Muscle Failure

Muscle Failure By Paige Waehner, About.com Guide About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board ...

Muscle failure means that you cannot do any more reps with good form. If you can't do eight strict reps, the weight's too heavy. If you can do more than 12, the weight's too light. Adjust the weight for your next set.

Regarding the issue of reaching muscle failure or not in all sets, the best advice that I can give you is to perform each set to the point where it would be impossible for you to perform an additional repetition on your own with good form.

Set - A group of repetitions of an exercise movement done consecutively until momentary muscle failure is reached. Example: One set of biceps curls would include lifting and lowering dumbbells for 8-12 repetitions.

Suppose that you normally do leg curls with 70 pounds of resistance, and that you reach muscle failure after 10 repetitions.

Triple progressive overload and other advanced training techniques will push you beyond muscle failure to help you reach your next level of performance, boost power and strength, and break through plateaus.

Then, in the next session on another day, increasing the weight to the point of muscle fatigue or even muscle failure but doing fewer (4 to 7) reps.

ones you can hoist 6 to 8 times before muscle failure) will develop bulkier muscles.

See also: Workout, Strength, Fitness, Exercise, Resistance