Unlock the Secret Weapon in Workout Gains: Should You REALLY Train to Failure or Is It a Risky Myth?
Ever felt like quitting just when things get tough in the gym? Well, what if I told you that pushing yourself to that brink—where you literally can’t squeeze out another rep—is actually a secret weapon for muscle growth? It sounds a bit counterintuitive, right? But this is the heart of training to failure, a method where you keep lifting until your muscles are totally spent. Strength coach Alena Luciani breaks it down: some folks nail their reps pretty predictably and then wrap up with an all-out ‘AMRAP’ set—meaning as many reps as possible—while others ramp up the weight until they simply can’t safely continue. But before you dive headfirst into exhaustion, it’s key to remember that training to failure isn’t the must-do for every single workout, nor is it the only path to strength. There’s a whole spectrum of ways to challenge your muscles—from easing off with a rep or two left in the tank to mastering the art of progressive overload and embracing slow, controlled movements. So, is pushing to total failure worth the sweat and soreness? Strap in as we unravel the benefits, the pitfalls, and the insider tips from pros on how to make training to failure work for you—and maybe even surprise yourself in the process. LEARN MORE
Sometimes, you have to fail to succeed in the long run—and the same can be true in the weight room. Enter: training to failure.
This training method involves performing as many reps as possible with good form, says strength and conditioning specialist Alena Luciani, CSCS, founder of Training2xl. There are a couple of ways to train to failure: “Some people will hit a predetermined number of reps for their first few sets, but then finish with an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) on their last set,” says Luciani. Others might build to a heavy three-rep max, increasing the load until they can no longer complete all reps safely.
Meet the experts: Alena Luciani, CSCS, is a strength and conditioning specialist and the founder of Training2xl. Melody Schoenfeld, CSCS, is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, the 2019 NSCA Personal Trainer of the Year, and the founder of Flawless Fitness in Pasadena, California.
It’s important to know that training to failure is just one approach to building strength, not the default for every workout. Many lifters, and especially beginners, train effectively without ever hitting that point where they physically can’t do another rep. Feeling tired or winded after a workout doesn’t necessarily mean you trained to failure; it just means you worked hard. Other common methods, such as stopping a set when you still have a rep or two in the tank, using progressive overload (where you gradually increase weight, reps, or intensity over time to keep challenging your muscles), or focusing on slower, controlled reps to increase time under tension, can also drive strength and muscle gains without necessarily pushing to total exhaustion, but still get you to a point of fatigue, every time.
The main perk of training to failure is that it can lead to greater-than-normal muscle breakdown compared to when you perform exercises with challenging loads but stop before absolute failure. With proper recovery, this can yield greater strength gains and hypertrophy, says Luciani. (Win!) However, it can also lead to excessive fatigue, hinder performance later in the workout, and even increase the risk of injury.
With some pros and cons to consider, is training to failure right for you? Ahead, find out the benefits, drawbacks, and how to implement it into your routine, according to trainers.
Is training to failure superior for building muscle and strength?
Not necessarily, and here’s why. To get stronger, your muscles need to be challenged. “Training to failure applies a greater-than-normal stimulus to your muscles” opposed to most other forms of training, Luciani says. That stimulus leads to greater breakdown in the fibers of the muscle tissues.
With proper rest and recovery (think: quality sleep, solid nutrition, and low mental stress), the body mends those damaged tissues, leaving your muscles thicker and stronger than ever before, she says. Research backs this up: A 2024 review in Sports Medicine of studies on training to failure and strength and muscle growth concluded that hypertrophy, or muscle growth, improves as lifters approach the point of failure.
That said, “trailing to failure isn’t absolutely necessary to strength gains,” according to Schoenfeld. Just as effective is a related protocol called training to fatigue, which involves stopping a set when you still have about two quality reps in reserve (RIR) rather than going to failure. Stopping just short of failure has been shown to be just as effective at stimulating muscle growth, she says.
In fact, a 2021 meta-analysis of 15 studies in the Journal of Health and Sport Science looked at the effects of training to failure and not training to failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy during resistance training in young adults. There was no significant difference between the results in strength and hypertrophy. So, training to fatigue allows you to challenge your muscles enough to stimulate muscle growth, without some of the downsides of training to failure (more on that ahead).
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All in all, the way you’ll build muscle and strength is by training at the top of your ability. No matter your approach, if your reps feel too easy, you won’t create enough of that microscopic damage to your muscle tissue, and in turn, you won’t see as meaningful changes in muscle size or strength, Luciani says.
Why Training To Failure Can Still Come In Handy
It teaches you how to work through discomfort for your gains.
Aside from increasing strength and muscle, the biggest benefit of training to failure is that it teaches people how to work hard, which is how you’ll see those gains, says Melody Schoenfeld, CSCS, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and the founder of Flawless Fitness in Pasadena, California. “Weight training is inherently uncomfortable, and because people tend to be averse to feeling discomfort, it’s not uncommon for people—especially those new to lifting—to stop right when it gets hard,” she says.
It helps gauge what your all-out effort feels like.
One critical component in building strength and mass is high intensity, according to Luciani. But unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know what that intensity feels like because they haven’t pushed themselves all-out before, she adds. However, training to failure helps you reach that state of complete exhaustion, which you can use when you’re trying to make strength and muscle gains. “It’s much easier for people to understand what intensity means when they experience what it feels like to literally not be able to do one more rep,” Luciani explains.
It can help you break through a plateau.
Sometimes, more experienced athletes hit a point where you feel like they’re not seeing any more strength gains, or they haven’t been able to continue losing weight. “If you’ve stalled out, it could be because you haven’t realized that you have more in the tank,” she says. By training to failure, you’ll see how many more reps you could be doing that will then lead to those strength or weight loss benefits.
The Potential Downsides
It might cause you to compromise your form.
Training to failure may cause you to use improper form due to muscular fatigue, which can increase risk of injury, says Schoenfeld. If you do train to failure, utilizing a spotter or spotter bars can help keep you from dropping or losing control of the weight,” she says. “That won’t eliminate all the risk, but it can reduce it significantly.”
It may lead to overtraining.
The protocol places a killer demand on your muscle fibers, yes, but also your body as a whole, Luciani says. Because you’re taxing your body to the max, your recovery will take longer, which may cause overtraining syndrome, which is when an individual is not able to recover from their workouts.
It can make you feel extra sore.
Due to the degree of damage to the muscle tissues, “you’ll certainly feel more sore when you train to failure,” says Schoenfeld. And not just in the moment, but in the days after. People report more delayed onset muscle soreness after training to failure than with other strength protocols, she says.
Who Should (And Shouldn’t) Train To Failure
Training to failure isn’t for everyone, especially newbies. “Beginner lifters are still learning the mechanics of how to train with good form,” says Schoenfeld. So, this technique can be dangerous because you may accidentally hit too many reps with poor form, which can lead to developing bad movement habits—and injury—over time, she says. (Not ideal!)
Additionally, training to failure will likely leave you more sore than other strength strategies, which may discourage consistency—especially for new lifters who haven’t yet built a regular gym habit. “With strength gains, consistency over time is key,” says Schoenfeld. If failure training leaves you too beat up to come back for your next session, it could slow your progress, she says.
It’s also not the best fit for people who don’t enjoy higher-intensity workouts, says Luciani. When you’re training to failure, those last few reps are pretty grueling, which may not make your workout feel super fun. “For newer lifters still building confidence slinging weight, there are plenty of other effective strategies for building strength that don’t require going all the way to failure,” she adds. (More on that later!)
Sometimes, however, training to failure can be helpful. For instance, a personal trainer might show a client how much harder they could be working by having them train to failure. Here, the goal isn’t for training to failure to be the new norm, but as a demonstrative tool, which you can do on your own, too. It’s helpful because it highlights how many reps you can hit, compared to what you thought.
How To Implement Training To Failure Into Your Routine
If you’re tinkering with how to add training to failure into your fitness routine, know this: You don’t need to do so every set or sweat session to benefit. “Training to fail every set, every time isn’t going to be sustainable,” says Schoenfeld. Doing it too often can backfire, leading to excess soreness, exercise burnout, and injury, she says.
Your move: Train to failure once a week per body part. Make your last set of major movements for the day an AMRAP. Whether you’re doing back squats, biceps curls, or shoulder presses, take “your last set to failure with a spotter and see if you can eke out a few more reps than you thought you could,” Schoenfeld says.
But remember: “Training to failure means tapping into a new level of hard work and will leave your tank depleted,” she says. So make sure you’re recovering well, including staying hydrated, eating enough protein and carbs to fuel, and getting plenty of sleep.
Methods For Building Muscle And Strength That Don’t Require Reaching Failure Every Time
- Training to fatigue: Stop doing the exercise when you still have about two quality reps in reserve. “Research shows that leaving one or two reps ‘in the tank’ can still stimulate muscle growth, without the heightened risk of injury that comes with training to failure,” says Schoenfeld. The catch is that it requires you to be able to really understand your body and level of effort to know when you have two reps left in you, she adds.
- Progressive overload: To continue getting stronger, you must apply the progressive overload principle, which is continuously increasing the stress placed on your muscles by tweaking variables like load, volume, time under tension, or rep speed, says Schoenfeld. “If your body isn’t challenged, your muscles won’t have a reason to continue to change and grow,” she says. The best way for athletes of all levels to apply this principle is to follow a strength program just for you, but you can also go by feel if budget is a limitation.
- Eccentrics: Every lift has concentric (muscle-shortening) phase and eccentric (muscle-lengthening) phase. While both are important, “spending more time in the eccentric phase by slowing down the lowering portion of your reps” can especially help you build strength, says Schoenfeld. Consider implementing this approach, sometimes called time under tension training, by taking a full three to five seconds on the down portion. (FYI: You may have to decrease weight.)
Training to failure can be a helpful, relatively straightforward technique for building strength and muscle. You don’t need to know your one-rep max, mess with the rep scheme, or follow a complex protocol—all you need to do is keep doing a movement until you can’t anymore. Still, it’s not the only technique that will help you see gains, so feel free to experiment with different ones and choose what works for you.
Gabrielle Kassel (she/her) is a sex and wellness journalist who writes at the intersection of queerness, sexual health, and pleasure. In addition to Women’s Health, her work has appeared in publications such as Shape, Cosmopolitan, Well+Good, Health, Self, Men’s Health, Greatist, and more! In her free time, Gabrielle can be found coaching CrossFit, reviewing pleasure products, hiking with her border collie, or recording episodes of the podcast she co-hosts called
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