Doing Pushups to failure will always increase strength
Who ever sold people on never pushing to failure? Years ago when
I was lifting heavy weights and doing low reps we always pushed as
hard as possible squeezing out every last rep, so what has changed?
It’s almost like pushing to failure is too much work and we don’t want
to push and work to hard we might make gains, is it that you may
make great gains in a short time and then level off?
Pushing to failure is what every great athlete does to get great
on a regular basis the person that leaves a workout without
knowing they worked hard will never make the gains they
say they want.
Look at pro football, the team that leaves it on the field usually
wins and the team that loses is usually gives up. Another myth
that makes no sense is in weight training most will usually
start with real light weight and move up progressing sets a little
at a time, by the time you get to the heavy sets your muscles
are already worked and you don’t have as much left to out in the
big effort.
When we switched to a decent warm up and put the max we could
do for 5 reps and kept the same weight for all sets we were pushing
the max weight and when all 5 sets were completed you added weight
and kept progressing. So what happens when you push to failure?
You push the muscles hard and they get stronger, meaning you will
get stronger.
Why would you want to leave anything on the table? I’m not saying to
kill yourself everyday but come on you need to do a little more to get
any results. Have you ever known anyone good at anything that did
not work extremely hard at what they are good at?
Greasing the groove made popular by a certain Russian seems to be
the formula everyone wants to use, this has been used for many, many
years and never seemed to work as well as it’s supposed to; but here
is the biggest problem, it’s the thoughts you have about a certain workout
formula. It’s all in the mind.
I will tell you that if you are not training to failure and you are leaving
the rest on the table when you need it you won’t have the extra to finish
the job.
Champion weight lifters all over the world train for winning they train
many times a day in short training periods and they train to win, they
are not giving a less than best effort they are training to win.
You get stronger by placing more stress on the muscle not less
stress, where does cheating yourself with a poor effort make any
sense at all.
Pushing your pushups to failure and squeezing out a few more
every time will enhance your pushups, you can have an off day
just keep going, your body can handle the stress our bodies are
made to push hard and the body will adapt; the problem is going
against popular culture that’s why most men tend to be fat and
weak.
I have talked about this before, if a laborer works everyday with
his body by rights he should be working on a split schedule working
one day and taking a day off, if he does he’ll starve the funny thing
is he can do the same thing the next day and the day after and
can continue for weeks and months and years but people that
workout for a few minutes a day worry about over training and
getting hurt.
Why would anyone listen to someone that is no better off than
they are? Wouldn’t it make more sense to find the people that
get the results you want and study these men and women?
If you can only do 40 pushups at one time does it make any
sense to listen to advice from someone who can’t break 40?
Until you are willing to make your body do what your mind tells
it you will remain in the same situation.
As far as shoulder pain, try and push with a stronger part of
the body – the triceps’. Using 2/3 of your upper arm makes more
sense than using the smaller anterior head of the shoulder,
and this the reason men have shoulder injuries.
Pushing to failure is an old school way that has worked for
many years and people that use it almost always get great
results, just because you are sore doesn’t mean you need
a day off, it’s your decision as to what you want to accomplish.
Toughness Builds Winners
Johnny Grube
Great article! I have made more progress by pushing to failure, than by greasing the groove or circuit training. It works!
Pushing to failure: brutal and painful, but rewarding
And a lot of crybabies would say, “don’t train to failure everyday, you will seriously hurt yourself”. I would say “If you don’t wanna get results, then I suggest you keep your mouth shut, because I am training for fitness, not for gyms, a.k.a. musclehead town.”