Performance of strength training to failure does not include

The core performance of strength training failure does not include three types of situations: First, the movement is severely deformed to the point of "hard push completion" that completely violates the logic of the target muscle group. Second, it is an extreme state where daily actions such as dressing and climbing stairs cannot be completed independently for more than 24 hours after training. Third, it is "psychological false exhaustion" that voluntarily gives up after just doing 1-2 times of the same weight.

Last week I saw a young man practicing deadlifts in the gym. By the seventh rep of the third set, his waist was already bent like a bent shrimp, and his knees were shaking unsteadily. He was still gritting his teeth and pulling upwards. My friend next to me was still shouting, "Come on, try another one when you're exhausted." I hurried over and stopped him - any further pulls would cause problems with the intervertebral discs. How could this be exhaustion? The reps were purely based on the compensation of the waist and legs, and the target latissimus dorsi and erector spinae muscles were not to the point where they couldn't bear it. True failure is when the target muscle group is no longer able to complete a complete concentric contraction under the standard action framework. Even if the last moment shakes like a sieve, the core trajectory will not be abnormally distorted. Of course, I also know that friends who play CrossFit will occasionally allow a small amount of deformation when trying to achieve results, but that is only under the premise that the stress on the joints is controllable. If the movement standards are completely lost, even the coach at the CF gym will directly call a stop. This state of hard support is never considered a normal manifestation of exhaustion. I also encountered this pitfall two years ago when I was just practicing shoulder pressing. In order to push an extra weight, I threw my waist and rested for almost two weeks. Later, after chatting with the provincial team's rehabilitation instructor, I realized that when you reach failure, you can't control a slight shaking at most, and it is impossible for the entire torso to be tilted to an absurd degree.

There are also many people who regard extreme soreness and the inability to walk after training as a sign of exhaustion. This is actually a misunderstanding. Different training systems have different thresholds for exhaustion: if bodybuilding-style differentiated training occasionally reaches the limit of exhaustion, you may have obvious muscle soreness the next day, but you won’t be unable to even stand up from squatting on the toilet 24 hours later. ； During the preparation period for powerlifting, you rarely even do complete failure sets. At most, your muscles will feel heavy after training, and your daily activities will not be affected at all. If you are really unable to move normally for two or three days after training, it is most likely due to excessive muscle micro-damage caused by sudden overload of training volume and incorrect movements. In severe cases, it may even be a precursor to rhabdomyolysis, which is completely different from normal exhaustion. I used to lead a novice friend to do leg training, and he insisted on doing 10 sets of 10RM squats with me. As a result, he had trouble getting out of bed the next day. He went to the hospital to check that it was a muscle strain, and it took him a month to recover. This was not a normal consequence of exhaustion at all, but simply a result of overtraining.

There is also a more subtle form of false exhaustion, which many novices and even enthusiasts who have practiced for a year or two are prone to fall into: although their muscles can still carry it, they retreat mentally. For example, when practicing biceps curls, if you feel a little sore after just four or five lifts, you put the dumbbell down and shout, "I'm exhausted." In fact, it's perfectly fine to grit your teeth and do it two or three more times according to standard movements. Nowadays, many training schools advocate the training method of "leaving 1-2 reps to spare", and actively do not rush to complete exhaustion. Of course, this state of active stopping does not really reach the exhaustion threshold - false exhaustion is essentially insufficient muscle recruitment or psychological fear, and it is not the same thing as the inability of real muscle fibers to complete contraction.

In fact, there is no completely unified standard for the definition of failure in the current fitness circle. Some people like to push to the limit of failure to find a pumping feeling, while others are used to leaving some effort to protect their joints. There is no right or wrong in either choice. But no matter which route you take, the three situations mentioned above are really not serious performances of exhaustion. Don’t be fooled by the chicken soup on the Internet that “you have to practice until you can’t stand up”. Practicing for a long time is always much more important than practicing hard.