If you spend any time in the gym or in bodybuilding forums, you have probably come across a number of terms which were initially unfamiliar to you. Often people will throw around these terms casually without really knowing what they mean. I thought it would be a good idea to define some of these terms for you to avoid confusion. One important term I would like to discuss now is training to failure.

What exactly is training to failure? If you've heard this term but weren't sure exactly what it meant, don't be embarrassed. There are probably a lot of other new trainees who are confused by this, especially since many tend to use these bodybuilding terms in different ways with different meanings. In its most basic sense, training to failure means lifting weights until you cannot physically lift anymore. Many muscle building gurus will tell you that this is an essential component of bodybuilding, and they may even go as far as to tell you that you cannot consistently build muscle without training to failure.

Expert fitness trainer Vincent Delmonte tells us that training to momentary failure is important, but training to absolute failure is dangerous (or at least unnecessary). Training to momentary failure means that you do a certain number of reps unto you cannot lift anymore with that particular muscle, and then you move on to another muscle after a certain amount of rest. Absolute failure means that you train until your entire body is completely wiped out from exhaustion. This kind of training is usually considered over training and can put a heavy strain on your nervous system and immune system, not to mention your muscles themselves. Because your nervous and immune systems take longer than your muscles to recover, you need to be very careful to avoid over training in the gym. You'll probably find yourself overdoing it from time to time, but be careful not to make this a habit.