Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Training To Failure And Why It Sucks

 Often times in training, we want to see what our bodies are capable of and push beyond the limits. Working ourselves to the core and going beyond the call of a rep or a set. We push and push until we literally can't go go anymore. The problem with this is that once you hit a certain limit and do your best to push past it, there's a greater risk of injury and your form becomes sloppy to the point where it looks like you're drowning, just flopping all over the place.

It's not just gym goers who do this, many competitive athletes do this to excel beyond the limits of their capacity and we often wonder why many careers don't last more than a decade. I have once read that the legendary bodybuilder Bill Pearl didn't really believe in training to failure and devised a system where he could get the work in without pushing beyond the limits of his capacity. He didn't win several Mr. Universe titles for nothing. Sprinter and Olympic Gold Medal winner Michael Johnson, even at the highest level didn't push beyond his limits until the very end; in the 1996 Olympics, he ran hard but only enough to where he could beat the competition without pushing himself, it was only the gold medal round when he pushed his hardest. 

If you think I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to training to failure or past the limits than I'll give you a couple examples....1st one: I was in the gym one day when I was 19 and was attempting to do this circuit I read about and see what I can do. Not too long during, not only did I push past what my body could do, I ended up nearly blacking out and was breathing hard where it didn't feel good and something was wrong. It was scary as hell. 2nd: During my stint with Deck Of Cards workouts, I pushed past a certain point in those workouts where I ended up injuring my shoulder and had to recover doing different things and had to drop the cards all together in order to recover. 

When you train to failure, you need more time to recover than normal because if you train to failure and don't properly recover and keep going, you're going to have a higher risk of getting hurt or worse, possibly going to the hospital. Why would you ever risk that? For the glory of saying you pushed beyond the limits and thinking it's a good thing to end up injured? I understand the reasons behind it and trust me, I've done stupid shit to the point where I paid a price for it.

Unless you're in the military or law enforcement where you're specifically trained to handle certain situations or how to handle your body's composure under extreme conditions, training to failure or pushing beyond the limits before your body could even handle it is not the best idea of great training. Training to failure may be more "Manly" in some people's eyes but with a proper progression system and understanding your body's need for recovery or doing something more difficult, you can become stronger, healthier and feel better without the need to take things beyond a certain point where you don't have very much control of your movements. 

Training, in reality, is meant to develop a better quality of life and to live as much as possible injury free. You can be fitter without needing to take your body's limits past a point of no return. You can be one of the fittest people without risking injury. Don't train to failure or you'll fail to train. Make your goals and push past them but also be aware of yourself and how you train. Be smart about what you do and go outside the box to make the biggest gains. 

1 comment:

YASARARAFAT said...

I love this article, your message is so true . ISO Training in Qatar

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