Pushing to failure vs. stopping early: same muscle growth?
Similar muscle hypertrophy following eight weeks of resistance training to momentary muscular failure or with repetitions-in-reserve in resistance-trained individuals
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Training to failure didn’t lead to more muscle growth — even though it caused significantly more fatigue.
Common fitness lore says pushing to failure maximizes muscle growth; this study shows it’s not necessary — and may even be counterproductive due to excessive fatigue.
Practical Takeaways
For leg workouts, stop 1–2 reps short of failure on leg press and leg extensions to reduce fatigue while maintaining muscle growth.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Training to failure didn’t lead to more muscle growth — even though it caused significantly more fatigue.
Common fitness lore says pushing to failure maximizes muscle growth; this study shows it’s not necessary — and may even be counterproductive due to excessive fatigue.
Practical Takeaways
For leg workouts, stop 1–2 reps short of failure on leg press and leg extensions to reduce fatigue while maintaining muscle growth.
Publication
Journal
Journal of Sports Sciences
Year
2024
Authors
Martin C. Refalo, Eric R. Helms, Zac P Robinson, D. L. Hamilton, J. Fyfe
Related Content
Claims (10)
If you lift weights until your muscles can't do another rep, pushing fast on the way up and slowing down on the way back, it helps your muscles grow bigger.
If you push your muscles as hard as you can until you can't do any more reps, that's what really makes them grow bigger. It doesn't matter how many reps you do, as long as you're giving your absolute best effort.
Going all the way to exhaustion on every set probably doesn't build more muscle than stopping a few reps short — both seem to work about the same.
If you push your muscles until they can't do another rep, you create more force per set—which can help if you're not doing many sets, but might hurt your progress if you're already doing a lot of work.
If you lift weights until you're almost too tired to do another rep, you'll likely build bigger muscles—but your strength gains won't be any better than if you stopped earlier, as long as you're doing the same total amount of work and lifting the same weight.