Why you should go to failure (and beyond failure)

The only way to grow muscle is to train to absolute failure.
If you want to build strength, train to failure.
If you want to make working out fun, train to failure.
And last… if you want to grow muscle? The only answer is training to failure.

Training to failure is the simplest thing that even 5th graders can explain. It’s basically just: lift until you can’t lift.
Just like Arnold said: “In bodybuilding, you can only know how much you can lift by failing.”

Training to failure is the single most effective and proven way to build muscle.
Arnold did it, Mike Mentzer did it, and 99% of Golden Era bodybuilders did it.

They did it because they knew it’s the natural way your muscles grow.
You break the muscle down in the gym, and you let the muscle grow bigger while you recover.

And basically, every successful person is a friend of failure.
Michael Jordan missed 9,000 shots.
Elon Musk watched his first three rockets explode before making orbit on the fourth try.
But after they failed, they recovered—and they grew.

Training to failure is the simplest and fastest way to build.
It’s the simplest way because training to failure is just as simple as lifting until you can’t lift.
It’s the fastest way because training to failure breaks your muscles even harder.
And the more broken that muscle is, the more room there is for it to grow back stronger.

But what if I told you that most lifters almost never actually go to failure?
Most lifters stop when their mind says they’re done.
But the truth is, their body isn’t done yet.

David Goggins said that when your mind says you’re done, you’re only 40% done.
Even though I don’t totally agree with that percentage, I agree with the message.
I see too many lifters stop 2 reps before failure.
That even happened to me before I truly experienced what real failure feels like.

The first time I realized I’d been wasting time was when I did squats until failure.
The previous week, my mind stopped me at 12 reps.
But that week, when I didn’t let my mind talk, I hit 20 reps.

And truly, you only know you’re training to failure when you actually go beyond failure.

“Beyond failure” means pause reps, partials, cheat reps—all that stuff.
Actually, Arnold had two favorite ways to end his last set and go beyond failure.
(Remember: only do this on your last set of an exercise.)

First is cheat reps. This can only be done when you’re doing isolation work.
For example, Arnold would do regular barbell curls, but when it got harder, he’d use cheat reps.

But he didn’t stop there—here comes the pause reps.
If cheat reps still felt impossible, he’d stop for 2 seconds, then push that bar up.

That’s how you know you’ve trained to failure.

~Buildlikearnold