Training to failure: Meaning and How to Program It

Training to failure

Definition

Continuing a set until another rep with good form is impossible, so the last rep completed is the hardest one available that day.

There are two kinds. Technical failure is the point where form breaks; absolute failure is the point where the bar stops moving. If you programme failure at all, programme technical failure.

It has a place: the last set of an isolation or machine exercise, and the occasional check of a client's RPE calibration. It does not belong on heavy compound barbell lifts, early in a session, or on every set of anything, because the recovery cost is high and the extra stimulus over stopping one to three reps short is small.

A workable rule: one exercise per session may end with a set to technical failure, and it is never a squat or deadlift.