[tongzilla]

It is not worthwhile to work to failure very often. "Maxing out" should only occur once in a great while due to the taxing it gives your central nervous system. Working near your maxes at every workout will wear you out in very little time and your gains will stall.

I personally subscribe to a "periodization" program of training where during a given week there's a heavy (Mon), light (Wed), and medium (Fri) day. It's more of a powerlifting strength-training type of workout and it'll wear you out fast if you're going full-bore during every workout. Mondays, for instance, I'm working very close to my maxes at the final sets of an exercise (let's say squats for example). Wednesdays are lighter, less overall volume, and working at maybe 70% of my max on squats. Friday I'm doing a bit more work at lighter weights then a couple sets at a near-max weight, then back down to a lighter weight.

The idea here is that fatigue is an 'accumulated' thing. 'Fitness' lasts longer than 'fatigue', but for that fitness to be apparent you can't be excessively fatigued. If you work at near-max weights during every workout, you will run yourself into the ground (I've made this mistake myself) and your fatigue doesn't have a chance to rebound. If you periodize, those light days and weekends off give your body some time to recover and be ready for a hard Monday workout. Then it eases through a bit (but there's still a good training load on Wed) until Friday where you're pushed hard again. Obviously different things work for different people (as much in weight training as in G.O.L.F.) so definitely experiment but don't be afraid to change programs if the results are not what you desire. And if you want big results...eat big!

Listen up guys, Matt knows his stuff. This is Dual Factor Theory explained. I got a feeling a large number of people on this forum won't be able to train like us 'young guns'...well, not to begin with anyway.
Core stability is important, but no amount of Swiss Ball and Bosu Ball work will give you the strength gains you get from a solid free weight training program. I’m of the opinion that you can't have a weak core (or Traverse Abdominals or whatever you like to call it) and still squat 300lb or power clean 200lb with proper technique. Those guys on the long drive tour are undoubtedly very strong species. Of course, all this isn't mandatory if you just want to have a knock about and stay injury free.