Effort is what matters

In my last WOW post I referenced a study summarized on Clarence Bass' site that found that training with ligher weights to failure might be more effective to build muscle than training with heavier weights to failure.  I think there is more evidence that training to failure is the critical factor whether with relatively lighter or heavier weights.  Here is a link to another post from C. Bass on this point:

http://cbass.com/Effortbasedtraining.htm

In my own training I have recently moved from a 2 minute target to a 3 minute target which means that I work with relatively lighter weights than before.  My intuition about this is that I fatigue and therefore stimulate my muscles more profoundly if I fail at a ligher rather than a heavier weight.  I personally feel much more fatigues after a workout using the 3 minute targets.

You can take this too far of course.  I think moving the target out to say 5 minutes would risk getting into the range where the first fibers to fire and exhaust would recover and reengage in sufficient numbers so that the harder to trigger fibers would never kick in.