Training / Living to the Point of Failure

Training to the Point of Failure is a pretty simple and widely used technique in progressive weight training.

Simply stated, you do a particular exercise with a given weight until you can't do any more.

Gravity wins.... You FAIL to do another rep.

So why do people use this technique?

Taking the body, a particular muscle group, to a point of failure breaks down the muscle fibers in that muscle group, creating micro tears and lesions.

With the proper nutrition and recovery, these muscle "fractures" repair themselves stronger than they were before.

Stronger, denser muscles are able to lift more weight.

So the individual's future attempt at higher weight or higher reps with the same weight is successful.

The individual becomes stronger and moves to a new level.... a point beyond his previous best.

How did the individual get to a new higher level of strength?

They experienced FAILURE.

They then receded from that FAILURE, followed a simple plan for recovery and made ANOTHER ATTEMPT.

You can see where this is going, right?

Very few Happy and Successful People (and you can define Happy and Successful however you want to) have experienced their state of Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Relational, Vocational, Financial Nirvana without experiencing their share of Failure.

Failure is simply a Temporary Limit or Boundary.

It is a way of informing you that you need to Back Off, Come Up with a New and Better Plan, Do Your Homework and then.....

Try again.

It is this breakdown of Life's Muscle Tissue and the rebuilding of it stronger than it was before that represents our Progress in Life.

It is how we grow.

Yes - Failure is part of the Growth Process.

Live to the Point of Failure.