Many well-meaning fitness professionals espouse the idea of training to failure.

Once in a while it’s a good idea to push yourself to the limit (that’s usually called competition) – but it’s dumb and deadly if you follow this philosophy on a consistent basis in your training.

Training with gusto and enthusiasm, yes. Training to the point you have thoughts about giving up, sure.

But training until your muscles give out and have nothing left, that is totally idiotic.

Even when it comes to bodyweight exercises, there are those who encourage max effort, max overload, and so on. The whole idea is that you cannot get bigger or stronger with higher repetitions, that all you are building is endurance unless you keep the reps low.

Totally wrong and false.

As a collegiate wrestler, we ran sprints and mixed them up with bodyweight calisthenics.

NOT ONE SET WAS DONE TO FAILURE.

And we were in incredible condition – and our national championships proved it.

In the wrestling room we’d run three laps, followed by 25 pushups. Then we’d run another three laps, followed by 25 v-ups. Then another three laps – two of which were sprints, followed by 10 pull-ups.

Again, not one set to FAILURE.

Not ONE.

And we SUCCEEDED time and again. Over and over and over.

Remember: If you train to failure you leave the workout a failure.

You give it all you have in practice – but you also save some for tomorrow.

Think of the Olympic sprinters in track and field and swimming. Oftentimes you see the future gold medalist doing just enough to qualify for the quarterfinals, then just enough to get into the semi’s and then in the finals, all bets are off. It’s time to blow away the field, set a world record and bring home the bacon.

Same goes with writing.

If a writer can crank out 10,000 words in a single day, should he or she do this everyday?

I would think not.

Why?

Because you fry your drive (not to mention your nervous system).

Consistency is key to being successful in anything. You need a routine that is hard enough to get you the results you seek – but not so hard you don’t want to do it anymore.

Competition is when you push yourself to the brink – or further.

Every once in a while you can push yourself BEYOND in practice. But don’t make a habit of it if you want longevity.

If you want a body that is crippled with injuries and riddled with constant pain by age 40 or 50 (or much sooner), then ignore this advice and train to failure.

Again:

When you train to failure, you leave the workout a failure.

Always leave something for tomorrow.

And always keep in mind our motto here….

Kick Ass – Take Names,

Matt Furey

P.S. More on this subject can be found by watching the following video I created for you on YouTube: