again. These are ideal for those who train on their own

with no spotter.

6. CHEATING REPS

Cheat reps have been called “forced reps on your own,” and that’s accurate provided you are

doing then correctly. Just as it defeats the purpose of making the set tougher to employ too many

forced reps and too soon in the set, cheat reps must not be abused either. You should do most of

the reps strictly until reaching positive failure, and only then cheat up an additional rep or two. To

make these reps truly productive, you must pause at least very briefly in the fully-contracted

position, and lower the rep slowly.

7. PRE-EXHAUST

A final technique is one I was personally never too keen on. The premise of pre-exhaust sets is

that one reaches failure on an isolation exercise, and then immediately proceeds to a compound

movement as quickly as possible. Common examples would be leg extensions and leg presses,

or the peck deck and a bench press. The issue I have with this is that if you know you have to

move right into a compound movement, odds are that at least subconsciously, you will hold back

a bit on the isolation movement in order to have “something left in the tank.” Therefore, you won’t

take the first set to complete failure.

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You can try it and see if it works well for you, but I always preferred to pre-exhaust a muscle

group by simply completing all my sets of an isolation movement— for example, a Nautilus

pullover machine, before moving on to something like close-grip lat pulldowns or barbell rows.

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