When you start going to the gym, you will very quickly learn what muscle failure is. The strength is leaving, and a burning sensation appears in the muscles. The last repeat and the projectile is lowered … Do I need to bring myself to such a state or not? Let's consider this condition from all points of view. Today I would like to deal with one of the most controversial ways to increase muscle mass. There are a lot of his supporters and opponents. Surely those who have been involved in bodybuilding for a long time have already realized that we are talking about muscle failure. It is very important to understand whether he helps in training or, on the contrary, can cause harm.
What is muscle failure
All visitors to gyms are sure to come across this concept. It should be said right away that this is not a state of laziness, when you simply do not want to do anything. This process occurs at the time of training and consists in bringing the muscles to the limit, or, in other words, you are simply not able to raise the desired weight further without disrupting the technique.
Most often, such a state is expressed as follows: performing an exercise, at a certain moment it becomes clear that if you lower the dumbbell now, you will not be able to lift it yourself. The muscles seem to begin to rebel against the continuation of work, but at the same time the brain realizes that it is possible to make a couple of movements. Such a state in scientific language is muscle failure.
Before, of course, they knew about this condition, but tried to bypass it, but when the "golden age" of bodybuilding came, the attitude towards this phenomenon changed. Now many can no longer imagine their workouts without this method.
Different views on the effect of muscle failure
As in any other business, there are many views and teachings in bodybuilding. Fans of one of them are sure that the bulk of an athlete is built thanks to relatively low weights and a large number of repetitions. And representatives of the other direction are sure that muscle growth occurs only thanks to critical weights and a small number of approaches. By the way, this group includes Arthur Jones, the creator of the Nautilus simulator.
Fans of the second direction are sure that in training it is necessary to work so much until the exercise cannot be performed even partially. There were many conflicts between representatives of these schools and now is the time to summarize all the experience and find out what is really happening.
Training process and types of muscle failure
There are two axioms in bodybuilding that no one argues with:
- Muscles grow with any physical activity;
- With the same type of load, a short-term growth occurs.
They are very well confirmed in practice, when young athletes during the first couple of months there are quite strong changes: overweight lose weight, and ectomorphs gain weight. It follows from this that any workout leads the muscles to stress and, first of all, from the fact that they were previously relieved of stress. But after this period, development stops.
When this happens, major training changes need to be made. Unfortunately, most often they consist in a banal addition of the weight of the shells. This method cannot give positive results. When doing bodybuilding, there is a very important thing to remember - there is no single correct training program.
To achieve constant muscle growth, it is necessary to periodically make drastic changes to training and be in constant search. You should use a variety of techniques and work patterns. There was a time when exercise progress was attributed solely to training to failure. Scientifically speaking, muscle failure in bodybuilding and not only is the condition of the muscles caused by their overwork, when the athlete can no longer perform the exercise, adhering to the correct technique.
There are three types of muscle failure:
- Concentric (positive) - weight lifting;
- Eccentric (negative) - lowering the projectile;
- Isometric (static) - weight retention.
It is important to remember that when performing any exercise, the athlete will always accompany these phases. Well, a complete failure is a condition in which the muscles are brought to the maximum of their capabilities.
At the same time, the above types are directly related to the types of muscle fibers:
- Concentric - the main effect is on myofibrils. The moment they contract, there is an increase in the muscles around the circumference;
- Eccentric - has an effect on mitochondria connected to myofibrils. The mitochondria generate energy that is used to contract and repair muscles. When all the energy is gone, failure occurs, but the muscles are not damaged.
- Isometric - it is an intermediate failure and it occurs at the moment when glycogen stores are depleted;
Muscle failure: good or bad?
One should start with the negative aspects of this phenomenon in sports:
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The main thing for an athlete is the growth of muscle mass. When it comes to the long-term perspective, the best solution would be not to put a big load right away, but to increase it gradually. Starting with small weights, each subsequent month, they should be increased, and the muscles will grow.
If you start to work immediately "for wear and tear", then you can simply "drive" your body. Based on the results of recent studies, the increase in muscle mass is largely due to the total amount of load.
- Any workout in the gym is always accompanied by a stressful condition for the body, and when using large weights, this condition is aggravated. Thus, the athlete's central nervous system is depleted and, as a result, muscle endurance decreases.
- With intense exercise with large weights, oxygen deprivation occurs. Simply put, oxygen enters the bloodstream in dramatic emissions, which can lead to the destruction of muscle cells.
- Working to the limit of the muscle's capabilities is very bad for their coordination during exercise. As a result, you can bring yourself to a state of overtraining much faster.
Now let's talk about the positive aspects of muscle failure:
- Most famous athletes do not question the effectiveness of failure training, but they use them only in the latter approach.
- To stimulate the growth of muscle mass, it is necessary to create a special environment at the level of the cells, thanks to which tissue could be destroyed and microtraumas were inflicted on the fibers. It is refusal that can eliminate muscle congestion.
- When extreme loads are constantly acting on the body, the intensity of the exercises increases and the secretion of anabolic hormones increases.
How to achieve muscle failure
When all the pros and cons are considered, you should dwell on practical advice in more detail.
Method number 1 - the usual failure approach
It is important to choose the right weight for the required number of repetitions, as a rule, there are usually from 8 to 12. This method is also suitable for beginners. When performing the exercise, it should be performed until the athlete is no longer able to lift the weight technically correctly.
Method number 2 - cheating
In this case, the exercise begins to be performed according to all the rules, and then they no longer pay attention to them. The first movements are performed thanks to the work of the muscle group for which the lesson is designed, and the last repetitions are already performed with the help of the assisting muscles.
Method number 3 - supersets
This technique was first used by Joe Weider. Its essence is to train only one target muscle group to failure. For this, various exercises are used without rest. This makes it possible to give the muscles a variety of types of stress.
Method number 4 - help from a friend
This method can also be called a forced approach. The athlete independently performs a certain number of repetitions, after which he asks for help from colleagues to perform a few more movements.
If we talk about muscle failure from the point of view of medicine and the health of an athlete, then definitely in a severe form, they can harm the body. As mentioned above, the growth of muscle mass is significantly more influenced by the total volume of the load, and by no means by the depth of failure. It should also be remembered that, without bringing the muscles to failure, you can avoid injury and not deplete the body. After all, the athlete needs to build, not destroy.
You need to understand that refusal does not guarantee an increase in muscle mass, but with a gradual and regular increase in working weight, this can be achieved. We can say with confidence that a beginner should not resort to this method of training. Experienced athletes can easily afford this, but you should not be zealous in this. Do not force your body to experience severe stress often.
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