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You are here: Home / Training / Going to Failure

Going to Failure

January 3, 2011 By Michael Mahony, ISSA CPT 1 Comment

This past weekend was my scheduled one max rep test workout. I generally look forward to this workout, but this time I approached it with great trepidation because I'd been sick for the previous week. The illness really had an affect on my lifts.

I stepped up to do my squats, racking my previous max plus an additional 40 lbs. I unracked the bar and took one step back. I dropped down and asIi came out of the bottom, realized that I'd never get back up, so I bailed out. This was the beginning of my problems for the day. I backed the weight down to my previous max plus 5 lbs. I completed that easily. I proceeded to add 5 lbs. and did another easy rep. This continued until I was within 5 lbs of my initial attempt. This process drained my already exhausted body.

I wound up having problems with both my bench press and my deadlift. I learned a very important lesson about max lifts: always go backwards from the failure weight to find the max. I also learned that trying a max workout is a bad idea after an illness.

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Filed Under: Training

About Michael Mahony, ISSA CPT

Mike is a passionate bodybuilder, NPC Competitor and ISSA Certified Personal Trainer who is always looking for ways to do things better. He also has a passion for correcting the misinformation that is prevalent in the bodybuilding and fitness industry today. Mike is currently working on his first eBook, Get Back to Lifting, which is scheduled to be released soon. He is also working on a second book, The Average Guy's Supplement Guide, that is scheduled to be released the end of 2016.

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