It is not just how much effort and intensity you have training - but how to actually get there.
Two people doing the same training program can get vastly different results - why?
Because one grabs their usual dumbbells and does 3 sets of 10, with the same weight every set. They check the box, move on.
But they weren't close to failure on any of them.
The other person walks in with a plan, and they reach a genuine 9/10 or 10/10 effort on several sets for the day. And their strength and muscle keep compounding.
So here are a few things to try to develop the skill of effort (safely).
Pick one exercise from next weeks training and actually go to failure.
Not the "that felt hard" type of failure - the real failure. Where the weight literally won't move anymore.
Start somewhere safe: a-risk free movement ideally. That set becomes your reference point; from now on, every other set gets compared to it.
If you're newer to strength training, gradually expand the exercises where you feel comfortable hitting failure as your motor control and sense of safety improves. You don't want to do this with a Back Squat on Day 1. Pick a safe, stable exercise to develop the feel and expand from there.
Stop matching last week. Beat it.
Maybe it's one more rep, or maybe it's adding 1 or more kgs. If you hit the 12.5's for 10 reps last week, the goal this week isn't 12.5's for 10 again - it's 15's for 8, or 12.5's for 11. Which means you actually have to know what you did last time, so log it in your records. You can't beat yourself if you have no idea what you even did. Don't try to do this on everything.
Once you get your comfort level up with failure, save the all-out effort for your staple lifts - back squat, deadlift, bench, dumbbell press. This is your guideline for future lifts. Your accessories and the random stuff you haven't done in months don't need to be max effort - try to push everything that hard and you'll burn out in two weeks. Go hard on the lifts that demand it, and let the rest build the volume, balance, and variety that support them.
Here's what nobody tells you about training this way: it changes everything else, too. When Monday is back squat day and you actually care about the number, Sunday starts to look different. You stay off your feet, you eat more carbs, you go to bed earlier.
Suddenly the scale isn't the only thing telling you whether you're winning. You've got a PR to chase, a rep to add, a number to beat. The rest of your life starts organising itself around it.
The people getting the best results aren't chasing the next e500 supplement stack. They're lifting heavier than they think they should, and that one decision ends up pulling everything else into line.
Less information just means you can put more intention behind the levers that actually matter. And one of the biggest ones is pushing heavier weights.