Why going all-out might make workouts more fair for everyone
Does performing resistance exercise to failure homogenize the training stimulus by accounting for differences in local muscular endurance?
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When people lift weights at the same percentage of their max, some can do many reps and others few — even if they're equally strong. This study tested whether lifting until you can't do another rep (to failure) makes everyone's workout feel and respond more similarly.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
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Evidence Score
A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When people lift weights at the same percentage of their max, some can do many reps and others few — even if they're equally strong. This study tested whether lifting until you can't do another rep (to failure) makes everyone's workout feel and respond more similarly.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 522 / 44
Evidence Score
A snapshot of a population at a single point in time. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine the direction of cause and effect.
Publication
Authors
Exner RJ, Patel MH, Whitener DV, Buckner SL, Jessee MB, Dankel SJ
Related Content
Claims (5)
When lifting weights at 60% of maximum strength until exhaustion, the consistency of how hard the exercise feels and the degree of muscle swelling decreases compared to doing a set number of repetitions, but the consistency of muscle fatigue does not change.
When people lift light weights (30% of their maximum) either until they can't do another rep or for a set number of reps, the changes in muscle swelling, how hard they feel the workout was, and how tired their muscles become are similar between the two methods.
When people lift weights until they can't do another rep at 60% of their maximum strength, the changes in muscle swelling and how hard they feel the exercise is tend to be more consistent between individuals than when they do a set number of reps.
When people perform the same weightlifting exercise at the same intensity, some can do many repetitions while others can do few, showing that using a fixed number of repetitions for everyone may not match individual differences in muscle endurance.
Tailoring resistance exercise programs to a person's specific muscle endurance capacity, instead of using the same number of repetitions for everyone, may result in more consistent physical adaptations.