Does Going All the Way to Failure Make Muscles Grow More?
Effect of resistance training to muscle failure vs non-failure on strength, hypertrophy and muscle architecture in trained individuals
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Training just short of failure produced slightly *higher* muscle growth (18.1% vs 13.5%) despite lower volume.
Most lifters assume more pain and effort = more growth, but here, less effort led to numerically greater hypertrophy.
Practical Takeaways
Stop 1–2 reps before failure on your sets to reduce fatigue and save energy while maintaining muscle and strength gains.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Training just short of failure produced slightly *higher* muscle growth (18.1% vs 13.5%) despite lower volume.
Most lifters assume more pain and effort = more growth, but here, less effort led to numerically greater hypertrophy.
Practical Takeaways
Stop 1–2 reps before failure on your sets to reduce fatigue and save energy while maintaining muscle and strength gains.
Publication
Journal
Biology of Sport
Year
2020
Authors
Natália Santanielo, S. Nóbrega, Maíra C. Scarpelli, I. Alvarez, Gabriele B. Otoboni, Lucas Pintanel, C. Libardi
Related Content
Claims (7)
Going all the way to failure on every set doesn’t really make you stronger than stopping a few reps short.
If you're a guy who lifts weights, going all the way to failure or stopping just short gives your muscles about the same kind of growth changes over 10 weeks.
If you're a guy who lifts weights, you can get your leg muscles working just as hard by stopping a set a couple of reps before failure as you would by going all the way to failure.
If you're a guy who lifts weights and gets close to failure—like stopping just 1 or 2 reps short—you'll get just as strong as if you pushed yourself to the absolute max. Over 10 weeks, both ways boost leg strength by 20–35%.
If you're lifting heavy weights and stop just before your muscles give out, you'll still gain about as much muscle as if you pushed to the very last rep you can possibly do.