"What is a Good Workout?": Your Effort & Choosing the Right Weight

Kory Billings
Aug 7, 2025
2 min read

Have you ever wondered, “Am I lifting enough?” or “Is this too much?” The truth lies in your effort, honesty, and knowing when to challenge yourself without crossing the line, not the amount of weight you move.

How to Be Honest With Your Effort

When first starting out, you must first ask yourself "Are you truly giving it your all—or just going through the motions?" While you'll always benefit from doing something, the real progress that you're looking for starts when you get real and honest with yourself about your effort level, and intent, not just your attendance.

The Sweet Spot: “Too Much" vs. "Not Enough"

Lifting too light won’t trigger satisfying results—but going too heavy too soon can lead to sloppy form habits or injury. The sweet spot? The last 2–3 reps should feel challenging but doable with good form. There is no harm if you have to stop short of your rep goal because your form starts to become compromised or increases your risk for injury. That just creates the perfect goal for you to work towards.

Similarly, if you could crank out an extra 3+ more reps with perfect form, it’s probably time to bump the weight. I know you are comfortable to stay at this level because it's easier and the heavier DBs are scary. If you respect the process and push yourself with real effort, you'll see that the goals you're looking for have been just outside this comfort zone the entire time.

Confidence Comes from Challenge

With all of this being said, it is important that you not be afraid to test yourself once in a while! Challenging yourself more than usual (with supervision or smart scaling) can really boost your confidence and triggers the real progression towards your goals. It's also a great indicator to show you how far you’ve come. If you listen to your body, and not your ego, you'll be just fine.

What You Need to Know

It’s a Moving Target
- Some days you’ll feel strong. Others, not so much. Effort doesn’t mean hitting personal bests every workout—it means showing up and challenging yourself in whatever way your body can give for that day.
Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE)
- RPE is a scale from 1–10 that measures how hard you're working. Most strength training should land around 7–8/10 for results. An easy indicator of this would be your inability to speak in steady sentences due to labored breathing. Don't just measure how sweaty you are!
Progressive Overload
- The whole entire concept of strength training and getting stronger revolves around this concept. To encourage the proper growth and strength stimulus in your muscles, you must gradually and consistently increase the weight, reps, or difficulty over time.