Failure

Failure means to do an exercise until you physically cannot do another repetition.

This applies to resistance exercises like weight training, pull-ups and pushups.

To do an exercise to failure you continue until you cannot move the weight no matter how hard you try. You continue to push--you don't give up--and yet the weight will not move. That is failure.

It does not mean stopping because your muscles are burning or you feel tired. That is going to mental failure. Physical failure means you simply cannot get the weight to move.

Why exercise to failure?

The reason to do an exercise until you cannot do another repetition is that this is a powerful stimulus for muscle growth. And when the muscles grow larger they consume more calories. Therefore it becomes much easier for you to lose weight.

When you have more developed muscles you look better, you feel better and you can be more active.

Doing exercise to failure doesn't apply to exercise like the treadmill, the stair stepper, jogging or walking. It is very hard to do an exercise like walking until you cannot do one more repetition. You can almost always do another repetition somehow.

In endurance exercises you usually go until mental failure--not physical failure. You go until you feel too tired to continue--or until you run out of time.

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