Failure

[DORKtoDIVA]

What are the different kinds of failure, and what kind do you work to?

When I first started with weight training, I would stop when I felt like "oh, man, I'm DONE." But then I read about pushing yourself and I gave that a try. Working to failure sounded dangerous to me, but it was ok. Say I was bench pressing, I'd get to the point of "I'm done" and then my inner drill sargeant would come out and force a couple more reps out of me. When I hit failure, I can't lift the barbell all the way, but it doesn't mean I would suddenly drop the thing on my chest (that's what I was afraid of). I would just rack it and not count the failed rep in my chart.

After I tried that only once, I definitely saw results for both bench press and military press. The first time I worked to failure on the bench press, I did only 9 reps to failure, then 6 in my second set, and I didn't do a third set. The next time, I did 12 reps for the first set, and the 12th wasn't even failure for me! Then 9 and then 7. That was just really great to have observable progress. I bet next time I'll nail 12 for each set, then I can increase the weight!

So, how far do you push yourself, and do you see more results when you do?

[Trusylver]

For me it depend on the exercise and on my spotter, the stage of my training program also has an effect. If i am working on heavy sets with a good spotter i will at times go to complete failure followed by forced reps (reps completed after failure with spotter assistance) I don't consider being still able to rack the bar as failure. If I have a spotter with limited strength i will push weights that I am unlikely to fail on.

[DaLizard]

I think Trusylver makes a great point. In terms of working out with weights and things like that you should definitely have a spotter to help you out so you don't injure yourself with the weights.

With cardio on the other hand I push myself really hard, but the feeling of giving it your all and not holding anythign back is a pretty sweet feeling!

DaLizard

[Fittaylor]

It's definitely important when going to failure to have a spotter. There are a few different types... one is at the weight your lifting when you physically can't lift that much any more for another rep. Or you can go to total momentary failure where you fail with a weight then QUICKLY drop about 10% of that weight and do more reps and keep droping each time you hit failure. This pushes more and more fibers to work.
Failure workouts are great but very stressful, I would only do them once every few weeks to stay healthiest.

[ds1001]

you can go to positive failure where you rack the bar right after your last (and should be toughest) rep. that way you can be safe (if you don't have a spotter) and you can also push yourself pretty much to the limit without worrying too much about getting injured or pinned under the bar