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In the world of fitness, there’s perpetual debate over which exercises and training approaches are most “optimal” for building muscular size<\/a> and strength. One of those long-standing debates is whether you need to train to muscular failure to maximize your gains. Training to failure<\/a>, or pushing a set until you can no longer complete another rep with proper form, has long been used by lifters looking to maximize muscle fiber recruitment and get the most out of their working sets. It’s partly explained by Henneman’s Law<\/a>, which states that the body recruits motor units in order of their size, starting with smaller units and progressing to larger units as the demand for force increases.<\/p>\n Jeff Nippard, a natural bodybuilder, powerlifter, and fitness educator, has long incorporated training to failure into his own workouts, but he’s recently changed how he approaches it. Rather than saving his failure set for the end of an exercise, he’s started taking his very first set to failure. Traditionally, Nippard’s recommendation was to leave one or two reps in reserve (RIR) during your first two sets before pushing the final set to failure. For example, if you’re performing three sets of an exercise, you’d stop just short of failure on the first and second sets, then go all out on the third.<\/p>\n However, he began reconsidering that approach and has since become more convinced that taking the first set to failure offers distinct advantages, especially after experiencing the benefits himself. While filming a video in which he attempted to set personal records on 25 different exercises, Nippard managed to set PRs on 17 of them, crediting taking the first set to failure as the key.<\/p>\n Related: Exercise Scientist Says These Are the Only 4 Exercises You Need to Build an Impressive Physique With Minimal Gym Time<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n “Normally I’d do my failure set last, but when I do my failure set first I would get Advertisement<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n
like two or three extra reps,” Nippard shared in an interview with Martin Refalo, PhD, on the Jeff Nippard Podcast<\/a>. “With the subsequent sets, then, the other upside is now you know what your zero reps in reserve (RIR) feels like, so you can actually gauge it better because you just took a set to failure. So you remember very freshly what that feels like.”<\/p>\n