Quote:
Originally Posted by ValdostaGatorFan
Question: When I'm doing my final sets into muscle failure, are those more benifitial to building muscle? Or breaking down muscle to be be rebuilt? What I'm getting to is should I push myself more when I get to muscle failure? When I struggle to do my last pushup, and can't do any more, should I just wait the least amount of time to do another and continue doing that? Or should I just stop when I can't do anymore and move on to something like crunches?
I plan to keep my workout the way it is for a week, and then add 5 reps to every set. I also added in rows with a table ledge. It wanted to tip, so I made a wide grip and used the sides instead of the ends. It's all I can do for now.
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That's a very interesting question. Since just doing loads of pushups is probably not terribly beneficial for adding muscle, pushing to failure might be just the stimulus you need right now. If you're doing, say, three sets total, you could probably afford to go to failure each set. We're not talking bench presses here. But if you're going to do that, don't turn it into a cardio session. Get ample rest between sets.
And since it's all about stimulus --> recovery --> adaptation, be attuned to any performance drop-off that would signal a need to dial back a little or maybe take a week off. Ideally, you should be seeing consistent progress, more or less, for a number of weeks.