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Strong Support

When young adults train really hard until they can’t do another rep, it doesn’t matter whether they’re working their arms, legs, or doing squats vs. bench presses — the results for muscle growth and strength stay pretty much the same.

59
Pro
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Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

59

Community contributions welcome

59

Effects of resistance training performed to repetition failure or non-failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis
Human
2022 Mar

The study checked if lifting until you can't do another rep works better or worse than stopping before failure, and whether it matters if you're working your arms vs. legs, using machines vs. free weights, or how the study was set up. It found no big differences—so the results support the idea that training to failure works about the same no matter what you're doing.

Contradicting (0)

0

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No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Effects of resistance training performed to repetition failure or non-failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Score: 59
DOI: 10.1016/j.jshs.2021.01.007

Similar Assertions

If you're already experienced with weightlifting, pushing your muscles to failure might help them grow bigger—but if you're new to lifting, doing the same thing doesn't seem to give you the same benefit. Your experience level changes how effective this technique is.

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84%

If you lift weights until you can't do another rep, you might build more muscle than if you stop before reaching that point—but we’re not totally sure yet.

59
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82%

If you lift weights until you can't do another rep or stop a little earlier—but do the same total amount of work—your muscles will grow and get just as strong either way. So you don’t have to push to absolute failure to see results.

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82%

If you lift weights until you can’t do another rep or stop before that—as long as you do the same total amount of work—you’ll get just as strong either way. You don’t have to push to absolute exhaustion to build strength.

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82%

If you're someone who already lifts weights regularly, pushing your muscles until they can't do another rep might help you grow slightly bigger muscles than if you stop before reaching failure.

59
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81%