How to the effect that occurs in your body when you train with weights to failure

There are many people who, when they train in the gym, do each series or a large part of them until they reach failure, that is, until they can't take it anymore. It is true that in some movements going to failure can occasionally make sense like biceps curls, dumbbell rows, etc. But when we reach failure in movements such as deadlifts, squats, or other exercises that require a lot of muscle mass, it can cause side effects such as the following. First, we must mention that the central nervous system is in charge of moving our muscles. What the brain does is launch electrical impulses so that there is a contraction and elongation of the muscle fibers. This means that the higher the intensity of the training, the greater the stress on our nervous system, which is why many of the side effects have to do with it. Less rest capacity When we do physical exercise, it is normal for us to rest much better because we are tired and resting is much easier. Evolutionarily, our body needs to rest. Despite this, generating great fatigue and stress to our nervous system is a different story than simply being tired. Remember that sleeping is not the same as resting. You can perfectly sleep seven or eight hours and not have rested at all. There are studies that observe that excessive muscle activity (which is muscle failure) generates disorders in the sleep phases, especially the REM phase. Therefore, if you have trouble resting, and you always go to lose, try reducing the intensity of multijoint exercises to rest better. Lower cognitive ability Cognition can be defined as the ability of a living being to process information from interactive cues and experiences. All this information is also processed by electrical signals from our brains. Therefore, a stressed and tired brain will also be a brain that is not as cognitively efficient, so our ability to solve problems at work, in studies, and in our lives, in general, will be diminished. Loss of performance This is another of the consequences for which, normally, people tend to reduce the intensity of their training. Generally, people go to the gym to improve their sports performance, and it is also a pleasure to be able to gain weight, increase repetitions or series with an X number of kilos, etc. But if you realize that training going to muscle failure is not only that you don't progress, but that you are able to perform less and less, it doesn't make sense to train like that. Therefore, training by keeping repetitions in the chamber (between one and three depending on the movement) is the safest. Greater chance of injury When we talk about injury, it is not only at the muscular level, but also at the joint, tendon, etc. level. All tissues undergo stress when they train, and if we give them enough rest and nutrients, they can become stronger and more resistant to external loads (which is why we progress more and more). But there comes a time when our tissues (especially the less irrigated ones such as tendons) cannot overcome the stress we have applied if we always train to failure. For this reason, the chances of having an injury are greater and, in addition, there will be less capacity for recovery. Greater chance of getting sick When we apply chronic stress to our body (it does not necessarily have to be due to anxiety), our ability to recover decreases, and not only at a muscular level, but systemically, so that in the face of any external agent that can make us sick, not only it will increase the chances of it, but our healing capacity will be less. How much intensity to apply to training This is quite a difficult question to explain since it will depend on the level, the goal of the person, etc. But as a general rule, in exercises with a greater number of muscles involved and where more weight is lifted, two or three repetitions should be left in the chamber and as we lower the difficulty of the exercise (such as a biceps curl), leave one or none in the chamber—, which does not mean going to fail. Even so, it is also possible to reduce the chamber repetitions of multijoint exercises, reaching one, for example. But there have to be other days when the replays in the chamber are higher. The best thing in these cases is to hire a personal trainer to guide you and help you achieve your goals by individualizing each case.