10/09/2026
Let’s keep things simple. To see muscle growth (that thing you need to look ‘toned’ ‘sculpted’… whatever word you want to use), you need to be working hard.
Sooo lemme help you! An easy way to make sure you’re working hard enough is to consider ‘how many more reps could I do with this weight?’
If you could do another 5 or 10, I’d say up the weight. We want that number to reduce to 1, 2, 3 at most.
Some will say to go to absolute failure every set, every exercise. I’d say that’s preference, it’s not necessarily needed for every single exercise in your session, that’s a lot of mental and physical energy.
So, close to failure is exactly this - 1-2 reps in reserve.
There’s not one definitive answer to what you ‘should’ do, because it does depend on your goal, how many exercises you’re doing in a session, how many sessions per week… I could go on!
And how many reps you should do? Again, you could choose to apply this rule to 30 reps, buttttt that seems silly unless you want to be in the gym for 5 hours.
Use this as a general guide if you’re not sure, it’s a great starting point!!
And if you have absolutely no idea about what your programme should look like, girlyyyy that’s all part of 1:1 coaching - creating a programme that works for you, plus telling you exactly how to execute it, and giving you the knowledge to take with you for life 💪
