How hard should you push in your workouts?
During resistance training workouts, pay attention to how hard your muscles are working in every set of each exercise. This can also help you to judge whether or not you might need to use more or less resistance (i.e. weight).
Your goal should be to approach muscle failure--that's the feeling you get when your muscles are tired and about to give out.
Approaching muscle failure might feel like a "burning" sensation in the muscles, or you might find your reps are slowing down, and it's harder to keep good technique.
As a general rule of thumb, it's a good idea to stop once either:
Your reps are significantly slower, or
You find that you're not able to keep proper technique in the exercise
One way to monitor the intensity of your training is to use the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. At the end of every set of an exercise, ask yourself “How hard am I working on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being “no effort” and 10 being “maximum effort”).
When you’re first learning a new exercise, I recommend practicing the movement for 1 or 2 sets at an RPE level 4 or 5. This means that you’re putting in effort but not tiring yourself out in any way.
Once you get familiar with the movement, then you can begin to gradually challenge yourself by adding more resistance (using more weight or a heavier band). Keep it light initially, starting with a low weight/resistance level and try 1 or 2 sets. Adjust the weight or resistance until you’re working at an RPE level 6 or 7–meaning you’re starting to feel tired in the last few repetitions or you may feel the target muscles beginning to burn.
As you get more comfortable with the technique of the exercise, you can begin to challenge yourself at an RPE level 8 or 9. This means using a weight and doing a number of repetitions that fatigues the muscles and really has them burning by the last repetition, until you feel like you could only do 1 or 2 more reps before your muscles give out.
As you add on more weight to challenge yourself, remember to always prioritize doing your exercises with good technique while keeping your body in alignment. Never sacrifice good form to add more weight or squeeze out another rep. This can lead to injury or muscle strain 😬
