Training to Failure, RPEs & Percentages
Maxing out. Ego lifting. It’s exciting and enticing. It’s the Instagram-worthy training we all enjoy doing and watching.
However, training that way all the time isn’t beneficial. While it may boost engagement, it will cost you your progress. And if you’re in this sport for success and continual growth, rather than instant gratification and attention, it’s not worth your time.
Training to failure has a time and place, but the majority of your time should be spent building strength, not testing it. Read below to find out why- and how to structure your training more productively.
What is training to failure?
“Training to failure” is what it sounds like- lifting a weight until you fail at it. In Powerlifting, because we love lifting heavy shit, this usually means maxing out in higher percentages, but also includes taking a volume set to failure. It’s lifting to the point of muscular failure: the bar won't come back up and/or when you reach technical breakdown.
Ever loaded up the bar too heavy on squats, tried to stand up out of the hole, and had to bail out of it? That would be training to failure.
It’s a simple concept, but the conversation around it is more complex.
Why We Don’t Recommend Training to Failure
Working as hard as possible, pushing your absolute limit, and seeing how heavy you can go is lots of fun. But, as mentioned before, it’s an ineffective and unsustainable training strategy. Why?
1. It’s incredibly fatiguing.
As you can guess, the fatigue cost of training this way is incredibly high. Training to muscular failure is very stressful on the central nervous system, muscles, & tendons; and can take days or even a week to recover from. While there may be a slight additional benefit to training to failure vs. not, from a hypertrophy/strength standpoint, the fatigue level outweighs any potential upside.
2. It puts you at a greater risk of injury.
While I generally don’t like blanket statements such as, “Doing this will cause injury,” it’s clear that training to failure constantly does increase your risk. With heavy ass weights, there’s a lot less room for technique breakdown, you could get pinned under the barbell, plus you’re going to burn your body and brain out quickly. Not to mention- connective tissue strength is built at submaximal loads; so if you’re always training maximally, you don’t get a chance to build up CT strength.
3. It's hard to accumulate adequate volume.
Not only is there a minimum level of intensity one must meet for optimal strength gains, volume is also essential. If you’re maxing out all the time, you don’t get a chance to train lower-percentage rep work. Yes, a heavy single is heavy, but it’s unlikely to stimulate hypertrophic or general strength gains in the long run. And if you try to combine the two? You’ll be too gassed from your heavy work to hit your rep work as hard. That is why we need to spend time in dedicated lower-intensity volume phases- it leads to PRs down the road.
4. It impacts your following training sessions.
As mentioned before, training to failure is highly fatiguing. And when you’re training as an athlete, every single session is intentional. Each one impacts the next, and a training week is written based on previous weeks and months. Going to failure ruins the strategic flow of your programming. One day of maxing out on squats & you won’t be able to deadlift later that week- or get any quality training sessions for several days. Egotistical lifetime intermediates base their workouts on their egos, going heavy whenever they feel like it. Athletes train with intention and play the long game strategy. Failure training prevents you from spending quality time building strength.
Is there a good time to train to failure?
Constant RPE 10 training has many downsides, but is there a right time to use it? Yes, actually.
Training to failure does stimulate hypertrophy and strength gains more than not. It just needs to be used thoughtfully because of all the potential costs that come with it.
High-RPE singles are best for a peaking phase before a meet or a testing day.
Performing them allows you to express the strength that you’ve built & get your body adapted to higher percentages.
Higher-RPE work generally can be used the week before a de-load.
Throughout a 4-week program, you may increase weight and intensity each week, “ramping you up” for the final microcycle, where you can overreach- training close to failure. During this time, you can go for weight or rep PRs, push your limits, and end the week in a fatigued state, which is the perfect time to deload. After a deload week, you will have achieved the benefits of training to failure while mitigating any fatigue that came up during that time, putting you in a ready state for more building.
In this scenario, training to failure has its benefit- when you intentionally push those limits, then drop fatigue, your body “super compensates” and has an even more positive adaptation to the training stimulus.
Again, this is only at the end of a training block, not every week. The majority of your lifting time is still at lower percentages.
Training to failure in accessory work could have its benefit.
No one will get too gassed from high-intensity bicep curls or tricep pushdowns. These smaller muscle groups can benefit from harder training without negative side effects.
So, while RPE 9-10 training shouldn’t make up the majority of your time in the gym, it does have its place. Just like almost every other topic, there’s nuance!
RPE-based training: what is RPE, and how do we use it?
A common training tool to gauge intensity is RPE, referenced above.
What is RPE, you may ask?
RPE stands for “rate of perceived exertion,” and- in the strength world, it is a scale of 1-10. 10 is an all-out failure, and anywhere from a 1-5 is negligible: basically a warm-up.
So, for example, if you hit a single at RPE 8, that means it was relatively difficult- there was a slight sticking point, but you have more in the tank & could’ve squeezed out a few more pounds.
It takes practice to gauge RPE- as it is subjective- but has a host of benefits to your training.
RPE allows you to get in control of your numbers.
It improves body awareness and helps you learn your strength levels & limits: providing a form of data for your programming.
RPE accounts for days when you may feel more tired or when you feel fantastic.
A hard-and-fast percentage, on the other hand, doesn’t factor in how you feel on a given day. RPE 8 vs. “80%” gives you more wiggle room to adjust depending on the session.
RPE helps keep you in the desired intensity range.
Without any prescription, you could be either training far too close to failure or too far away, which changes the stimulus you receive. Your coach prescribes RPE for a reason, and it helps you get the optimal effect from your sessions.
RPE is paired with your main lifts, adding more intention to your programming. For example, in one week, you may want to stay closer to an RPE 7 to save fatigue for upcoming weeks, while in another, you may go up to RPE 9 to overreach & handle heavier weights. Without it, you could be hitting numbers seemingly without reasoning.
Generally, you want to stay within the range of RPE 7-8.5. This window allows you to hit the minimum effort needed to provide results while saving some pounds in the tank.
Percentages: what percentage should you stay in and why are they important?
Training percentages are also a commonly used tool to prescribe intensity. Percentages vs. RPE is a whole other topic- but briefly, both can be useful- and can complement one another.
Training percentages (say, a prescribed 70% or 80% of 1 rep max) give you an exact weight to hit on a given day. This tool also prevents you from training too close to failure. It’s objective, there’s no questioning involved, and it keeps you at the exact intensity desired.
The typical intensity you train at should stay in the 70-85% range. Again, sometimes 60% or even 95% will be used, but those are outliers.
RPE is subjective, making it possibly hard to follow & causing some lifters to over or undershoot. Training percentages, however, don’t allow you to adjust to how your body feels on a given day. They both have pros and cons, but whichever method you use, bear this in mind:
-If you have a prescribed RPE, follow it to the best of your abilities and maybe have a suggested weight along with it.
-If you have a certain percentage to hit, have an idea of how it should feel, and if your body is out of whack, adjust up/down if needed.
These tools allow lifters to train sub-maximally, holding them accountable- so we don’t have these random off-program max-out sessions.
Failure and maxing out is thrilling, flashy, intriguing training. You don’t get into Powerlifting without the love of heavy weights. However, lifting this way 24/7 will hinder your progress and prevent you from making optimal gains. It’s incredibly fatiguing, doesn’t allow you to spend time building, reduces overall training volume, and is unsustainable. While training to failure has its time and place, it’s not where you should be most of your time. Tools to gauge intensity like RPE and percentages can help keep you in check, hitting the desired range. Train submaximally for the majority of your sessions- so when you hit those heavy singles, you have something to show for it (and aren’t a broken shell of a human).
