Hey All! Feel free to check out the Alpha Progression App: alphaprogression.com/HouseofHypertrophy Timestamps + further notes: 0:00 Intro 1:05 Part I: The New Study 5:26 Findings 6:52 Regional Hypertrophy 8:48 Fatigue 11:37 Part II: Final Thoughts Additional notes: At 4:26 we noted there is further information. I mentioned that subjects trained with the weekly set numbers they were accustomed to for the quads (with a 20% increase at the midpoint). However, this wasn't the case for all subjects. Specifically, if a particular subject had been performing 15 or more weekly sets for the quads before the study, the researchers got them to perform 20% *fewer* weekly sets. For example, if a subject was performing 16 weekly sets for the quads before the study, they'd instead perform 13 weekly sets in the study (but they also increased sets by 20% at the midway, meaning a return to 16 weekly sets for this subject in the second half of the study). The researchers did this as they felt it mitigated potential injury risk, excessive fatigue, and prolonged session durations. At 8:51 we mentioned how training to failure may have improved fatigue resistance (less suseptible to fatigue) on the leg press. What was the data behind this? The researchers used something called a linear position transducer to record average lifting velocity on the leg press sets during weeks 1, 4, and 8. As you'd expect, at all time points, lifting velocity was lower with the training to failure leg. However, the difference between the two conditions (failure vs not failure) was reduced in the final week (week 8), which could imply adaptations for the failure leg that improved fatigue resistance. The researchers also measured repetition loss across the sets. As you'd expect, training to failure led to more repetition loss across the sets compared to not training to failure. However, these differences were somewhat reduced (on the leg press) near the final weeks, potentially also implying improved fatigue resistance.

Amazing analysis. This new study was great. I’d love to see a follow up that compares 1-2 RIR to 3-4 RIR next so we can see where that minimum effort threshold lies haha

the most important part of training is doing it. Get out there TODAY

This makes me feel better. I have always tried to train to failure, but due to fatigue, I often fall short when im having an off day (didnt eat enough/worked hard) I always felt dissapointed in myself for not going to failure, and felt like I wasted my time. This is good news for me.

This channel is waaaaay far the best I ever watched about hypertrophy on YT. What a great job! Direct to the point, no blablabla and pure based on science. I love it! Regards from Brazil.

After 3 years of training mostly bodyweight exercises (pull ups/dips/press ups/ring rows etc) and mostly to failure every set I have just started to keep a rep or 2 in reserve and almost immediately I can say that I feel better most of the time, am enjoying and looking forward to my workouts and excited about how quick I can progress. It's weird. I now think that lots of failure (especially with compound movements) does basically ruin your body for quite a few days and does limit how much you can workout. Also a niggling injury in my back (pull ups pulling on scar tissue from a major injury I got 12 years ago) feels way better.

QUALITY WORK AND CONSISTENCY ARE THE KEY. My favorite bench press program makes me benching 3 times a week, with 10/12 working set, but only one set to failure, and it's perfect. Even the hardest powerlifting program like smolov don't let you go to failure.

Loved the study's leg press footage!

i am a failure so it is only fitting that i would also train to failure. :D

It would be interesting to know the injury rate of training to failure vs 1-2 reps in reserve. Any injury will cause a setback to training that’s exacerbated as you age. So even if leaving 2 reps in reserve was slightly less effective, insurance-wise avoiding injury may actually make it more productive in the long term.

Wow, what a well designed study and well made video! I personally like training to failure so I'll continue doing it. That being said it's nice knowing I'm not leaving anything out by stopping a rep or two early!

Ive been traning all my life and i can honestly say not training to failure is almost always recommended. It leaves you energy to do stuff afterwards and the big thing here is there is a lesser chance of injury. And honestly i just feel better overall if i train in moderation

I think the lower your volume the more you can and should go to failure. Also, depends on the exercise. Try doing 12 sets of deadlifts to failure for 6 weeks. lol. I think the more the absolute load (heavy lifts) the more you should avoid failure and the more an exercise is isolating the more you can go to failure. It’s a fatigue and injury risk to reward thing. Go to failure on your concentration curls but not your low bar back squats. It’s all kinda common sense, too.

Personally I think some people can train to failure without getting amped up or having a lot of cortisol and adrenaline released. Others get stress hormone release from going close to failure but not so much from more sets. A potential problem with the program is that I think failure training is neurologically and systematically taxing so I'm not sure someone going to failure with one leg isn't getting whole system stress that could affect both limbs.

Your work is incredible! Regarding the fatigue of the central nervous system, some natural athletes say that even with the adaptations, it is more efficient for the progressive overload to do top sets, failing in the last series of each exercise, because with less stress we can apply more power, I didn't find any studies addressing

I basically have trained myself to go to JUST before actual failure for years so I want dependent on spotters (not always available). I've gotten pretty attuned to knowing that if i try ONE more i am going to fully fail so i stop short. Nice to know I'm not missing out by doing that

This new study is designed amazingly. I'm just wondering, how is it possible that highly trained individuals (7+ years) showed gains of 7% increase in volume with that much previous experience? If I had to guess, I would have said that at the end of the 8 weeks they'd have maintained muscle or gained such a subtle amount that would be trivial and hard to measure. Nice video by the way!

Love the buff researchers haha. Also, great, valuable info as usual :)

Haven't watched the video till the end yet, but have to say that for once I'm impressed how well the researchers have taken everything in consideration. Pretty much every point I was getting in my head "Yes, but what about... *insert criticism*" was the next topic they had taken into consideration. Very nice job from them so far. Now I'm hyped to see the results of the study!

Most people who think they are going to failure are actually stopping about two reps shy of failure. I figured this out recently as I thought I was going to failure. It's easier to tell with compound exercises because you need a spotter to go to failure with most of them. It's a little harder to tell with isolation exercises.

Wow! Thanks again for the video! Excelente video, about a excelente study!

Honey wake up, Houseofhypertrophy just dropped a new video

if i feel i can crank one more PERFECT rep, i stop right there and don't go for it. The same goes for my weekly schedule, though I am able to have up to four reasonbly intense sessions, I force myself to stop at 3. at this stage, I am as much worried about injury as central nervous system fatigue. my logic is that if it aint your career, don't train like a pro. And now this study just showed me i pretty much missed out very little.

This is handy to know because I've always struggled with DOMS but I've always pushed myself to the point of failure in anything I train. It sometimes costs me in the long run because I'll end up missing a day in the gym and opting for a lighter routine because my soreness can last 4-5 days. If I can get very similar results by leaving a rep or three in reserve or leaving myself on a lower weight a little longer before increasing, it will help make my life outside the gym more manageable. Great video!

Bro your channel is gem 🙌🏽

I would say technique is more important than distance from technical failure.

I always leave at least 1 to 3 reps left in the tank for maximum rest. Do this, but still train hard and heavy with proper form.

I've been doing the Mike mentzer workout for 2 months now and it's really working. I use to go to the gym 1hr 30 a day 5 days a week and never really changed now with only 30 minutes a day 3 times a week i have more changes then the other way around.💪

I love your stuff man, keep up the great work

For me - my best results have been training to failure, and sometimes beyond, with a partner, three times a week. All these studies are splitting hairs, it reminds me of people that get hung up on 0 - 60 times with cars. You aren't going to feel or notice one tenth of a second. Try to enjoy yourself and stop overthinking everything. Your body will give you all the bio feedback you need, listen to it, and adjust accordingly.

It's a really good study and especially showing the supervised set. As often the case when it comes to failure vs RIR I cant take it seriously as have seen what most peoples version of 'failure' is which is often RIR. Even in the video sample shown here that set he did with the one leg with reps in reserve I know for a fact most people would have called that 'going to failure' or even "I went beyond failure using one or two rest pause reps" lol. As default I've always trained to failure, but have experimented with reps in reserve in the past and found it didn't make much difference, ie you can get same results leaving a rep or two in reserve. The reason I like to train to failure is purely to keep it simple in terms of progression, ie I'm always pushing for one more rep, then when I get that, such is then the new rep number I have to achieve at the minimal next workout. That can be a little harder to accurately track when leaving reps in reserve unless programming it in, or doing at least one set per exercise to failure as a type of bench mark or base

I am absolutely not a reference into sport nor bodybuilding, but after having spend a couple of years working to failure (and keeping track of my progresses on an excel sheet), I came to the conclusion that even if going to failure could be better, I suffered regular injuries (mostly tendonitis) setting me back each time it happened. And even if I have progressed quite fast compared to what I could find on the internet, I think that getting injured regularly is not sustainable. Even years after having slowed down, I still feel my old shoulder and back pains at certain spots.

What I get from this is I should be training non-failure 3 out of the 5 days of going to the gym. And training to failure (optional) on the days before my day off.

Most people choose to quit before the muscle does

2:07 You got me lol. Wasn't expecting something like that in one of your videos.

I've been experimenting with this for about a month now.... & yes, more often not going to failure all the time like I was doing feels better & I'm getting similar or better results.

Bodybuilders of the 1940's-50's knew this. This is why they promoted Full Body Workouts, 3 times a week, leaving 1 rep in the tank for recovery. Leroy Colbert constantly talked about this in his KZfaq videos while he was alive.

Anytime I get a notification that HOH has posted a video, I immediately stop what I'm doing to watch the video. My girlfriend is giving birth right this very moment, and I stepped away to watch this video.

The only thing for hypertrophy that matters is that you progress over time in load, reps, sets. Going to failure is not necessary for progress. But getting close to failure (particularly for sets with higher reps) ensures that you are recruiting most of the high-threshold muscle fibers, which generally have the highest potential for growth.

Epic work my friend! Your videos are amazing. I love seeing this channel grow!

We can end this debate if we have a couple of studies comparing 1 Set to Failure vs 3 sets 1-2 RIR. It would probably yield the same level of hypertropy. I prefer to do whole body in one day. So I can only do 1 set to failure because the fatigue becomes a factor.

Problem is the leg that didn't go to failure still got the hormone benefits from going to failure with the other leg. Also, I wouldn't lock out like that on leg press. That injury's happened in my gym - that's resting at the top, not ROM.

good job, would like to see studies on effect of 5-7 RIR on strength/size gains too, please make it happen!

Useful, thanks. Good summary. Due to age, chronic injuries, loose joints etc, I generally prefer stopping 1 or 2 reps from failure. I train on my own and some exercises can be risky. But mostly, I find training to failure increases tendenopathy problems. Everyone is different.

Leg press guy locked out knee...Yeesh!

Studies mean little to the individual. You have to find what works best for you and stick with it, ignoring the plethora of youtube videos such as this telling you what you should and should not do, made by content creators who googled something and came up with a catchy title on a topic they know always trends heavily so as to simply gain likes and subscribers. Videos that are nothhing more than "filler" and offer nothing different from literally millions of others on the topic that everyone is clicking on.

Incredible video, incredible study! I think this study gets more things right than any other you've covered on your channel. I hope it sets the standard for all future research.

When i started training at 40, i went to failure on every set, ate better and got pretty shredded in 6 weeks and jacked in a few months. Always strong, recovered fast and have energy all Day and night. No trt or anything else. Just protein shakes, fish oil, creatine, bcaa’s and caffeine. When I started doing sets of 10, my progress stopped. Now im back to failure sets again and the gains are rolling in fast

rlly gotta appreciate the people who volunteer for studies

This is actually really cool and a huge relief that the first 2 weeks of a mesocycle is not wasted effort

One of the most revealing and useful studies and video analysis' ever on your channel ,indeed.. Which says a lot , as all your videos are of high quality.

As ive said, you know your own gas tank. Train as well as you can. Aim for progression. Lately actually what has been keep me fresh, mentally, and seemingly getting great reulst, is i have been rotating lifting heavy, then next workout, explosive but light, then work out 3, isometrics, workout 4 partials. Now I have been getting stronger and I am basically only training heavy once or less per week. Albeit each muscle group is getting trained many times per week. Its really fun.

I have trained to 0-1 rir in my entire 15 years of training life. But as I age, recovery is slower and soreness actually increased after each workout. So I just reduce my training volume by 33% (example reduce my exercises from 3 to 2 working sets. And cut out 1-2 exercises per body part)

GREAT JOB!!! We need more studies like this one ,very well documented!!!!

At the end of the videos you will learn: train which ever way YOU prefer. As long as you are hitting failure or getting near to failure, the results are largely the same. There are studies that counter other studies that counter other studies, and they all contain massive interpretative reasoning within them to even try to understand what the results are. Training is about connecting with YOU. You are the only truest form of study that you will ever know and experience. Start studying yourself.

Quick question regarding the study: I thought one of the benefits of not training to failure was you can do more sets, but in this study it seems they held sets constant for the failure vs. non-failure group which would diminish the benefit of leaving 1-2 RIR.

This channel is really like research lab... great and very rear information.... thanks for hard work mate ❤❤

This guy is a GOAT. Great work, as usual.

Most of the time I intuitively stop when I've got about 1 RIR. That last rep wouldn't be pretty and but I know it's the only one there.

Training the legs to failure is also quite different than something like biceps or shoulders. Systemically for sure. Also, they are performing ALL sets to failure… it’s a this or that question. Of course taking ALL sets to failure is probably not a good idea. But what about taking your final set or two to failure?

Your channel really helped me Thanks ❤

If you train naturally you need to steadily increase the weight you lift and with this you grow. It is the best method because the human body adapts quickly to anything

As a 40 yo man, I maximize my gains by NOT having myself injured. On the long run, training sets to failure is certainly much, much less efficient than training close to failure.

They performed the unilateral leg press and unilateral leg extension twice per week for 8 weeks. One leg was trained to complete momentary muscular failure and the other leg all sets were performed with two repetitions in reserve. The results showed that stopping a few reps short of failure seems to be able to produce similar muscle growth to training to failure. There was a slight hypertrophy difference between the vastus lateralis (trained to failure grew slightly more), and the rectus femoris (trained not to failure grew slightly more).

Now we just need a study training to beyond failure, (finish a set with partial or dropsets) Then we for sure know

id still want to train to failure probs 80-90% just to keep your baseline dopamine levels climbing. If you combine what Huberman says about dopamine, and how it helps us overcome challenges, it would be vital in helping your progress your training (i.e heavier weight progression)

How about just going to failure for the last set (or maybe the first)? You still get the stimulus of going to failure, but minimizing the fatigue.

Thats a brilliant study. Thanks so much for the analysis. I do prefer to train with lower volume (3-8 sets per week) and to 0-1 RIR, but that's just what I feel is best for me at the moment. The 10-20 sets recommendation is not followed by all experienced coaches and natural bodybuilders who compete because it's not been their experience that all respond well to it. I value their input as well as the research. I have noticed improved recovery and faster strength progress by reducing my volume. Everyone is different though. And it's likely that what I'm doing now won't continue to be as effective.

Great study! Great breakdown/analysis! Great video! I'd differ only a little bit from your synopsis in that if someone is training mostly using bodyweight alone exercises, I'd suggest they go to muscular failure at least on the last set, if not all of them. They may need to rest a bit longer, but then again, studies have shown that a 2-5 min rest period is better than

because of this video I discovered your channel, instead of 200k subs you deserve 2 million at least, keep up the great work!!

Best thing to focus on when training is form. The stricter the form, the less weight you need to achieve failure. The less weight you use, the less likely you will injure yourself and the more likely you will use the smaller muscles withour recruiting excess muscles to cheat. This will make it easier to recover and make it easier to work the same muscles or body parts on consecutive days.

I want that same study with different volume per week. I'm 100% sure that training to failure and beyond at smaller volumes (say, 6/7/8 weekly sets) is waaaaay better than RIR 1/2/3/4. We always take those 12-20 weekly sets as a basis, but those variables favor volume and not intensity. You don't need that much intensity when you're doing considerable weekly volumes; you also don't need as much volume if you go as hard as you can, and that's where more intensity wins against going RIR whatever.

Very interesting and clever study - great analysis as usual thank you. Not sure why they only allowed the subjects half the rest time between sets on the leg extension though (?). Failure every set led to injury in the past so now I only go to failure on the last set - this helps with recovery which is often a problem for us old farts (60+).

The most important exercise variable is choosing an exercise that you like enough to do on a regular basis.

The best way is to approach failure as much as you can without reaching it. If you do this you are optimizing the benefits and the recovery. If you reach failure you obtain the same benefits but with a longer recovery needed.

This video convinced me to start training 1-2 RIR instead of failure and maybe going to failure on the last set to remind myself of what failure feels like (especially if the body never fully adapts to the extra fatigue of training to failure where RIR training always produces less fatigue than failure training)

Such consistency is best man

Consistency is the key so if you training to failure, your CNS will fatigue do not allowing to training consistenly. Training SMART not HARD.

Study results depend entirely on design and evaluation but conclusions are frequently in error.

Thank you for this video. Considering the number of sets and reps, I like to refer to Mike Mentzer, the first Mr. Olympia contestant to score a perfect 300. He advocated a clean diet with plenty of protein, fewer reps and sets, but always lifting heavy, training to failure and getting sufficient rest. Other Mr. Olympia title holders who used Mentzer's HIIT technique include guys who've won multiple time, like Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Phil Heath and Dorian Yates. Many later studies claimed that training to complete failure isn't necessary, that hypertrophy can be achieved if the athlete stops with one or two reps still in the tank.

If you keep an exercise the same, and use progressive overload, with diminishing returns over time, it becomes harder and harder to eek out more reps, and ultimately you hit a plateau. You can't keep RIR and progressive overload and have optimal volume all throughout your ecercise progress. RIR is another detail that adds too much complexity, taking away from the simplicity of the fundamentals - Eat well, sleep well, exercise consistently, train hard, and make progress.

Absolutely excellent video! I absolutely loved the info you provided. I'd love to see a video on training beyond failure by seeing how trainees response to doing partial reps when full reps are no longer possible. I'd find this interesting because, under most circumstances, these partial reps would be in or close to a stretched position.

I train to failure but definitely get in my rest days too. In truth i get best results that way

In summary, both methods give same gains on twice a week workout. Though you may want to avoid failure if your recovery is bad.

I haven't watched the video yet but my method. I only train up to 75%-85% to failure. I keep some gas in me just in case I need to run, fight or something. This also helps me able to continue to exercise into the next day. I also know that I won't injure myself. When the exercise starts to feel easy, I move up the repetitions or weight over time and find my new maximum. Then I back off a bit where I know its still challenging but doesn't feel like it destroyed my body. I've been getting moderate gains over time. This has also allowed me to learn how to clean up my form and not get injured. Now let's see what this video says about that lol.

Im 55 yrs. old and I hit a brick wall in my training and couldnt build any more muscle. So i tried something similar to mike metzger's training. I do drop sets one after another no rest, and all to failure, but not c9mplete failure. An example is i did bench with #80 pound dumbbells, then #70, #60, #50, #40, #30, #20.. The #20's felt like the #80 at the end. That was my chest workout. I did this drop set exercise for 30 days and i gained 6 pounds of lean muscle.. Im also a natural builder. Never done steroids.. But training to failure does work. Some people just don't have the power of the mind to do it. They just give up or say in the beginning i cant do that..! When they really can they have to pass that threshold in their mind.!! Today i continue to workout to failure and see gaines. Also I'm in and out of the gym faster.. "Pain is weakness leaving the body"..!! 💪✌️

had initially trained a system for years in which I started with around 3 to 4 RIR, the weight was progressively increased until 1 RIR and a top week of failure. I wasted my time doing this, the development was very little. Only after training with less volume and almost exclusively to muscle failure did I make any real progress. Today I swear by the idea of Doggcrapp and generally pausing sentences for failure. The difference is immense compared to training with RIR

The answer is. Working out to failure is the most effective way to build muscle but that doesnt mean they wont grow. As long as you constantly increase weights monthly or weekly, depending on which muscles, your muscles will grow. Most importantly, muscles will grow on your rest days. Which 1 or 2 days of rest is great.

Lovely video as always love this channel keep it up

The problem is if you stop just short of failure, it's harder to monitor your progress and you easily fall into the mistake of doing insufficient work. Let's say you are doing bicep curls with 10kg dumbbells, your max is 12reps so you work until 10. 3 weeks after, you don't know where you'd reach complete failure. 14reps? 16? 20? So if you estimate 16 but you could do 20 to failure your 14 reps won't hit the required intensity. Because it would be good for the estimated 16 but not enough for a max of 20 reps. Unless you have years of eyperience, you can only be sure you did the sufficient amount of work by reaching failure, and because of that reason it's the better regimen.

I train daily, so increasing fatigue resistance is the primary concern. Stopping short of failure helps achieve this.

For me training to not even close to failure works best. I can put on 7 days/week 1h workout and whenever I feel I want to avoid it, I remind myself that I can go as easy as I want. Till now this system has worked wonders on me.

Everyone is different on what they think is pushing a muscle group to failure. Some have too much drive, others not enough. That’s how I caused a partial tear of my left rotator cuff - by pushing to hard to failure. Fortunately the PT worked and I can avoid the surgery for now anyway. As Saint Nectarios said, everything in moderation and balance regarding physical exercise, with the goal of being at our best physically so to be fully engaged spiritually and to do what God gives us to do with good energy, as we take good care of the temple of the Holt Spirit - our body.

I do three sets of each exercise the first is a warm up and three short of failure second i go to failure the third one short . I'm 56 soon 57 injury management is key. My gains since doing this are better than ever.

I personally go to failure - it transformed my physique. These studies are great, plus your channel is what got me on board with failure training. I train to failure in the eccentric AND concentric, unless it’s heavy then I will only fail eccentric. The studies are only flawed in that we cannot truly know how hard these individuals really pushed themselves with the reserve reps etc. but still great info. It seems going to eccentric failure blasts you past hennemans size principle and neuromechanical matching so that your getting the best stimulus to fatigue ratio - this has been my experience and I noticed a huge difference in gains when stopping short of failure and going to failure and then further failing in the eccentric. There should be studies that show how much satellite cells are activated during a failure set, how many nucleus’s are added. These studies skip right over the intensity aspect too. You can fail at different speeds, you can fail at different lengths, I can literally feel my muscles fail and where at specifically. This isn’t possible without going to failure for me. By stopping short I’m at the mercy of neuromechanical matching, this is info I got from studies on your channel, too. I have learned a profound amount from you. Thank you!

the biggest crux to RIR training is knowing what is actually leaving 1 or 2 reps in the tank really means. most people don't train hard enough and rarely get to a true 1-2 RIR. Most people are leaving 5 when they think they're leaving 1-2. going to failure or as near to failure as you can give you a physical knowledge of that limitation helps guarantee that you are hitting the full stimulus.

So the new study just confirmed what was already known.

Volume x intensity x rest time x recovery time. That's what you need to consider to make a good training program.

All that was covered was muscle growth and fatigue. What about muscle strength? Was there a difference in the increase of weight lifted by each leg?

Whatever gets you back to the gym quickest. I tried mike mentzers workout style and it was beneficial, but slow. More sets per week seems to yield more gains for me personally