1. [Home](https://www.workoutsmart.com/) 2. [Ask Dan](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan) 3. [Weight Training](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training) Weight Training # I currently am working my muscles to failure one day, and doing alternating sets the… The question I currently am working my muscles to failure one day, and doing alternating sets the other. I have read may not be as good I previously thought. Yet, if I do actual pre-determined sets for each exericse, won't my muscles adapt to what I'm doing? I want to keep my workout spontaneous and keep my muscles growing to their full potential. Any help is appreciated, thanks. Dan's answer Dan Wirth, MA, CSCS Hello, Training to failure is sometimes hard to gage. Does it mean training until you are really fatigued? Does it mean training until you can't lift another rep (positive failure) and then stopping arbitrarily whenever this failure occurs? Or, does it mean training with the use of negative repetitions (done after positive failure is achieved) until even negative failure is reached (no movement at all is possible). You also have to look at the individual motivation level and physical training status to know whether or not they are even capable of achieving this type of intensity. I would venture to say that most people can't and actually don't want to train in the failure zone. You have to have a certain amount of fatigue in order to create a stimulus great enough to elicit an appropriate adaptation signal in your muscles and central nervous system. But this does not mean that the stimulus has to create complete muscular failure. In fact, it's best if most of the time it doesn't. With all of the people I have trained, both athletes and non-athletes, I have found that it is best not to go to complete muscular failure with the use of negative repetitions more than once every three to four weeks. Don't misunderstand what I have just written. I still have these people train hard but with the focus on actually completing the set and rep structure of the program. This way there is a much greater control over the specific volume and intensity parameters of the program that is being administered. This volume and intensity control is important because it provides for a more consistent or predictable recovery and adaptation process. And, this ultimately means that the workout is more precise to the individual allowing progress to be maximized and overtraining or injury to be minimized. You mentioned your concern with "pre-determined" sets in a workout and how if the sets were pre-determined then your muscles would adapt to the workout and therefore stop progressing or growing. This would be true if the pre-determined sets in your workouts were always the same thing. If you always did 3 sets of 10 repetitions then obviously you would be compromising your bodies need for variability. I hope you can see that this is very easy to fix. You simply need to be on a program where the set and rep combinations change (in a pre-determined way\!) to offer a great level of variability and new training stimuli for maximizing results. These organized changes in volume and intensity is actually known as "Periodization". Thanks for your great questions, Dan Dan designed the periodization models the Wave Engine runs. See how the Wave Engine turns his programming rules into your workouts. [How the Wave Engine works](https://www.workoutsmart.com/wave-engine) ## More in Weight Training - [I am in only the third week of a program (5-day chest/leg mass bodybuilding) and the results are remarkable. My question concerns cardio exercises, and when I should be doing them so I'm not overtraining or exhausting myself. I'm used to doing a variety of cardio routines, a typical one would be 45 minutes on an elliptical trainer with most of it spent at level 3 or 4. Is it better to incorporate this training on the same days as I lift, and should it be before or after the iWorkoutSmart.com routine? Or should I be doing that sort of intense cardio workout on different days, or perhaps mornings and lifting in the evening? So far I've been doing lighter cardio workouts, level 2 or so for 20 minutes, before or after the bodybuilding routine.](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/i-am-in-only-the/1908) - [Will Fat turn to Muscle?](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/will-fat-turn-to-muscle/182) - [I was doing the bodybuilding and mass program and I was wondering how come its hard for me to bench weight that was kinda easy for me to get when I was just lifting without a program? For example I uesed to be able to get 177 8 times and now when I pick it up off the bar it feels so heavy, is it because this is only my 3 week of your program and it starts me off at a low weight so i am used to your program. I guess i havent been used to lifting this much weight. If u could answer me back it would be thank ful](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/i-was-doing-the-bodybuilding/537) - [I occasionally miss a scheduled day due to my kids activities so I just go to my next workout the next day. I assume that back-to-back days are not adviseable to do in order to play catch-up, especially for a 45 yo.Is this true?](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/i-occasionally-miss-a-scheduled/199) - [In regards to periodization,some of the exercises use increasing weight/decreasing reps. Another exercise will have increasing weight/decreasing reps followed by increasing reps with the same weight and then decreasing weight. Is this something you can explain to amateurs? I am just in the middle of week 9 and I am learning the value of sleep during this very hard week. I certainly enjoy the iWorkoutSmart.com program and plan on contining during the coming year.](https://www.workoutsmart.com/ask-dan/weight-training/in-regards-to-periodizationsome-of/326) ## Train on the programs Dan writes. [Start 14 days free](https://www.workoutsmart.com/signup)