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Repetition to failure less important than volume for muscle hypertrophy

❌ Training to failure not required when total training volume is sufficient?


🤔 This small study suggests so. Ten men were trained for 14 weeks via unilateral leg extension. One day the left leg was trained to failure, another day the right leg was trained not to failure. Overall, both training protocols had the same total training volume.


✅ Both training protocols induced substantial muscle hypertrophy (15-20%) with no statistical differences between protocols. Nevertheless, training not to failure induced, if anything, slightly better results; 8 out of 10 subjects showed more hypertrophy in the leg that was trained not to failure.


⚜️ The results for strength (1RM) showed more variation between protocols. For strength it was less clear whether training to failure or not to failure was optimal. This shows that for some people it is better not to always go to failure, while for an other individual it is optimal to always go to failure.


❗️Beware, this was in untrained individuals. Data might be different in trained volunteers. In any case, cool study.

Full read: PMID: 31809457




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