good post. i remember when i was younger, i would never look at anything that had to do with steroids. i hated even reading about bodybuilding, because i didn't want to spend a lot of time on it outside of the gym. i thought it should be simple, not an end in itself, but an activity you did so that you could feel good when you were doing your daily work (or play).
as a result i mostly read a few things here and there, the most superficial "wisdom" (
), the most prevalent bullshit: train hard! train to failure! eat lots! etc. etc.
when, years later, i finally looked at how pros train, or really any successful "bodybuilder" of any level trains, i noticed they weren't working very hard. rarely did i ever see someone struggling to complete reps. it was all smooth sailing, from the first rep to the last (at least compared to what i put myself through). the determination i had was almost frightening! i would dread going to the gym, knowing what i was in for. well, the joke was on me... "training to failure", "giving it all you've got", "give the muscle no choice but to grow", LOL. if i were to translate these mantras into my own terms based on what i actually observed, once i finally watched some bodybuildin videos, i'd change it to "train until you get a little tired", "push yourself, but not too much", "get a bit of a pump, then go home... don't overdo it!"
This is often overlooked by many. I was exactly the same once. Did every set to failure along with drop sets or rest pause at times. Why? Because all the bodybuilding literature I indulged in would say so.
"Go hard or go home! Take every set to failure! Anything less than 100% and you won't grow! Blah blah blah!"
Utterly ridiculous.
Most pro's do not take every set to failure. Maybe the last set of an exercise at times but certainly not every set. Sure, some train heavy but they certainly don't go to the max on a set. Former pro's like Kevin Levrone trained heavy but he avoided going to failure most of the time. Watch his vids.
Here are a few clips of Arnold Schwarzenegger training. Notice how he does his sets. No grinding. No pushing to failure. Just strong reps with a slight pause on the last rep or two but certainly not grinding his way to failure. Probably explains how he trained so frequently as he wasn't stressing the cns by not going to failure which allows for far better and quicker recovery.
Going to failure just causes a person to burnout, plateau and can lead to injury. Arthur Jones and mentzer were the worst thing to happen to bodybuilding with their "going to failure" nonsense as I know it's done more harm than good.
