Tired ≠ Trained: How to Actually Get More Out of Your Workouts
Many people are working harder than they think—but not in the ways that matter.
Others think they’re pushing... but they’re really just getting tired.
⚠️ Fatigue is not the same as a productive training stimulus.
One leaves you sweaty and exhausted. The other actually makes you better (with some sweat and exhaustion sometimes too—lol).
If you’ve been grinding through long sessions, punishing workouts, or random programs without much payoff—this is for you.
The 4 Variables That Drive Progress
Your training results come down to:
Intensity – How hard you’re actually working
Volume & Frequency – How much and how often (2 separate levers, but closely linked)
Specificity – What your training is really targeting
How you apply these determines whether your workouts move you forward, keep you stagnating—or just wear you down.
Tired ≠ Trained
It’s easy to chase exhaustion.
Exhaustion feels like effort. And effort feels like we “did something.” That dopamine hit after a hard session? It’s real. 💥
But real performance gains—muscle, strength, speed, mobility—require more precision.
👉 Not just working harder.
👉 Working harder on the right things, at the right time, in the right way.
Where Most People Go Wrong
Lifting with sloppy form just to go heavier, way too often
Ending sets too early to stimulate growth
Going to failure every time… then crashing
Running too fast on easy days, too slow on fast days—or just not understanding endurance, pacing, and intensity at all
The result?
Frustration. Burnout. Plateaus. Soreness. And eventually... quitting.
Intensity: How Hard Is Hard Enough?
Intensity is one of the most misunderstood variables in training.
🔹 For Muscle Growth:
Aim to get within 1–3 reps of failure (RPE 7–9 or 1–3 RIR)
Go to true failure occasionally, if you like the suffering 😈
If you could hit 12 reps but stop at 7 because it felt hard—you just started getting tired, and probably left gains on the table
🔹 For Strength:
Avoid maxing out too often—max singles and testing are the exception, not the norm
Focus on:
RPE 6–8
Submaximal loads that MOVE
Clean reps
Sensible progression over time
Your best strength work should look crisp—not like you’re battling a demon on every rep.
💡 In our strength-focused lifts, we often use both approaches—progressing clean working sets and using a final back-off set closer to failure. This helps define real limits and adds deposits to the size-gains bank account.
👉 Occasionally Test Your Limits—Safely:
This matters.
Use machines, unilateral work, or a spotter when pushing
Helps you build awareness around effort, intensity, and failure
Teaches you where your actual limits are—not where you think they are
For beginners: This is even more important.
Newer lifters get fast gains even while leaving some in the tank—but they’ll still benefit from pushing hard enough. Learning to find your limit early helps develop training awareness, effort regulation, and confidence.
Beginners also have a harder time overdoing it, which can be a gift. The more advanced you get, the more intentional your training has to be.
Volume & Frequency: The Plateau Fix Most People Miss
If you’re not making progress, you may need to:
Increase volume (more meaningful sets), or
Decrease volume (you’re not recovering), or
Switch the script entirely (hello, new program?)
Most people guess wrong here.
📉 Sometimes less is exactly what your body needs.
📈 Sometimes you need more—but done smarter, not just more junk reps or busy work.
This is where programming with progression matters:
Periodized blocks
Proper rest
Logical progressions
✅ And again, this is where having a coach makes a huge difference—especially if you're unsure what lever to pull.
Specificity: Train for What You Actually Want
Your body adapts to what it’s exposed to—consistently.
Train with intention:
Want strength? Focus on heavy, clean reps and explosive intent
Want muscle? Push close to failure with control and consistency
Want speed? Sprint—don’t just move “pretty fast” and call it a day
Want mobility? Build strength at end ranges—not just stretch longer
Want to feel athletic? Train with movement variety—patterns, planes, and speeds—not just machines
🌀 If your training feels random, your results (if any) will too.
Overreaching vs Overtraining
There’s a difference:
Overreaching = Intentional overload that temporarily reduces performance but leads to a rebound in gains
Overtraining = Chronic stress that kills your progress, energy, sleep, and motivation
🔍 Most people who think they’re overtrained are actually:
Under-recovered
Under-fueled
Mismanaging intensity or volume
That said, strategic overreaching can be useful for advanced trainees—when paired with recovery and programmed intentionally.
We wrote more about this recently in a post on training dose.
Progress Isn’t Linear—Zoom Out
Your strength, energy, and output will fluctuate. Guaranteed.
Bad sleep?
High stress?
Nutrition off?
Busy or emotionally draining week?
That workout might not go great. And that’s normal.
📆 Measure progress in weeks and months, not day to day.
Training maturity means you don’t spiral after one bad session—you zoom out and stay consistent.
Quick Wins to Get More Out of Your Training
✅ Take most hypertrophy sets to 1–3 reps from failure
✅ Occasionally train to failure—on machines or with a spotter
✅ Track your weights and reps—don’t just guess
✅ Run easy days easy, fast days fast
✅ Add power work (jumps, throws, Olympic lifts) to sharpen your nervous system and build athleticism
✅ Deload when necessary, but more often just modulate volume/intensity across training blocks
✅ Prioritize sleep and nourishment—non-negotiables for recovery and gains
✅ If you’ve been doing too much—try pulling back. If you’ve been cruising—maybe it’s time to push.
This Is Where Coaching Matters
You can figure this out on your own.
But it often takes years—and a lot of trial and error.
As coaches, our job isn’t to “just push you harder.”
It’s to help you direct effort toward the right things, at the right time, in the right amount—so your training actually pays off.
Whether you're just getting started or you’ve been training for years, applying intensity, volume, and specificity properly is the key to unlocking consistent, meaningful progress.
Final Thought
You don’t need to train more.
You need to train smarter.
Your effort deserves a return.
📣 Quick Announcements:
🥳 Holiday + 5 Year Anniversary Workout and Party— MARK YOUR CALENDAR - December 6th– 10a-1p
Partner style workout with prizes (bring a friend or family member to get sweaty with)—Invite RSVP email coming separately
Bring your favorite brunch/lunch dish to share (sign-ups at gym or email your reply)
Hang out and have fun!
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💬 Got questions? Reply here or ask your coach next time you're in