Train To Failure and You’ll Train For Failure

Jamie Chaos

May 25, 2010

One thing you will notice about the ChAoS and PAIN training methodology is that there are no “intensity multipliers”, or whatever the mags are calling them these days. CnP is notably bereft of triple-drop sets, assisted reps, forced reps, strip sets, or negatives. In case you’ve ever wondered why, and even if you haven’t, I’m going to tell you- I don’t train to fail.

Training to failure + starvation diet = waif look?

But wait… that’s training to failure, not to fail, right?

Fucking WRONG. Six of one or half a dozen of the other, it all adds up to the same thing- training in that manner inures you to failure. ChAoS and PAIN’s not about failure- it’s about success. After you’ve done 43,000 sets to failure, you’re likely pretty well inured to failure in physical pursuits. You might not give a fuck, then, if you just got fucking pinned on a bench, or you keeled over backward out of the rack (which I have seen, and it was made even more hilarious by the reasonable chance that the guy had broken his back or neck, and he was an annoying motherfucker), you failed to make weight for a competition, or you bombed out of a competition, because fuck it- you’re used to failing.

FUCK ALL OF THAT.

I don’t want to get used to failing to lock out a rep. I want that to be the sort of catastrophe so epic that it’s a story worth telling… one that involved bloodshed, screaming, nudity, and possibly a dragon. If there’s not two of the aforementioned involved, you fail at failing.

Practice makes perfect, right? Then why the fuck would you practice failure? It’s just fucking retarded. Practice success with heavy fucking weights at all times, and you will achieve success with heavy fucking weights all the time. This is one of the reasons I adhere to a strict policy of moving heavy-ass weights constantly- if you do it every fucking day, you won’t fear them at any time, whether it’s in competition, when you just want to walk in off the street and pull 500+ in jeans, with no fucking warmup, or you need to drag a shark out of shallow water and stab it to death with your bare fucking hands.

Possibly the only man on Earth to attack a shark in the water, drag it onto land, and stab it to death.

There’s intellectual reasoning behind my methodology as well. Surprised? The utilization of intensity multipliers when working out increases one’s levels of cortisol significantly, which reduces one’s ability to recover for future workouts, protein synthesis, and your overall health. Additionally, training to failure reduces production of IGF-, which has a negative impact on your ability to grow and retain skeletal muscle, in addition to fucking up your strength and power.(1) So, essentially, by training to failure, you’re creating a metabolic shitshow from which you’re not likely to recover prior to your next session, fucking up subsequent workouts. Does this mean you should train less and to failure? Not unless you enjoy being weaker, due to the reasoning I outlined above.

Thus, leave the intensity multiplies for the fuckbags in their matching workout gear rocking the sub 200 benches and 14″ arms- they’ll be the ones going down the rack on curls and following that up with some brutal drop sets on cable crossovers. Shit you see in most mags is just that, and the UnderArmor crew in your gym is living proof.

Camel toe is the opposite of failure.

Notice, however, that she’s about the same size as the Auschwitz victim at the beginning of this blog.

1. Izquierdo, Mikel , Javier Ibañez, Juan José González-Badillo, Keijo Häkkinen, Nicholas A. Ratamess, William J. Kraemer, Duncan N. French, Jesus Eslava, Aritz Altadill, Xabier Asiain, and Esteban M. Gorostiaga, “Differential effects of strength training leading to failure versus not to failure on hormonal responses, strength, and muscle power gains.” J Appl Physiol 100: 1647-1656, 2006. First published January 12, 2006

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Jamie Chaos

I am a former all-time, all federation world record holder in raw powerlifting at 181lbs, a record I broke just to say fuck you to the internet’s “lifting” community and the powerlifting community at large. Over the last ten years I’ve written over 500 articles on strength training, nutrition, and supplementation, and continue to do so simply to fight the tide of weakness and sadness that currently pervades the scene I’ve called home for the better part of three decades. I’ve got personal trainin certs, BodyPump and BodyCombat certs, a BA in History and East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona, and MBAs from the Vienna University and University of South Carolina on my side, in addition to some sick lifts and a hell of a lot of rage. What the fuck have you got?

32 responses to “Train To Failure and You’ll Train For Failure”

Mayo Purnell

May 26, 2010

VERY true. And I think even Franco said something to this effect as regards upping max strength – don't pyramid back down, end on a strong note, i.e. get your muscles used to success. Wish to hell I'd learned this younger . . . Joe Weider the great horned deceiver . . . .
Dray

May 26, 2010

I don't know, Tom Platz has absolutely fucking MASSIVE thighs, as do some other guys who have done 20 rep squats.

Actually, mostly just Tom Platz.
Michael Q

May 26, 2010

The only benefit of training to failure is recruiting muscle fibers you would not normally recruit at submaximal loads. But if you are doing say 10 sets of triples at 90% of your 1RM, you're activating those fibers anyway, and you'll recover better too.
Arno

May 26, 2010

Pavel Tsatsouline also has written about this several times.

But I don't see how this applies to beginners. While incrementally loading evering workout, sooner or later you're going to fail and need to deload.
Anonymous

May 26, 2010

Guys, here is where I am in conflict on this one: Training to failure requires tremendous mental effort. It's been said that it takes practice over and over to do it correctly. It's certainly not "fun". Brooks Kubik for example, doesn't practice it, but believes it is effective, if you can do it.
Casey Viator did it, when pushed by Arthur Jones, but did not train that hard when he was on his own.
If you could mentally take yourself to failure on a frequent basis, and allow for recovery, how could you not get stronger?
Personally, the more I try do it, the more I realize why people don't like to do it.
And didn't Dorian head in this direction? I know I just saw a youtube video where he said he still feels it's the best way to train.
Don't shred me on this one (I know you will, anyway) , I happen to think it might not be so bad if you can actually do it.
Great post.
Mayo Purnell

May 26, 2010

The 'Blasting, Bombing, Shocking, Shredding . . .' philosophy, i.e. massive muscle tear down, might be a good drug program, and yes it probably can be done effectively with proper nutrition and rest. But it's tricky at best and you will generally have to take more days off than on. Yates, as much as I like him, was a walking pharmaceutical experiment. And even he only trained 3-4 days a week.
Jamie Lewis

May 26, 2010

Additionally, Yates wasn't training for strength- he was training for size.

Arno- I leave incremental progression to machines and the risk-averse. If I can put 40 lbs on my max in one session, I'm gonna do that, rather than the 5 that some random progression scheme suggests.
Dray

May 27, 2010

Hey, as a matter of fact Jouko Ahola did NOT fail at failing. He screams and bleeds while failing a rep on a deadlift in his video.

He also may have raped a nearby female gymgoer and rode off into the sunset on his dragon afterwards.
jimmy

May 27, 2010

I'd post this on the site but my pc is being retarded. Basically i'm weak and chubby and 2 weeks ago started training and keto dieting to rectify this. On my light days i've been doing the bear and snatches but i recently tried dips and pullups and was horrendously weak at them. Just wondering if it will get easier as my barbell lifts go up and my bodyfat goes down or am i just really that pathetic? haha anyways cheers for the blog man, only thing in 5 years that's inspired to stop being a lame, weak fuck.
Anonymous

May 27, 2010

jimmy, glad to hear you've decided to change your life for the better. Hopefully you can stick with it and see some decent results. Just remember you won't get jacked overnight and it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and most of all desire. I would suggest maybe first correcting your diet by cleaing it up before diving head first into keto. It'll be easier to eventually stick to a keto diet if you're first completely accustom to eating clean. Let me also recommend visiting the forums for the http://www.chaosandpain.com site.

To address your question…. yes. As you get stronger and lighter bodyweight exercises become easier…..
Jamie Lewis

May 27, 2010

But not in two weeks, hahaha.
Anonymous

May 27, 2010

Jimmy, do jump pullups. Do them enough and you'll be strong enough to do regular pullups.
jimmy

May 27, 2010

No i'm definitely aware i'm not going to be strong and super lean in a short amount of time haha, i'm not one of the retards from bodybuilding.com, i just mentioned the 2 weeks because that's when i started. I'm not new to weight training either, used to lift for rugby back in high school but the 4 years since then were pretty much beer, girls and pizza fest which crescendoed into me being unfit and having a bodyfat in the high teens. I've already been a week on keto, but going to go another without the refeed as i've read that's the best way to go about it your initial time. I'll give the jump pullups a go, the sad thing is when i was skinny and like 18 i could do around 20 now i suck ass haha
Anonymous

May 27, 2010

Does tribulus work?
Glen MacCharles

May 28, 2010

Dray, 20-rep squats don't always have to be to failure.
Anonymous

May 30, 2010

About a comment you made a few weeks back, you wrote that frequent ejaculations causes a rise in testosterone. Here are the outlines of a study that claims there are higher levels after 3 weeks abstinence. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11760788?ordinalpos=16&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum) I don't know the research methodology, or how much higher the reported levels are. Perhaps it isn't worth it.
Glen MacCharles

May 30, 2010

Well abstinence is for geeks. Who cares if a geek has higher testosterone levels after three (more) weeks of not getting laid? He's still a geek and his testosterone levels were probably shit to begin with.
If you can't handle talking to girls and abstinence seems like a more noble excuse than just the fact that you're totally lame, then by all means, go with abstinence.
Goof.
Anonymous

May 30, 2010

Mr Shithead MacCharles,

Not everyone wants to get laid just for the sake of it. Although I'm not religious, I'm not promiscuous either. I do not want to fuck random women. Jamie advocates a scientific approach in his articles, with some humor to bind things together. This could be worth something to someone. Not to you, as you are set in your ways. A bit simple perhaps.
Anonymous

May 30, 2010

Glen, do you have any comprehension skills at all?
Anonymous

May 30, 2010

A BIT simple? Just read his posts, it's more than a "bit".
Anonymous

May 30, 2010

Who doesn't wanna fuck random women? I dont like females enough to have many of them as friends thus most women are random to me 🙂
Anonymous

May 31, 2010

Jamie, how did Longjax and trib work out for you?
Anonymous

May 31, 2010

Well, they made him fuck random women, that's how.
Jamie Lewis

May 31, 2010

Indeed. I'm not above fucking a fat chick, either.

I've seen that Pubmed article. From the studies I've seen, the best thing you can do is either cum VERY frequently, or not at all. Given that a urologist was the one who told me that he's never seen a problem with ED or prostate in highly promiscuous, hypersexual men, I'm going to err on the side of "more is better", as that's pretty much my entire life philosophy.
Jamie Lewis

May 31, 2010

But in direct response to the above question, I only recommend shit I've tried, and I like the Longjax/tribulus combo quite a bit.
Glen MacCharles

May 31, 2010

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111@!@
What is it like to be a total PUSSY, Anonymous?
Don't bother answering, it was a rhetorical question. I honestly couldn't gove a rat's ass what it's like to be a pussy. Have fun with your abstinence. Good luck not ejaculating prematurely on your wedding night.
Anonymous

May 31, 2010

I feel bad for the woman that has to spread her legs for this asshole..
Glen MacCharles

May 31, 2010

You should. She told me you're a huge disappointment as a son.
HE HATE ME

May 31, 2010

hahahahahahaha
Anonymous

June 1, 2010

"Not everyone wants to get laid just for the sake of it."

Hahaha, yeah they're called parapeligics. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?
Jamie Lewis

June 1, 2010

Glen FTW with that last one.
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