How HARD Should You Workout? - This NEW Study is Epic 

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Loved the study's leg press footage!

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.

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.

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

I love your stuff man, keep up the great work

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

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!

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.

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!

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

Bro your channel is gem 🙌🏽

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.

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

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

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.

Such consistency is best man

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

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 RU-vid videos while he was alive.

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

Lovely video as always love this channel keep it up

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!

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

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!

This is great info, thanks dude!

Your channel really helped me Thanks ❤

Honey wake up, Houseofhypertrophy just dropped a new video

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.

amazing analysis as always

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

Most people choose to quit before the muscle does

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.

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

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

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.

This is gold! … thank you!

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

I just love this channel! Thx so much

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.

Leg press guy locked out knee...Yeesh!

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.

Great insights!

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.

Great video, and great explanation

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

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)

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

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

Another EXCELLENT presentation!

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.

A really great video👍

Awesome video!

greetings from chile, u chanel is pure based keep up amazing videos I appreciate

Damn! This was an incredibly thorough and well-rounded breakdown of this concept and the literature surrounding it! Lot's of practical application as well, thanks for making this!

I like to change it, depending on where I am in a training cycle. I'll go all the way to failure right before a rest week. Most other weeks, I build up to it gradually

Thanks for the video

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.

Amazing work, man. Patiently waiting for the best abs excercises.

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+).

very interesting. Thanks For myself, training consistently to failure has always led to injury. My recovery from training to failure is really long

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.

Awesome, thank you :)

wow! I've found a good science based fitness video. this is so rare. thank you for this!

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.

I'm really intrigued to know what would combining both do for muscular growth. Considering as you said, there was a possibility of increased fatigue resistance, and I wonder if we could then eventually over a large time frame of doing so benefit from considerably quicker recovery rates.

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.

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).

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.💪

Excellent

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

great study design

Mindblowing🎉

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)

I tend to train to failure on smaller body parts/isolation movements, while always leaving reps in reserve on larger compound exercises. I find this is a good mix and would fit well with the hypothesis that having both in a routine is probably beneficial. Also tends to be that compound exercises are the ones with the most risk attached to training to failure. Additionally most people care more about strength numbers on the larger compounds, and it seems research shows training these with reps in reserve tends to lead to better strength outcomes as well. Seems like the best of both worlds in my opinion. E.g. I do usually around 1-3 RIR for compounds, and 0-1 RIR for isolations.

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!

Great study - only picky point would be dominant leg and mind muscle connection to that dominant leg would favor that leg for growth. It is the very essence of why you are a "righty" or "lefty"

Heyy brother, always great to see you posting again eh :) I just had I guess a kinda random question: have you ever looked into the hypertrophy of historically natural “muscle-control” advocates like Billy Ralph, Maxick, Bobby Pandour etc.? Apparently a lot of them used much lighter weights in an era where exogenous hormones weren’t even discovered yet, so I wonder how their insane photographed results factor into all of this newer research Thanks in any case, and I hope you’re doing well

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.

Thanks!

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.

When I started weight lifting as a teen, I got very discouraged because there was no clear agreement on how to train/eat/rest/divide workout/ etc. - and those who claimed they knew were obviously cheating i.e. on the juice. So I stopped as it felt that, whichever way, I was doing it wrong and was a waste of time and money. Now that there is more information readly available and expertly interpreted 👏 I am confident enough to say that gym won't be a waste of resources, and will actually achieve something for myself. Thanks for the content HH (not Hulk Hogan lol)

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.

Thanks for explaining chatgpt

Very scientific as well as data backed. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure that mixing both is for the best in the long run. Still a bit different stimulus, although 2RIR seems to be enough.. if you know where you RIRs are, which I'd wager most casual gym goers does not. Unless they have trained failure training for a while at some point. So that would be one big benefit for trying to fail. But for me, I'm more confident leaving some RIR from now on. Thanks House of Hypertrophy!

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.

Great video

rlly gotta appreciate the people who volunteer for studies

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)

At 9:33 the main difference in terms of practical application is apparent. Assuming training to failure and @2 RIR give equal results. *Leaving a few RIR allows more frequent training, so your total growth has the potential to be greater over time. Potentially, you get the same growth/session, but *can do it more frequently. Long term systemic fatigue from tF has always been the issue.

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