Quote:
|
Originally Posted by seth brundle
i'm very interested in the pros and cons of going to failure just now, would love to hear your take on it.
|
Firstly if we are talking heavy exercises, the big three, I wouldn't recommend training to failure. For me the risks of injury if you miss are just too high for too little gain. It's not fun being pinned under a bar and even if you have a good spotter it can put a lot of stress on your body.
Training to failure provides greater overload of more muscle fibers, and thus more growth. The obvious.
BUT..
It's an enormous strain on the nervous system, not to mention the muscles themselves. Extended recovery periods force one to train less often. Post-failure sets occur with dramatically reduced loads, and thus much lower intensity. And finally, the nervous system may learn to 'give up' prematurely.
Psychologically, and this is just my take on it, I don't like teaching the mind to get used to 'failing'. I think you should end on a success.
Overall training to failure can be beneficial but I'd stick to the accessory work and not the big compound lifts except very occasionally when you want to really kick start things. Preferentially my personal approach is to always leave one in the tank. If I hit a max during a work out, I finish that exercise right there. Recovery for me is the limiting factor in getting stronger. I'm not getting any younger and I just can't abuse my body like I used to! As long as I'm making progress I'm happy I'm doing enough.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by seth brundle
i'm becoming convinced that i was seriously overtraining on my chinups out of sheer bloodymindedness for the past year, i'm stepping back from it a bit now and realising that while i was going batshit trying to squeeze out reps, i didnt notice that i'm not engaging my left arm very well at all...i've been going to the gym instead of doing chins at home, so i can work a different rep and weight range, assisted chins , seated rows, and some one-armed thing i made up with this pulley machine, to target my left arm specifically.
|
I have all sorts of problem with assymetry. That's why I'm working isolateral movements recently after years of ignoring it. Have you tried assymetric chins? Have your stronger arm further out so that it is just assisting your weaker arm. Or for something more challenging you can do (cheating) one armed chins but have the hand of your non working arm hold the wrist of the working arm.