The Quick Cut:

• When it comes to working out, your goal is to build lean muscle.

• Having more muscle speeds up your metabolism.

• This allows you to burn more fat, even while you’re sleeping.

• To build muscle, you have to take your sets to 'failure'.

• Training to failure also creates an “after burn affect,” torching calories long after your workout is over.

• In order to train to failure, find a weight challenging enough that makes the last two reps of each set feel almost impossible.

The Long Slice:

I’m going to mention an important weight loss strategy that many people are not aware of or do not take advantage of.

When it comes to maximizing the results of your exercise in helping you lose weight, you want to put your focus on training for strength and gaining muscle.

That's because adding more muscle on your frame boosts your metabolism.

The best way to gain muscle is to do resistance training to “failure.” What this means is you want to take your sets to the point where you can no longer do any more repetitions (without breaking your form/cheating).

In fact, the last two repetitions should feel nearly impossible. 

This type of training helps you add lean muscle, which raises your resting metabolic rate. This can result in about 100 calories burned per day for every 10LB of muscle you add to your frame.

It also creates an “after burn effect” that keeps your metabolism high for many hours after the workout is over.

This affect, called Excessive Post-Workout Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) can burn around 200-300 additional calories beyond what you already burn in your workout, and is the most powerful way of boosting your metabolism.

Note: These types of amazing benefits don’t come easy. They have to be earned. You are going to have to concentrate and really focus to reach failure on any given exercise. Yes, you will have to push yourself beyond your comfort zone, warrior! 

As a (somewhat extreme) example of taking a set to failure, here’s me doing an intense set of leg presses to failure in the gym.

Again, you don’t need to go quite this hard (unless you want to, of course!).

You’re also going to have to warm up properly, and find the right amount of weight that you can do with strict form, for the prescribed number of reps.

This will take some experimentation, which is why it’s important to track the weight, reps, and sets you do each time. This way, you can always have a record of what the right weight is for you to reach failure on a particular exercise. (I keep a note in my phone to track my workout data).

To recap, always keep this in mind: 

1. For each exercise, select the right amount of weight that will make the last two reps feel almost impossible. 
   

2. Then, focus with drive and intensity to push through the fire and take that set to failure.

This will help you build muscle, increase strength, boost you metabolism and burn fat, not to mention give you mental fortitude!

In closing, if you don’t want to fail at fat loss, make sure you go to failure!