Definition of True Failure

[BroSplits]

Hello coaches

I’ve seen a lot of arguments lately on the YouTube’s about new and intermediate lifters not truest understanding what true failure is.

I fall in this class. How would you define true failure? I just assumed if I couldn’t move the weight beyond a partial that I had hit failure.

Please explain.

[Chris]

I think what you are seeing discussed is that new and intermediate lifters do a poor job estimating how close to failure they are when they are trying to leave some reps in the tank. The farther away from true failure you are attempting to be, the accuracy decreases. I’m a personal trainer and I will sometimes do a “RIR (reps in reserve) audit” with new clients and it’s astounding how far off they are. I usually ask them to train to failure with what they think is 10 rep max and would normally be using for a set of 8 with two reps in reserve….. and they usually end up getting 3-10 more reps over 10 to true failure

[BroSplits]

Chris wrote:

I think what you are seeing discussed is that new and intermediate lifters do a poor job estimating how close to failure they are when they are trying to leave some reps in the tank. The farther away from true failure you are attempting to be, the accuracy decreases. I’m a personal trainer and I will sometimes do a “RIR (reps in reserve) audit” with new clients and it’s astounding how far off they are. I usually ask them to train to failure with what they think is 10 rep max and would normally be using for a set of 8 with two reps in reserve….. and they usually end up getting 3-10 more reps over 10 to true failure

Okay. Thought I was missing something. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

[Author]

Posts