C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Thoughts on Training to Failure, the “Everything Moderate” Approach to Lifting, and Some “Easy” Size and Strength Programs      When it comes to achieving goals, winning in competitions, or being our very best in whatever domain, “winners” often take the view that “failure is not an option.”  But when it comes to building muscle, a lot of bodybuilders, personal trainers, and now “fitness influencers” take the view that failure—or training to complete momentary muscular failure—is the best, or even only, option for surefire hypertrophy gains.  This view isn’t anything new.  When I first started reading bodybuilding magazines back in the 1980s, the debate was already swirling around whether or not bodybuilders should train to total muscular failure on their sets.  Some—the most obvious being Arthur Jones and then later Mike Mentzer—believed that you should only train to failure, using minimal sets for each muscle.  Others, such as Bill Pe...