The Study
Strength Training with Repetitions to Failure does not Provide Additional Strength and Muscle Hypertrophy Gains in Young Women
This study compared different ways of lifting weights and found that lifting until you can't do another rep doesn't make you stronger or bigger than lifting a little less—so long as you do the same total amount of work. It doesn't prove one way is better, just that going to failure doesn't add extra benefits.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
This study tested if lifting weights until you can't do another rep makes you stronger or bigger than stopping a few reps short — with the same total work.
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 564 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1For beginners, you don’t need to exhaust yourself every set — just do enough total reps.
- 2Pushing to failure might even hurt your speed and power.
- 3When total reps were equal, pushing to failure didn't make muscles bigger or stronger than stopping early.
- 4But doing more total reps (4 sets vs.
- 53) made muscles grow more.
- 6Pushing to failure made fast muscle power worse.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
European Journal of Translational Myology
Year
2017
Authors
Saulo S. Martorelli, E. Cadore, M. Izquierdo, R. Celes, André S. Martorelli, V. A. Cleto, José G. Alvarenga, M. Bottaro
Related Content
Claims (6)
In young women who have not previously trained, doing four sets of seven reps during resistance training leads to more muscle growth than doing three sets of seven reps, whether or not the sets are done until muscle failure.
In previously untrained young women, lifting weights to exhaustion and lifting the same total amount without going to exhaustion result in the same amount of muscle growth, meaning muscle fatigue is not required for muscles to increase in size.
In young women who have not previously trained, performing resistance exercises at 70% of their maximum strength for 10 weeks leads to measurable muscle growth only if they complete more than about 21 repetitions per session.
In young women new to weight training, 10 weeks of lifting at 70% of their maximum strength leads to the same gains in strength and endurance whether they push to muscle failure or stop before failure.
In previously untrained young women, lifting weights until muscle failure reduces gains in explosive leg power at high speeds compared to lifting with the same total effort but stopping short of failure.
When the total amount of weight lifted is the same, lifting weights until just before muscle failure builds the same amount of muscle as lifting until complete failure.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.