Are you missing gains because each one
of your working sets is not hard enough?
It's not close enough to failure for you
to be getting your maximum gains. How
can you tell? Stay with us. We have 11
ways for you to tell if each one of your
sets is hard enough for you to be making
your best gains or if you can push
harder. And we're going to tell you
exactly how to monitor your results and
what to do to push your hardest.
There are many reasons you might not be
making the gains that you want to make.
Insufficient volume, insufficient
frequency, poor program structure, bad
exercise technique. Maybe it's because
you're not listening to enough office
wave music. And potentially, now this is
speculative, those real nasty thoughts
you have in your head before you go to
sleep, God hears those thoughts, pimp,
and he's punishing you with poor gains.
But while all those things may very well
be true, what you really don't want to
be limited by as far as gains is how
hard you're training in any given set.
literature, they're called working sets.
These are the sets done after your
warm-ups and they have to be really hard
for you to make the best gains. Within
about three reps shy of failure all the
way to failure itself. But the thing is,
many people get this totally wrong. A
recent literature review by Sebastião
Barbosa Neto and colleagues pointed out
that a lot of folks in the gym are
stopping as many as six reps shy of
failure. That's three reps before the
three reps that are kind of the cutoff
for what makes an effective set. So a
lot of folks are going to the gym and
they're not getting their best results
because each set is not sufficiently
hard enough on them. Now, how do you
know you're not training hard enough?
Cuz it's tough, right? Everyone thinks
they're going hard enough. There's not
some kind of magic machine we invented
that tells you you're XYZ reps shy of
failure. You can't really know until you
go all the way to failure and we already
know going all the way to failure on
every set for people that train a lot
and want big muscle gains in the long
term might not be the best way to train.
A few reps shy of failure is really
where it's at. How do you know you're
getting to within about three reps shy
of failure? Well, good news for you. We
have a massive checklist
>> [music]
>> that lets you know if you're going close
to failure or doing anything but. Let's
go through every single one of these
checklist items and put together a plan
for you to figure out, am I going hard
enough or am I playing too much? Now
guys, just before we give you this list,
got to tell you, none of these by
themselves constitute a for sure you're
not training hard enough or a for sure
you're training hard enough if you check
the box or if you don't. But as many of
them as you can to get lined up into the
direction of I am training hard, the
better. And the fewer of them that line
up in that direction and actually line
up in the direction of you not training
hard enough, the worse. So this is not a
test where you have to get all the
questions correct. The more of them you
get lined up with you are training hard,
the more assured you can be that while
many other things may be keeping you
from your absolute very best gains,
probably isn't going hard enough in any
given set of your workout. First up is
do you get nervous, especially for your
big compound lifts sometimes? If you go
real shy of failure on big compound
lifts, there's kind of nothing to get
nervous about cuz you're never pushing
yourself. But if you're getting real
nervous when there's lots of weight on
the bar and you're expected to do a
decent number of reps close to failure,
you can probably be more assured than
not that you really are pushing the
pace. Doesn't mean you have to get
nervous every time, but at least on
occasion some of your sets should leave
you kind of sweating a little bit even
before you start them. Next, do you need
a warm-up for your hard sets and do you
typically take one? The thing with
warming up is after you warm up, you can
get many more reps of the same weight in
that same set as you would have gotten
compared to if you didn't warm up. So if
you always or often hitting sets without
a warm-up, the chances are that you're
training your hardest are lower than if
you're taking warm-up sets before you
take your work sets. Because the warm-up
sets can unlock a few extra reps at the
end of every set. Those are the reps
going close to failure. If you're not
warming up, chances are your nervous
system is stopping you by being not
ready enough to lift super hard from
even getting your muscles close to their
muscular failure. So it feels like
you're failing and you really kind of
are if you don't warm up, but that means
your failure is actually a few reps shy
of what you would have been able to do
had you warmed up. So if you never warm
up for anything, you just hit your work
sets raw, the chances that you're going
really hard enough are lower than if
you're like, dude, I need a few warm-ups
before I hit this set cuz it's a serious
damn set.
>> [music]
>> Next, does the tension in the target
muscle make it feel during, especially
the last few reps of a heavy set, that
your muscles are being physically pulled
apart into pieces under that crazy high
load? If you never feel like the muscles
are being strained at all, you might not
be training super hard. If you're
feeling like on some exercises your
biceps or your pecs or your triceps are
getting torn to shreds, especially in
that deep stretch with high tension,
man, you're probably doing a pretty good
job. Next, [music] do the last few reps,
especially of sets over 10 reps, give
you a nasty burn in the muscle? The
nasty burn is from various metabolite
products that skyrocket in your muscles
and in the bloodstream around your
muscles precisely when and only when
you're approaching failure. The burn at
the end of sets greater than 10 is a
very reliable indicator of the fact that
you're getting close to failure. If you
feel the burn at all, you're probably
doing a good job. If you end lots of
sets of 15 reps without ever feeling the
burn, man, the chances you're training
hard enough in any given set are low.
Next, do the weights slow down in the
last few reps of your set? For some
people, they're so fast twitch and their
nervous systems are so explosive, this
doesn't happen. But for most people, it
does, [music] at least to a subtle
extent. If you can have identical rep
speeds on every single one of your reps,
it means one of three things. One,
you're real fast twitch, which is
possible but unlikely. Two is you're
capping your concentric velocity on
purpose for safety and technique to
begin with. No big deal. And the last
one is you just aren't training hard
enough. So in most cases, you should
feel somewhat of a slow down, especially
in the last several reps. And if you
don't feel a slow down, our next point
will cover the bases. Do the weights
feel heavier at the end of the set
versus at the beginning? "Who Who turned
the gravity up?" is what I like to say.
No one ever says anything back to me
because that's not really a funny joke.
But on a serious note, if the weights
feel identical from rep one to rep 10,
man, you're probably not trying super
hard. If your velocity doesn't fall off
at all, the perceived weight in your
hands has to be exponentially higher on
your last rep than on your first. So if
the weights are getting real heavy
towards the end of your sets, you're
probably trying hard and you're probably
getting a lot out of your training.
Next, especially on big compound lifts,
are you getting noticeably out of breath
at the end? This has partly to do with
cardiovascular systems and pushing them
really hard, but it has a lot to do with
the various buffering systems your body
has for a high acidity. When big muscles
like your quads and your glutes and your
pecs and the muscles of your back get
real close to failure, they put out a
lot of metabolites. Many of those are
acidic. They end up in the bloodstream
and through various ways of buffering,
including what's called the carbonic
buffering system, those acids are
buffered out, but the cost of the
buffering, or rather the side effect, is
that you have to breathe out a lot of
CO2, which means your respiration rate,
the rate and depth even of your
breathing, gets real high towards the
end of a set and especially a few
seconds after you stop. So if you do a
set of leg press, rack the weight, and
then afterwards I
you probably got closer to failure than
if you rack a set of leg press at 15 and
just kind of walk out of the machine and
nothing happens. There is a chance
you're going close to failure there if
you have phenomenal aerobic
conditioning, but it's not likely. Next,
your target muscle, for example the
triceps in skull crushers, is notably
weaker after even just one set.
Definitely after multiple sets. If you
do four sets of skull crushers, your
triceps are about as strong after those
four sets as they would be fresh, you're
just warming up, you're not training
hard. But even after one set, if your
skull crusher reps go down in the next
set, that is a real good sign you got
close to failure. I get a lot of
questions on my Instagram about how I
lift and every now and again I get the
question of, "Hey, why are your reps
falling on your hypertrophy app every
single set? You start with 15 reps of
skull crushers at the same weight and
the next set you're only doing 10. What
gives?" My answer is kind of like this.
This is cheeky and meant to be nice and
fun. If you have to ask why reps go
down, you're probably not going close to
failure. Now that's not exactly true
because some people that are not as
strong, some people with excellent
recovery time, people that take a long
break between sets, and people with
awesome aerobic conditioning or very
slow-twitch fibers, they can rebound and
get just about the same number of reps
set to set to set. But, for most people,
if you go real hard, especially to
failure very close on one set, you can't
just reproduce that set a minute or 2
minutes later. Your reps will fall. So,
if your reps are falling off between
sets, even though you're trying damn
hard, you're probably getting pretty
close to failure. Next, do you get
wobbly after the entire workout for a
given muscle, especially after just a
few sets? So, if, for example, you can
do bunch of sets of curls and then just
go right into the locker room at the gym
and brush your teeth without a struggle,
I don't know. Did you really push it?
What's called perturbation seems to be
low, and that probably means you're not
going super close to failure. Another
thing is, if you have a gym that has
some stairs to get into it, and you do a
leg workout, especially quads, and you
can hop, skip down the stairs after,
that ain't it. If your legs are wobbly
even when you get out of a machine, and
they're definitely wobbly when you go
down the stairs, then, man, you're
probably getting close to failure.
Essentially, if stuff feels weird, if
you trained forearms and it's tough to
grip the steering wheel, yeah, you're
probably going pretty close. If
everything feels just fine, like you
didn't even train it, you probably
didn't go super close to failure. Next,
do you feel systemically fatigued after
your workouts? A real workout, very many
sets, even just a few sets in some
cases, close to failure can make you
feel drained. A sort of pleasant
tiredness, one in which you feel a
little bit spacey. And, here's the big
test, the idea of doing another hard
workout in the next 15 minutes has to
sound damn near impossible to you. If
you finish a workout and someone's like,
"Hey, do you want to do another workout
with me right now?" And they just got to
the gym, and you're like, "Well, yeah,
sure." And, there's a chance you're just
in psychotic shape or not super strong
yet, probability you went close to
failure is lower. If you really drain
it, if you really push yourself and you
go close to failure on a bunch of
movements, and someone's like, "Hey, can
you train again?" Your first instinctual
answer is got to be like, "I don't think
I can ever train again in my entire
life." That's often how it feels right
after workout in which you went closer
to failure often. If you didn't go super
close to failure, it's just not going to
feel very systemically, overall, nervous
system and body very fatiguing. If
you're really fatigued after workout,
that's a very good sign. Lastly,
if you can continue to progress in
weight and reps for longer and longer
and longer, the probability that you
were going anywhere close to failure in
those first few weeks is lower and lower
and lower. What's the cutoff? There's no
cutoff exactly, but I'll tell you this.
If you can put 5 lb on the bar and add a
rep to the bar to the every set that
you're doing for more than about 6 to 8
weeks, you're either a rank beginner,
which is totally cool, enjoy your gains,
or I don't know. Like, you're just going
to continue to get stronger and stronger
forever? It seems unlikely. If you
really are able to put tons and tons of
weight on the bar for weeks and weeks
and weeks and add reps and reps and
reps, the chances that you were very far
from failure when you began the workout
plan a few weeks back are very high.
You're just getting closer and closer to
failure the whole time. But, if you
started very close to failure and you
progressed for 8 weeks straight in reps
and load, man, the chances that you're
like Kryptonian go up a lot. The chances
that a human can do that go down
substantially. So, if I ever talk to
anyone that's like, "Yeah, I do like 12
or 16-week mesocycles and I had reps and
load the entire time." I get real
skeptical as to how hard they're
training early. If you go close to
failure three reps or less and you're
intermediate or advanced, and you
properly progress, generally 4 to 8
weeks, and 8's generous, all you're
going to be able to progress on until
you go straight to failure without your
consent and are unable to progress
later. So, if you can really coast for
months and months making progress,
you're probably not training hard
enough, and it's not real progress. When
myself and Jared Feather, IFBB Pro,
lover of Latinas and Southeast Asians
the world over, when we train hardcore
bodybuilder athletes, these are all of
the signs that we look for and talk with
them about, but are they actually going
close to failure? Every single time we
see some of these signs, we can adjust
the expectations for the next set. Folks
show up to us often hardcore, and
sometimes not so hardcore. We get
everyone straightened out because we
know what signs to look for, just like
you can look for these signs in your own
training. If you suspect, based on these
signs, that you might not be going close
enough to failure, how do you fix it? I
have one almost sure-fire way to fix the
failure training problem right here,
right now. Here's the situation. You
come in and you do whatever sets and
whatever reps. Write it down in your RPE
Hypertrophy app, if you like.
Come back next week. Here's what you do.
Only ever with good technique, you
either add a little bit of weight and
keep the reps the same, or you add a rep
and keep the weight the same.
>> [music]
>> And you hit that goal target. The RPE
Hypertrophy app figures out these
targets for you, so you don't even have
to think about it. You just do whatever
the app says. After week after week
after week, the difficulty goes up,
either putting more weight on the bar or
putting more reps on the bar. And you
can even do either or one week or the
other, so it's weight and reps and
weight and reps and weight and reps. At
some point, one of two things is going
to happen.
You continue to get strong infinitely,
and then the army lays down its arms
beneath you and you get to rule the
world. Scott, statues-wise, are we going
with gold statues, platinum statues, or
plutonium plutonium statues, which are
both incredibly difficult to
manufacture, very expensive, and
literally radioactive, so you can't even
come up to them. And if you love your
leader enough, you're going to come up
to them and suffer for your leader
because you want to kiss the statue. You
probably won't make it but a few days
after that one. In any case, that last
part seems to be unlikely. What's really
going to happen is the ability to hit
those higher and higher weight and rep
targets is going to be less and less
likely for you to do unless you're not
sandbagging. And here's the critical
feature. There are three critical
features to this plan. One, [music]
continue to increase weight and reps.
Two, never let your technique go. And
three,
>> [music]
>> put your ego on the line. The only way
to subvert the system from taking you to
true failure and letting you see what
that feels like, if you're progressing
in weight and reps and if your technique
is good, is that if you just give up and
go, "Well, okay, that was failure." No,
it wasn't. Put your pride on the line
and push and push and push. The vast
majority of people that don't go close
enough to failure are females. Why?
Because females are excellent
technicians. They're excellent at
following programming rules, but they're
not as egotistical as guys. Young men
almost always go to failure because
they're psychotic. Unfortunately,
sometimes that means it's with bad
technique. You got to combine the best
of all the genders.
There's going to be some kind of
politically incorrect joke in there that
could have made, but I won't. And you
have to do those three core things.
Continue to progress,
always have good technique, put your ego
on the line. Last week, 15 reps with a
55-lb dumbbells was tough. This week
it's 16 reps. Must do 16. Do or die, and
by die I mean fail in style. Good
technique only. Take the progression.
Don't be like, "Well, maybe 15 again to
clean up my technique." Your
technique's good already. Finish all 16
reps. Either you get 16, and
congratulations, you did it again, or
you get 15 or 14 all the way to failure.
You try your best, ego on the line, the
weights don't move anymore, and you can
rest assured you know exactly how hard
you're training. When you come back
around after that mesocycle to construct
your next plan in the RPE Hypertrophy
app, then what you're going to know is
how close to failure you got last time,
and you're going to start at the
appropriate amount. If you actually
showed that last time you were like six
reps in reserve at the beginning because
it took you weeks and weeks to get to
true failure, this time start with a
more challenging set of reps and load so
that you can get closer to failure
within the 4 weeks allotted by your
plan. If you ever hit failure in a
muscle group way before that whole
mesocycle is over for all the other
muscle groups and you haven't hit
failure for them, super easy trick. For
the next workout you have planned for
that muscle, every single exercise do
one half of the reps, one half of the
sets, and one half of the weight. It's
like the easiest warm-up in the world.
Next workout after that, start with 2/3
the number of sets that you were going
to do before, right? So, if let's say
you stopped at six sets last time, four
sets this time, take the weight down
just a little bit, set some reasonable
rep targets that are challenging, maybe
from the week before, and start slamming
it again. Your fatigue will have come
down, and you can get closer and closer
to failure again to match where the
other muscle groups are. That's really
how you're going to do it. Lastly,
remember, three reps in reserve, two
reps in reserve, one rep in reserve, and
failure are really, really close to each
other. Even the zero reps in reserve
versus failure debate something we can
get into. They're all super effective,
and for longer-term programs, an average
of one to two reps shy of failure is for
the best. So, don't go overboard on
this. If you're going to psychotic
failure all the time, that could work
for you in a low-volume program, but in
higher-volume more effective programs
that work longer term, starting out at
two or three reps shy of failure is
really good. Know how close failure is
with of these signs. Start two or three
reps shy of failure and eventually go to
failure on most if not all movements at
the end of your meso cycle. Ladies,
>> [music]
>> you especially could be training harder.
Fellas, keep training hard and harder
still. Make sure your technique never
wavers. All right. Get out there and get
to failing.
See you next time.
>> [music]