Deads and squats to absolute failure?

[00Gymrat00]

Is it the best way to get the most ot of your deads and squats?
I always finish my sets 1-2 reps to failure as i fear injury. Do i have to train to failure to see better results or is it just damn stupid to do these workouts to failure?

[Retoaded]

Is it the best way to get the most ot of your deads and squats?
I always finish my sets 1-2 reps to failure as i fear injury. Do i have to train to failure to see better results or is it just damn stupid to do these workouts to failure?

depends. on goals, on everything. you will hear some people, who have been successful, go to failure frequently in every workout. you will hear some people, who have been successful, go to failure hardly ever.

you don't have to work to failure to make progress. at the same time, working to failure occasionally can be productive. but for typical people in most circumstances (nothing is absolute) on these lifts (and all lifts really not in competition), a good philosophy is that occasionally pushing it to FORM failure can be productive. If you can't deadlift it without keeping good form, don't crossfit it up.

the above is my personal and nonprofessional opinion.

[benjobb]

Nope, when you reach muscular failure (not failure of form) your workout becomes less efficient and you can do less, not to mention these are potentially dangerous lifts when your form goes bad, and when you fail your form obviously suffers. It's counterproductive for both strength goals and hypertrophy. It makes your CNS burn out faster even if you didn't complete any reps and you won't be able to do as much volume. Stopping before failure is actually recommended so you're able to do more.

I'd only train to failure on maybe arm isolation exercises at the end of workouts or if I hit a really, really bad plateau.

[lee__d]

Agreed.

Training to failure, in general, is something that is probably best used sparingly.

Complex movements to failure will likely lead to form breakdown and increase injury risk.

Squatting to failure mean dumping the bar every time you squat, no fun.

[speedjason]

complex movements like squats and deadlifts, I would not hit failure cuz it can hurt you.
others like bench press you should get a spotter if you decide to hit failure.
hitting failure isnt always better.

[Engineer_Guy]

You should rarely, if ever, train to failure.

[NicktheStick]

You should take everything within 1 or 2 reps of failure...not all the way to failure. Rep ranges are important, doing 3-5 reps will make you stronger assuming you're using a weight that you can ONLY do for 3-5 reps... 8-10 reps will help hypertrophy but again, you should use a weight you can only do for 8-10 reps... If you're doing 10 reps with a weight you can easily handle for 15-20 reps it's pointless.

[tidnab]

There was this guy called Dr. Ken me and some of my friends used to idolize back when we were teenagers because he popularized doing 20+ rep squat sets to failure as a "hardcore" way to train and his videos often featured trainees puking up in buckets mid-workout. Needless to say, Dr. Ken is a cripple now and I'm glad dumped that phase and moved on to the Oly lifts when I got to college.


Edit: doing some digging, I realize the "Dr. Ken" I'm talking about is none other than Dr. Ken Leistner, who has trained a lot of very successful lifters in his career. Probably not fair to discredit him solely based on my experience learning his ideas secondhand from one of my friends who was a Dr. Ken fanatic.

[IDrinkBloodLOL]

What is the benefit of training to failure vs. not training to failure?

Secondly, what is your plan for adding weight to these lifts?

[ironwill2008]

Deads and squats to absolute failure?

Is it the best way to get the most ot of your deads and squats?

No.



But it's the best way to cripple yourself from weight training that I can think of at the moment.



It's been long-proven that failure is not a requirement for gains in strength/mass. What is a requirement for gains is to consistently progress the weight and/or reps lifted with good form over time.

[00Gymrat00]

I'm on a bulk and go to failure with isolated execises but am wondering if going to failure with big lifts will do me good

[Engineer_Guy]

I'm on a bulk and go to failure with isolated execises but am wondering if going to failure with big lifts will do me good

Going to failure is never really that beneficial.