Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest

@Carbonfiberboy has been taking for a long time about going to failure. I saw a study recently which backed him up. I've been convinced that you have to lift heavy for hypertrophy, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm thinking about using the chest press machine in place of bench press, and going to failure. My gym only has two racks, so I can't push to failure without holding other people up. And heavy benches can bother my shoulder.

Originally Posted by wolfchild

Saying that training to failure is the one and only way to make progress is wrong and I don't agree with it...It depends what your goals are...If your goal is bodybuilding then training to failure may be useful if used correctly...If your goal is strength, fitness and health then you don't need to train to failure...If you goal is athleticism then you don't need to train to failure...If your goal is to get injured, burned out and stall your progress then yes you should only train to complete failure...There is also a difference between muscular failure and technical failure...Grinding out forced reps with a bad form or with a spotter after you've reached muscular failure is a bad idea and I don't agree with training like that...Isolation exercises can be taken to failure but there are some exercises which are technical and should never be taken to failure...me personally I made a much better progress on my pull ups when I stopped going to failure. I also do a lot of kettlebell exercises which I never take to failure.