If you’re trying to get stronger, training to failure isn’t the way forward. However, it comes with one oft-overlooked benefit.

It’s been a big week for wellness news: from the nutritional hack that can reverse biological aging to the training loophole you never knew you needed, there’s much to celebrate for seasoned gym-rats. While the first half of this headline may bring dismay to some, the major benefit that training to failure offers will, we reckon, put a smile back on their protein-smeared faces.

Training To Failure Affects Muscle Growth and Strength

A team of researchers at Florida Atlantic University and colleagues took it upon themselves to determine how exercising close to failure (or not…) impacts upon muscle growth and strength. Data were compiled from 55 studies and after conducting extensive and detailed statistical analyses, the scientists were able to observe what effect the amount of repetitions that gym-goers had in reserve subsequently had on strength and muscular hypertrophy.

The study, since published in Sports Medicine, reveals that how close you train to failure doesn’t seem to have any clear correlative impact on strength gains. Whether you stop far from failure or very close to it every time you train, your strength improvement looks similar. On the other hand, muscle size — or hypertrophy — does seem to benefit from training closer to failure. The closer you are to failure at the end of your sets, the more muscle growth you see. Michael C. Zourdos, PhD., senior author and professor at FAU, said this:

“If you’re training for muscle growth, training closer to failure might be the better option […] for strength, how close you push to failure doesn’t seem to matter quite as much.”

Unique Benefits Of Training to Failure

One important and oft-overlooked psychological benefit of training close to a failure was also uncovered by the study, as explained by Zac P. Robinson, PhD, first author of the study:

“Training closer to failure improves the accuracy of self-reported repetitions in reserve […] When people estimate how many reps they have left, this perception influences the weights they choose. If that estimation is off, they may use lighter weights than needed, which would limit the amount of strength they gain.”

Robinson said the enhanced perception of effort from training close to failure might lead to better weight selection and more efficient workouts. “Our meta-analysis also shows that the amount of muscle growth after training is greater closer to failure,” he said. “So for the average person, training close to failure is probably the way to go — it seems to improve the accuracy of our perception of effort, and it seems to improve gains in muscle size.”

Scientists, however, were quick to underline the difficulty of truly training close to failure: it is gruelling, harder to recover from by a number of degrees, and may affect long-term performance negatively. In light of this, authors suggest that people who train primarily to develop muscle mass should train in the range of 0-5 repetitions shy of failure to ensure maximum muscle growth with the least possible chance of injury. Similarly, those training for strength would do better working toward heavier loads rather than to failure.

There you have it, fellas: if you’re trying to get strong, leave failure behind but, if bulking up is the aim of the game, embrace it with open, juicy arms.