Are you working hard enough in your strength workouts?
Something I've been talking a lot lately - to both my clients and my online community as well as any friends who strength train - is about whether we are actually working hard enough in our workouts.
And I want you to be honest to yourself too - are you really challenging yourself when you lift weights? Or are you lifting weights that feel comfortable and breezing through your reps without much effort?
If you’re in that comfort zone, you’ll still see some benefits - of course regular exercise is always going to be a beneficial thing! However, you will notice your progress slow down, and eventually, you’ll just be maintaining rather than building strength.
What I want to make super clear in this email today is that the key to real progress = lifting weights that genuinely push you beyond what feels easy.
Think about it - when was the last time you finished a set feeling like you truly had to work for those last few reps? Strength training should feel like a challenge, especially towards the end of each set. If every rep feels easy (or even only mildly challenging), it’s a sign that you’re ready to increase the weight or adjust your approach.
This is exactly what I help my clients with - teaching them how to train with the right intensity, set clear goals, and understand how many ‘reps in reserve’ they should have by the end of a set to ensure they’re always making progress. Because let’s be real, just showing up isn’t enough if you’re not pushing yourself in the right way.
That said, this doesn’t mean you need to be pushing at max effort every single week. A well-structured strength programme that delivers results will challenge you over time while also allowing for proper recovery. It should teach you how to adjust intensity when you’re not feeling 100% and scale things back when life gets in the way - because consistency matters just as much as effort.
On reading this, I want you to take a moment to reflect on your own training:
➡️ Are you following a structured, progressive programme that challenges you over time?
➡️ Are you tracking your weights each week and making a conscious effort to increase them when possible?
➡️ Do you feel like you’re pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, or are you just going through the motions?
If you’re not sure, now is the perfect time to reassess your training and make some changes. A clear plan, the right intensity, and progressive overload are game-changers when it comes to strength and muscle growth.
I always say to my clients (and myself!), if you're making the effort to do a workout, you might as well get as much bang-for-your buck as possible during that workout. If you're just going through the motions, you're going to feel like you're making lots of effort for very little in return. If you push yourself by lifting weights which challenge you, then you're going to see much better results - which is what we all want, right?
I hope this helps give you some clarity when it comes to your strength training and whether you're seeing the results you think you deserve to. If you're not, it is definitely worth looking at your program (or lack there-of!) and making some changes.
If you ever need some advice about where to start with taking your training to the next level, I'm always here to chat - never hesitate to pop me a DM, I'll always get back to you!
Sian x