I get this question from athletes a lot. If you use our programming, then you know we use something called the RPE scale. RPE stands for "Rate of perceived exertion" and is a 0-10 scale with 10 being max effort / maxing out weight. We keep our workouts the same for 4 weeks at a time. As a general rule of thumb, week 1 of a new lift should be performed at RPE 6-7/10, week 2, 7-8/10, week 3, 8-9/10, and week 4, 9-9.5/10. Many new athletes struggle to know what a "6/10" should feel like on the RPE scale. To help, we use something called the RIR scale (Reps In Reserve) and it is directly proportional to the RPE scale. If you do a new exercises with an RPE of 6/10, then your RIR (amount of reps you left in the tank) should be 4. 6+4=10. The number should always add up to 10. If you do an exercise with an RPE of 10/10 that means you went to failure and you have no reps left in the tank. As you gain more experience, test yourself by going to failure on a lift you have been practicing for at least 6-8 weeks to see how many reps you actually had left in the tank. What further questions do you have about this?