1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:18,119 Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted alright. 3 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:22,239 Speaker 1: Time for a quick fit tip on failure. Failure is 4 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:25,280 Speaker 1: one of those words that's when it comes to exercise, 5 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 1: is essentially generally a good thing, sometimes sometimes so that 6 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,239 Speaker 1: is the focus of today's quick fit tip, and we 7 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:44,479 Speaker 1: are going to specifically discuss muscular failure versus technical failure. Okay, 8 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 1: so quite often for many of you whose goal it 9 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:50,840 Speaker 1: is to look better, feel better, live longer, be injury free, 10 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 1: player sports a little better all of the above. There 11 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: are the recommendations of one of three sets ten to 12 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:02,080 Speaker 1: fifteen repetitions, somewhere in that range where the last few 13 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 1: repetitions are difficult without losing proper form, right, And that 14 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: plays into the overload principle that I've talked about in 15 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:16,520 Speaker 1: prior podcasts. That is how the muscle changes. You need 16 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: to overload the system, overload your muscle fibers, create those 17 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,919 Speaker 1: tiny micro tears in the muscle fibers that when they 18 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,039 Speaker 1: repair themselves when you rest, and that's why rest is 19 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: so important, you get stronger and the muscles get bigger. 20 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:40,759 Speaker 1: It is pretty much that's simple. So failure is good 21 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:45,360 Speaker 1: when we are talking about overloading the muscles, but within reason. 22 00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:51,240 Speaker 1: And so there is a difference between muscular failure and 23 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 1: technical failure. And I frequently say my job is to 24 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: get you the greatest results in the justest amount of time, 25 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 1: with the least likelihood of injury. And that comes into 26 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: play in today's topic. Yes, we want the muscles to overload, 27 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: and another way to put that is failure, right, But 28 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: the crucial part of that advice recommendation without losing proper 29 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:31,120 Speaker 1: form is essentially the definition of technical failure. And this 30 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: is why I am such a stickler for form form form. Now, 31 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:38,919 Speaker 1: any of you who are listening, who are power lifters 32 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:41,680 Speaker 1: who are trying to get your max lift, your max 33 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:47,320 Speaker 1: bench press, your max deadlift, your max you name it, squat, 34 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 1: this doesn't really apply to you, but it still kind 35 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: of does. And I was watching a oh my gosh, 36 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,639 Speaker 1: cringe worthy YouTube video of some and who actually violated 37 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: both of these, which I was gonna say it's hard 38 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:09,279 Speaker 1: to do. It's not, but it took my breath away. 39 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,680 Speaker 1: And it was a person deadlifting over five pounds with 40 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: the worst form possible, the most rounded back just technical 41 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: failure and didn't get it. By the way, that's the 42 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: muscular failure. So technically failed horrifically and failed muscularly as well. 43 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: So even though I'm not really speaking to those people 44 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:41,520 Speaker 1: who are going with heavy amounts of weight, it's part 45 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:49,560 Speaker 1: of the discussion. Technical failure happens for most people before 46 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: muscular failure. In other words, you lose that good form 47 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:58,040 Speaker 1: before the muscle fails, before you can't do another repetition. 48 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,440 Speaker 1: I could get into the goalgee, tendon or again, which 49 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: is a phenomenal topic for another day, but really quickly. 50 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: Your body is so smart. It has this organ that 51 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: when you are doing something like a max bench press, 52 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: and the body basically says this organ senses that it's 53 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: too much weight, it relaxes the muscles and the weight drops. 54 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 1: You fail. It's a protective mechanism that can be overridden 55 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,360 Speaker 1: with things like performance enhancing drugs. But that's how smart 56 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: the body is. But it doesn't mean you can't screw 57 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: up and lift weights that are too heavy with improper form. 58 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:41,040 Speaker 1: And the problem is that when you lift heavy weights 59 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:48,360 Speaker 1: and you have technical failure, the room for error is 60 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: so little. The heavier the weight, the more likely you're 61 00:04:54,040 --> 00:05:00,760 Speaker 1: going to injure yourself with bad form, and it's not 62 00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: always right away, depending on the exercise you're doing and 63 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,039 Speaker 1: the type of technical failure. And this is why I 64 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: often talk about the lower back and the analogy with 65 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: a credit card. You bend it, you bend it, you 66 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: bend it, you bend it bad form and maybe using 67 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:24,040 Speaker 1: weight you shouldn't. Quite often it doesn't fail right away, 68 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,160 Speaker 1: and you generally don't hurt it during the exercise session itself. 69 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:32,480 Speaker 1: It takes hundreds and hundreds of bad repetitions before one 70 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,480 Speaker 1: day you bend over to tie your shoes and your 71 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: back goes out. And so we want to stop exercising, 72 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:46,600 Speaker 1: stop and exercise before that first repetition. That is improper. 73 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,240 Speaker 1: And that's why I did the episode on why I 74 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: don't do am wrap. Now I understand when and where 75 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,840 Speaker 1: and why some people will do it. I get it. 76 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:02,760 Speaker 1: Not for me, especially not if fifty two as many 77 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: reps as possible, says to me, if I'm doing push ups, 78 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: let me activate as few muscle fibers as possible so 79 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: I can do the most repetitions. It's not let me 80 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:12,680 Speaker 1: engage the most so I get the most out of 81 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:15,720 Speaker 1: each repetition. Let me engage the least so I can 82 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: do the most repetitions time and a place. If I'm 83 00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 1: doing a contest, I don't do contest for that reason 84 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:25,200 Speaker 1: I don't need to. Doesn't play into my goals. But 85 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:30,440 Speaker 1: there is muscular failure, there is technical failure, and as 86 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 1: I said, really important point is that technical failure is 87 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:41,680 Speaker 1: where we want to stop when your form is compromised 88 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:47,200 Speaker 1: and ideally before now this is hard. This is why 89 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:49,880 Speaker 1: the more you lift weights, the more you know your body, 90 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:52,480 Speaker 1: the more you know exactly what that movement is supposed 91 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:56,240 Speaker 1: to be. Like, ideally you do what you stop before 92 00:06:56,279 --> 00:07:00,360 Speaker 1: that bad repetition. And let me fin us up with 93 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:02,280 Speaker 1: this because I'm going to keep it a quick fit tip. 94 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:05,600 Speaker 1: Just did the episode on why I like a six 95 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 1: second rep, and that ties into why I like using 96 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: moderate weights slower. This issue of technical versus muscular is 97 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:22,440 Speaker 1: greatly diminished, not eliminated, greatly diminished. I'm doing a repetition slowly, 98 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden I go, I can't do it. 99 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: I'm done. The faster I go, the heavier I go, 100 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 1: the more ballistic, the more explosive, the greater the likelihood 101 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:41,040 Speaker 1: of injury, of technical failure and muscular failure happening in 102 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:45,840 Speaker 1: a way we don't want, say one final time sports 103 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:49,640 Speaker 1: specific you know you're training your high level. That's different, 104 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 1: but it still doesn't matter. You don't want to get injured, 105 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 1: do you. You just have to be that much smarter, 106 00:07:55,600 --> 00:08:00,160 Speaker 1: that much more knowledgeable about what you're doing. For the 107 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: vast majority people who are listening to the show, we 108 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:07,920 Speaker 1: stop at technical failure when our form starts to go, 109 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: starts to go, not as gone, not that final rep which, 110 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:13,040 Speaker 1: oh my gosh, did I just throw out my back 111 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:18,280 Speaker 1: or tear something in my shoulder? And I'll leave you 112 00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: with this. Actually just ran into a friend we used 113 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: to lift super heavy when I owned the gym. He 114 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:26,080 Speaker 1: was a member friend from high school having his shoulder 115 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: done and he was in serious pain. I haven't seen 116 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: him in years, and he said, you know, I really 117 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:35,240 Speaker 1: wish I hadn't lifted as heavy as I did back 118 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:37,920 Speaker 1: in the day. And I remember watching him lift and 119 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 1: seeing what he was doing, and it wasn't for a 120 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 1: sport later in life, and I get it. I understand 121 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:45,800 Speaker 1: why people want to lift heavy. I did it back 122 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: in the day when I was bodybuilding and doing things 123 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:51,280 Speaker 1: like that, but you have to be smart about it. 124 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: And I said to him, it's kind of like looking 125 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: back at an old picture and saying, Wow, that haircut 126 00:08:56,120 --> 00:09:00,680 Speaker 1: was bad. Yeah, hindsight is. But I don't che get hurt. 127 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: I want you to be smart about your workouts. This 128 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: is our one body, people, I want to take as 129 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:08,560 Speaker 1: good care of it as we can. I want to compete. 130 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:11,320 Speaker 1: I want to push ourselves. Yeah, I do, you know 131 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:13,320 Speaker 1: these iron Man's and ultras and stuff like that. But 132 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:15,640 Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I want to be 133 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: injury free. I don't care about any of the other stuff. 134 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 1: I don't want to be in pain because it doesn't 135 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: matter how good we look, or what we weigh or 136 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:26,280 Speaker 1: how fast we can go if we're in pain. So 137 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: technical failure before muscular failure for the vast majority of us. 138 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 1: All right, and that's it. I kept it under ten minutes. 139 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:37,679 Speaker 1: Look at that. Thank you for listening. I'm Tom Holland. 140 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:40,079 Speaker 1: If you want to reach out, love to hear from 141 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,800 Speaker 1: your questions comments. Tom h Fit is Instagram and Twitter 142 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:45,440 Speaker 1: Tom h Fit. You go to Fitness Disrupted dot com 143 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:49,360 Speaker 1: as well email me through the site. Please follow the 144 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: show if you can, where you listen, comment, rate all 145 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:56,120 Speaker 1: of those fun things that are super helpful, and thank 146 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:58,120 Speaker 1: you for doing that. My most recent book is The 147 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:00,200 Speaker 1: Micro Workout Plan. Okay, I have a goal for those 148 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:02,240 Speaker 1: of you have read it to throw it out there again. 149 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:05,160 Speaker 1: I'm up to like seventies some odd reviews, super helpful. 150 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:08,200 Speaker 1: Working on my next book. You've read it and you 151 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 1: enjoy it, and you have two seconds to review it 152 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:13,520 Speaker 1: greatly appreciate it on Amazon. So thank you to all 153 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: of those who have done that already. I appreciate it 154 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: and if you don't have it, it's really helpful. The 155 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:22,760 Speaker 1: Micro Workout Plan. My goal is to bring you the greatest, best, 156 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: most recent, most applicable information so you can live your 157 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:35,199 Speaker 1: best life, no biases other than helping you do just that. 158 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:41,959 Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland Exercise physiologists, certified sports nutritionists, Believe 159 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:49,880 Speaker 1: in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. 160 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I 161 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 162 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:57,520 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.