The Study
Effects of Resistance Training Performed to Failure or Not to Failure on Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Power Output: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis.
This study looks at a bunch of other studies to see if lifting weights until you can't do more is better than stopping earlier. It can show us what might be related, but it can't prove one causes the other because we don't have all the details.
Analysis score
Maximum 100 for a systematic review with meta-analysis.
Where the score came from
This study looked at many other studies to see if lifting weights until you can't lift anymore (failure) is better than stopping early.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 539 / 100
Quality score
The highest quality evidence. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that pool randomized controlled trials, giving the most reliable summary of experimental evidence.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Lifting to failure helps muscles grow more, but stopping early might help you get stronger if you do more overall work.
- 2Lifting to failure made muscles 0.75 units bigger than not lifting to failure.
- 3Stopping early made people 0.34 units stronger when they did more total lifting.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of strength and conditioning research
Year
2021
Authors
A. Vieira, D. Umpierre, J. Teodoro, S. Lisboa, B. Baroni, M. Izquierdo, E. Cadore
Related Content
Claims (5)
Whether you lift lighter weights or heavier weights until you can't do any more reps, both ways give you the same muscle growth and strength gains if you're already used to training.
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.
Lifting weights until you can't do any more reps makes your muscles grow bigger than lifting weights without pushing to your limit, based on a big review of studies.
When people lift weights without pushing to their absolute limit, they actually get stronger faster than if they push to failure, as long as the total amount of lifting isn't the same. This comes from a big review of studies on adults.
Lifting weights until you can't do any more reps doesn't make you stronger than stopping a few reps short, according to a big review of studies.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.