I’ve watched a lot of athletes (and coaches) who bought into the “train to failure” approach over the years. And now that I have a number of decades of experience, and can look at the IMPACT training this way had on so many peoples’ lives, I can unequivocally tell you it’s not the best idea (and definitely not the healthiest) to come down the pike.

I don’t care how you go about your exercise: running, cycling, lifting weights or doing calisthenics, if you’re training to failure or exhaustion, you will pay a heavy price. We are seeing it all over the place with hip and knee replacements, not to mention arthritis and joint pain in all the folks who swore by it.

Training to break a good sweat, training to get out of breath, training to accomplish something you’ve never done before – these are great ideas – and they don’t require training to failure to accomplish.

In a previous email I told you about the wrong way I was training for a marathon, and how crappy I felt. After I switched the way I was training to a much easier method, my enthusiasm to train returned, and I improved.

From time to time I think about Olympic Gold Medalist, Michael Johnson, who after breezing through the semi-final heat in the 400-meter race in 1996, told the reporter that he was saving his energy for the finals.

What?

This means while everyone else was sprinting as hard as possible to make the finals, Johnson was engaged in a nice relaxing stroll through the park to get there. Yes, you do have to be faster than fast to use this strategy at the Olympic level – but what if this philosophy is spot on when you’re working out on a daily basis.

Why are you grinding yourself into the ground? Why not do as Michael Johnson stated – save something for tomorrow?

Look, I have experience in the train to failure methods. But instinctively, I gave them up when I looked at how many injuries I suffered on the mat after the train-to-failure-workout ended.

We are told that the more you train with weights, especially to failure, the less likely we will suffer injury. My results say otherwise. Training to fatigue and failure increases the likelihood of injury  – when you’re doing something else, such as your chosen sport.

Similar idea goes for running.

You would think that long-distance running increases lung capacity. After all, you need to use your lungs for a longer haul. But the exact opposite happens. Your lungs shrink when you practice long-distance running (glad I only ran one marathon). But when you do a sprint or burst, followed by a rest for a couple minutes, your lung capacity increases. How about that? And if you repeat this several times, you turn into a butter-burning machine.

More on this in a future email.

Gotta go.

Kick ass – take names,

Matt Furey

P.S. For more insights and information on how to train without going to failure or fatigue, be sure to check out Dao Zou.

P.P.S. Sprinting does NOT mean that you give it 100%. Runner beware.