So this is just a quick question, when you workout obviously you want to be at or close to muscle failure at the end of your 3rd set (or whatever your final set is), if you're really determined to hit failure with weights you'll use lighter weights to go past failure and with Calisthenics you'll do easier progressions until you fall on your face/off the bar/whatever.

My question is this: do you need to feel that burn every time to garauntee you'll be stronger next time? I've plateaued on pullups for like 2 fucking years because I don't know how to get better at them with 3x4-8. I'm always stuck at between 6-10 reps max, my weight hasn't even really affected that. The only thing that did was my month doing Convict Conditioning which brought me from 7 or 8 pullups down to 5 (I don't do it anymore don't worry.)

Basically at the end of my 3rd set I'll be too tired to get another rep but I'm a far fucking way off my muscles being totally shot. So, I'll do a few good, slow negatives. I still grow very slowly.

In fact the only way I've been able to almost garauntee growth is to do several max sets throughout the day every other day, my other workouts are 3x4-8 and progress well enough, but pullups have always sucked for me. So, how far do you actually have to go? Is exhaustion fine, or do you need to hit failure to consistently grow? I'm tired of being in this rut.