No sets to failure

Jimbo · Dec 30, 2004

Kind of new to the sport but I am having a little trouble understading one little aspect of it. Every routine that im reading about states (actually in bold letters) that you must not do any Main/assistant exercise to failure. Not only does this halt progress but it is also bad for your cns. Is it true that muscles heal alot quicker then the cns. If so, then I can the westside method of 4x a week working very well. i was thinking of doing it 3x a week. So the goal of powerlifting would be just do a little more then last time, ala.

Close grip bench presses for example.
Set one 5x5
'' 2 5x4
'' 3 5x4

Next week, go ahead and do 5x5 if capable. If what I thiink is true then failure is not the key to getting stronger/bigger but progressive overload be it more reps or more weight. Sorry for all of the ranting but been reading alot by louie simmins and he kind of just all over the place with his ideas and it's not quit easy understanding when english is your 2nd language

xcelbeyond · Jan 1, 2005

I believe the theory is what you stated.

I probably believe/interpet "failure" differently than most. Failure is when either (or both) your muscle capacity or CNS fail. When you've exerted your muscle (and CNS since they really go hand-in-hand) to where you can no longer do any reps (unassisted), then that is failure. If you're targeting 5 reps, then the weight must be heavy enough to only do 5. If you start doing a set of 5 reps and end up doing 7 - do it and increase the weight accordingly for your next workout so you can only get 5 reps.

IMHO - assisted reps only aid in burning out your CNS.

FRKNHUGE · Jan 2, 2005

im at work now and ill answer this indepth when i get home
frk

Paul Bunyan · Jan 6, 2005

I train Westside 3x/wk but I don't try to squeeze a 4 day routine into 3. It takes me 10 days to get thru the rotation instead of 7. Works great for me.

I know what you're saying about Louie, he's all over the place. He knows his stuff but you need an interpreter. I'll start posting my workouts again so you can see how I put it together.

PB