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Exercise and Muscle “Failure”
By Bruce Croom, MPT, CPT, CCS, CES
Director of Personal Training

Often people think the term “failure” only refers to something negative, as by its own definition “to fail or not succeed at a given task.” However in fitness, it actually can refer to something that’s negative or positive. The two aspects I’ll explain will be exercise failure and muscle failure.
Let’s explore the negative connotation first. One of the first negative references to the word is when exercise or strength training does not show results. Almost 100% of fitness professionals would agree that the number one reason people do not achieve any results in the gym is due to bad form.
Bad form occurs for many different reasons. The lack of fitness education and misinformation stands out the most. An individual can execute bad form for years and not be aware of it. The most common long term effect from executing bad form is injury. Instead of good and bad form, as fitness professionals, we like to use the terminolgy “less effective and more effective.” Performing an exercise in a less effective manor can, for example, result in a minor injury. Then continuing to do so may lead to a more definitive injury, causing one to stop or not be able to that given exercise which caused the initial injury. This in turn often leads to more injuries due to the bodies’ natural compensative ability, putting more exercises on the list that your body can no longer naturally perform. Improper stretching also falls in this category as well. Ultimately, the end result is that you stop coming to the gym, stop being fit, gain extra weight, so on and so on, and thus “exercise failure.”
Along with misinformation about exercises, contraindicated exercises can also be a culprit of exercise failure. Misinformation can easily be tackled be just learning how your body works, and by doing a little research on strength training as it relates to you. Books and the internet are perfect to help with this, or you could simply hire a personal trainer like me!
Contraindicated exercises are a bit tricky however. This list consists of exercises in the industry, which was introduced long ago where doctors and experts deemed them inappropriate or unsafe, in recent studies. There are some that stand out for example such as, “behind the neck pull downs,” or “the ab and adduction machines”. This list is not a huge one, but there are some that people still do today. So the best ways to avoid making the mistake of doing these exercises is a little reading or again, hire a personal trainer!
For the positive connotation, let’s begin with the “rep” and the “set.” A rep is one complete repetition of a given exercise. A set is a series of those repetitions. So the question often is “how many sets and reps do I do?” Well there is no right or wrong answer. The best answer to that age old question is based on so many variables. One’s fitness level, gender, age, and goals are to name only a few.
As fitness professionals, we often take clients to a new level beyond a fixed number of reps and sets, called “muscle failure.” The definition is simply doing a given exercise to the point in which your muscles actually fail to complete a given movement. Once you get to this point, you practice a normal “recovery” or rest period, then you keep repeating this process until you feel it’s time to do a different exercise. This method is also commonly referred to as “burn out.” So why do we practice this?
By counting your reps and sets, your body can easily become complacent with doing the same fixed routine over and over again, resulting in a muscular “plateau.” Working to burn out, will always be far more reps then you would normally count in a fixed series of an exercise, which in turn gives your body a challenge. The beauty of this is working out in this manor will never be the same. The variables surrounding your workout change constantly, making muscle failure workout results very positive. We witness these positive results from this method everyday with our clients in their overall progress and strength gains in short periods of time. Clients who have habitually done the same types of mediocre workouts for years, always wonder my they don’t see specific changes in their fitness level. They just maintain a normal level of fitness. By adding muscle failure to your workout regiment, you take a giant step forward from mediocrity, to finally see changes in your fitness level and physique. There is nothing wrong with counting reps and sets. Burn out is simply a modality that you should add in your normal routine every now and then to challenge your body.
Remember that the human body wants and needs to be challenged mentally and physically. Boot Camp style programs, group exercise classes and of course, personal trainers, is an excellent way to achieve both. The human body responds most to change and that’s what these gym aspects bring. You’ll find an extra push beyond your known limit is exactly what you will need to get over those humps! So let’s avoid exercise failure by incorporating muscle failure in your routine today!