Stupid Question But Smart Weightlifting, Complements of the Stimulus-to-Fatigue Ratio

By Kevin Kolodziejski 

My teachers used to say there’s no such thing as a stupid question. The one I ask today, however, proves them wrong.

Are you interested in learning about something that can improve your well-being and optimize your daily functioning?

It’s a stupid question in part because the last article you read here already assumed your answer’s “Yes.” That article also explained wu-wei (woo-way), a part of Taoist philosophy that can improve well-being, optimize daily functioning, and enhance your time and performance on the bicycle. To further insure you experience all three, you’ll next read about a study that helps dispel an inaccurate notion about weightlifting. It’s a notion that needs to be dispelled because it keeps too many people, whether they cycle or not, from lifting weights.

And not to lift weights is just plain stupid.

It’s Just Plain Stupid Not to Lift Weights

You may find my use of the ’S’ word abrasive or maybe even offensive, so let me digress and offer Dr. Peter Attia’s take on the matter. To begin “The Peter Attia Drive” podcast that first aired on June 24, 2024, Attia says, “I don’t think there’s anybody out there who shouldn’t be lifting weights . . . unless you’re decidedly saying, ‘I don’t want to live the longest, healthiest life I can.’” To further explain my selection of the ’S’ word, I submit what Dr. Andrew Huberman offers on the “Huberman Lab Podcast” from May 31, 2021 — right after he says, “And I can’t emphasize this enough.” That the “whole reason” you have a brain is to move, that moving better naturally occurs when your muscles are stronger, and making your muscles stronger naturally occurs when you lift weights. Provided you do so in the right way.

Aye, there’s the rub.  What way is the right way?

According to a few scientific studies, it seems to be a bit akin to wu-wei. Consider, for example, the one performed by researchers led by Natalia Santanielo at Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil and published in the December 2020 issue of Biology of Sport. In it, the research team had 14 experienced lifters who had already been performing two common leg exercises, the leg press and the knee extension, continue to do so twice a week for 10 weeks, but added an ingenious twist.

They would now do both exercises one-legged and train each leg differently.

Weightlifting to ‘Non-Failure’

One leg picked at random was trained to muscular failure and the other to a point just shy of that, what the paper calls “non-failure.” To insure non-failure occurred, the researchers “familiarized [participants] with the criteria for muscular failure” and instructed them to stop the non-failure sets “according to each’s own perception of fatigue, before reaching that known point of muscular failure.” At the study’s conclusion, both legs were measured and compared to measurements taken prior to it.

On average, the size of the legs taken to muscular failure increased 13.5 percent, an impressive increase considering these lifters were not newbies. Yet the average increase in the size of the legs taken to a point that stopped just shy of failure was even greater, a jump of 18.1 percent. That’s an additional 34 percent increase over the legs taken to failure.

Moreover, the average number of reps the participants needed to perform when stopping shy of failure on both lifts was 11, one fewer than the number they needed to reach failure. This is just another indicator that something similar to wu-wei may be the best weightlifting way. Not to mention, as Dr. Mike Israetel does in a 2020 video for Juggernaut Training, why it’s smart to keep “reps in reserve.”

Why It’s Smart to Keep Reps in Reserve

To help explain why this is true, Israetel — who holds a PhD in Sport Physiology and has been competitive bodybuilder and professional Brazilian Jiu Jitsu grappler — coined the term stimulus-to-fatigue ratio. While acknowledging that taking your muscles to the point of failure during weightlifting will indeed make you stronger and larger (and, contrary to the Santanielo study, the best way to do so), he warns that it’s also “extremely fatiguing” to all sorts of bodily systems. So much so that it often causes pain in your joints, makes you more susceptible to injury, and creates the sort of mental drain that can kill your desire to lift weights.

To reduce the odds of all that, Israetel says to simply stop most of your sets two to four repetitions short of muscular failure. That effort will still provoke nearly the same amount of muscle stimulus, but with far less fatigue.

So why not experiment and keep a few reps in reserve during your next few weightlifting workouts? Not to do so would be . . . well, you know the word.

A Consideration for All But Hardcore Lifters

To eliminate the increased risk of injury that comes with doing so, you may want to skip going to absolute failure in order to establish a baseline for your reps-in-reserve experiment. But if you determine the number of reps needed by going purely by feel, bear in mind there’s a documented tendency for lifters unfamiliar with “absolute failure” to underestimate it. To account for this, take your sets to the point where you feel you could only do two more reps instead of three or four.

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Kevin Kolodziejski began his writing career in earnest in 1989. Since then he’s written a weekly health and fitness column and his articles have appeared in magazines such as “MuscleMag,” “Ironman,” “Vegetarian Times,” and “Bicycle Guide.” He has Bachelor and Masters degrees in English from DeSales and Kutztown Universities.

A competitive cyclist for more than 30 years, Kevin won two Pennsylvania State Time Trial championships in his 30’s, the aptly named Pain Mountain Time Trial 4 out of 5 times in his 40s, two more state TT’s in his 50’s, and the season-long Pennsylvania 40+ BAR championship at 43.