27/10/2026
Your “failure” set probably isn’t failure.
Everyone is talking about “2 sets, 6 reps to failure”, don’t get me wrong, I use it my self and it WORKS. But only if you actually hit failure.
Most new lifters simply don’t.
A study tested this. Gym members guessed how many reps they could do before failure. Then they did the set.
Lifters with 1.5 to 6 months of training guessed about 15 reps on leg press.
They actually did about 22.
That’s 7 reps left in the tank. On a set they thought was all out.
So if you’re new and doing 2 “failure” sets, you’re really doing 2 easy sets.
What to do instead:
→ Do 3 good sets
→ Aim for about 12 reps
→ Stop with 1 to 2 reps left
→ Every few weeks, take your last set or two to real failure (only once you know your form is good) so you learn what it feels like
Learn what hard feels like first. Then cut the sets and the reps.
Even experienced lifters were off by 1 to 2 reps. Nobody’s perfect at this. Beginners are just way off to the point where it really hinders the effectiveness of their training.
Follow me for more real info, not just random preaching which everyone seems to be doing nowadays.
Source: Steele et al. (2017), PeerJ, PMID: 29204323
Note: I know this study does not directly measure if beginners know how to reach complete failure without guessing reps. But that is very difficult to measure, from my experience beginners stop before failure as they just don’t know how it feels / how to reach it.
Just because it feels really hard to you, does not mean you have reached failure.
