Do you find yourself failing to grasp what true failure is?
Today I am going to show you with 3 exercises how it can be slightly different every time.
[Music Intro]
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere AthleanX.com
We are going to talk today about what real failure is.
We discussed it in the video before but I figured, let me show you what it looks like.
I am actually going to do sets that show you what it looks like.
So A, you can grasp that but then secondly it is slightly different depending on the
exercise that you are actually doing.
Now let's clear this up.
Guys who haven't seen these power blocks: these aren't toasters!
These are adjustable dumbbells that you can make a 5 lb to a 90 lb just like that by where
you put the pin.
So no, I don't work out with 70 lb toasters, but I do have these 70 lb dumbbells here today
to show our bench press.
So with an incline bench-again the purpose here that I want to show you is, match up
what you are doing at home with when you are doing the Athlean-X program, what your effort
looks like compared to what I am going to show you to do here.
OK?
So let me just show you what my definition of failure is as I go into my set.
So again down eccentrically under control, up explosively.
Try to breathe out on the way up.
Now let's say I have 10 in mind; If I can get to 10 and still do more, I haven't reached
failure.
So where I am looking now is to keep pushing.
That was kind of slow; Doesn't matter, I am not done yet.
I can get another one in.
OK?
Down slow, that might be my last one but I am still going to push for one more.
That is true failure because I could not get in one more rep even if I tried.
Now if I had a spot-someone to help me lift those up another rep, that is a different
story, that is a forced rep.
From here that is all I can do on my own.
Now we can prolong that, start rep-ing out push-ups, but then again that is more of a
drop-set extended failure.
In a single set that would be my definition of failure.
So now, on a bicep curl; What is the difference here?
Well, My failure here, I can prolong a little more because I have the ability to "cheat"
the rep on curls.
I am an advocate of being able to cheat curl reps because as long as you are doing it in
good form-and I am going to show you how to do that-you can add some exercise to your
arms by allowing yourself to do so.
Whereas over there on bench press there is no such thing as cheating because you can
put your shoulders in jeopardy if those weights start crashing down.
Like I said there is different failure for different exercises.
So I come in here, 95 lbs,OK?
I am going to start in good form, so as I come up you'll see everything stays pretty
steady, and I come down steady, and up, and down steady, right?
So as I work through this set everything is under control, but now as I start to-let's
say-get fatigued, I allow myself to lean slightly forward, OK?
My back is still in a good position here, but when I cheat this curl up, I am going
to stop at vertical alright?
I am not going to go through here and lean back.
Here would be a good cheat rep to allow me to get to failure a little bit further in
the set.
Down, up to vertical.
Forward up to vertical.
Always down slow.
Now, If I find myself doing this-that is beyond vertical and it is not an actual rep, OK?
So none of that.
You have to be able to stop at vertical and then come down.
Again, when I can't control this thing and I can't control the vertical I have reached
my failure on that set.
Last one: we have other variations of exercises that allow what I call "safe" failure to occur.
That would be something like a single-leg squat, or a Bulgarian split squat.
So I take the weight in my right arm and work the left leg.
legs up here,come straight down, up and power up.
[Repeats motion]
Now what do I mean by safe failure?
Well when I get down to the bottom here, say I get towards my 15th rep or so, when I am
down here, and I can't get one more rep, I go straight down.
That is nice and safe.
There is no crashing going on, I am right here close to the ground, my leg is fried:
I don't have enough to get out.
But like I said, we could just extend it a little bit more by leaving the dumbbell down
there and doing some body-weight reps to get those last few.
We are going to talk more next week about failure and the different types of failure.
If you want to start incorporating some of these techniques right now into your program
and get incredible results; guys, we always talk about these pro-athlete physiques.
It is these kinds of techniques that they are using to look the way they do.
So we say If you want to look like an athlete, you have to train like one.
Then we put you in touch with the ATHLEAN-X program because that is our 90 day program
to get you training like the elite pro-athletes that I work with to get them looking the way
they do.
Guys if you haven't already, AthleanX.com
We will see you back here in 7 days.
Big news coming: TEAM ATHLEAN is growing.
Will you be the next guy to grab the program and get the same results?
I will see you back here in 7 days.