sup guys, i recently started gyming ( 6 months ) and have hit a point where I dont get sore any more. hoping to get some tips from the ogs.

i used to use soreness as a gauge of whether i went hard for a session at the gym, that I've reached the point of failure, during ysts training sesh.

i was watching some mike israetel, jeff nippard videos, and apparently soreness and fatigue is a very poor proxy of the quality of a workout session, and they repeatedly mention the idea of failure.

and now i kinda dk how to know if ive truly hit the failure point or just fatiguing.

I usually do the pull push split with legs ( 3 days ) + 1 day where I just do isolation ( usually shoulders ).

each muscle group, i'll go 3 exercises e.g lat pull down, lat row, 1 x dumb bell movement or bench, dumb bell incline, dumb bell cross.

but i do like a really high volume workout, 7-8 sets per exercise? idk it just feels easier to progressive overload with volume.

i definitely feel shag after the 8th set, but if i really wanted to i could still possibly 1 rep max - is that a sign that i have not in fact reach the point of failure? should i keep spamming until i cant even half rep? idk

how do you really max tune the training session usually?

EDIT: thanks guys, i think i know whats up now, appreciate max

CGPT SUMMARY

The key takeaways from the discussion are:

1. Soreness is not a measure of a good workout

• As you become more trained, soreness naturally decreases.
• Instead, judge your workouts by whether you're getting stronger over time (more weight, more reps, or better technique).

2. Train close to failure, not to failure every set

• For most working sets, stop with 1–2 Reps In Reserve (RIR).
• Reserve true failure (0 RIR) for the last set of an exercise, and preferably on safer isolation movements.

3. You're likely doing too much volume

• 7–8 sets per exercise is generally considered excessive for hypertrophy.
• Most people get better results with 3–4 hard working sets per exercise and spreading volume throughout the week.

4. Progressive overload is the goal

Rather than adding more and more sets:

• Increase the weight when possible.
• Add reps at the same weight.
• Improve technique and control.
• Increase training volume gradually over weeks, not by doing endless sets in one workout.

5. What "failure" actually means

Muscular failure is within a single set:

• You cannot complete another full rep with good form.
• It does not mean lowering the weight and continuing with more reps—that's simply another set, not extending the original one.

6. Track trends, not individual workouts

Performance varies day to day because of:

• Sleep
• Nutrition
• Stress
• Hydration
• Time of day

Focus on improvements over weeks and months, not whether one session felt particularly hard.

7. Follow a structured program

Several commenters suggested using a proven hypertrophy or strength program instead of improvising workouts. A structured routine makes progressive overload much easier to implement consistently.

Practical takeaway

For hypertrophy, a simple evidence-based approach is:

• 3–4 sets per exercise
• 6–12 reps for most exercises
• Finish most sets at 1–2 RIR
• Increase weight once you consistently hit the top of your rep range
• Track your lifts in a notebook or app
• Don't chase soreness—chase consistent progression.

Ok 1130pm Friday, long week and just a bit sian of one pattern of person that I came across today. I'm not trying describe the person I met but a higher level abstraction of this version of a Singaporean person. I'm sure you've encountered it, but I worry I cannot properly define it, maybe someone with a cleaner and more expressive command of Lit and English can help out in the replies with their experiece w this, but im kinda tilted by, let's call her a Nancy.

ps never really did or picked creative writing in any english exams, but I really want to isolate this archetype in words.

Anyone notice a kinda archetype in SG, an ultra legalistic theocratic law abiding citizen to a fault, usually an 'aunty', mid 40s - 50. There certainly are uncles too, even young apprentices in training types in their 20s just so im also not ageist, but the middle aged women are a lot more evolved and pronounced here.

The kind that sees a young man sit on the reserved seat, 8pm working day, MRT and is absolutely itching, ohhh they really want to pull out their Samsung Galaxy out so badly, ohh you have no idea how badly, the kind of excitement to the point of trembling catching this unassuming young man in the act of sitting down. Almost lusting to video this outrageous act of social non-conformity.

Thee type that has spent way too much time studying and memorising the most absurd smoking corners of Orchard are, and intentionally walks past these areas to have the "shiok"/ "steam" feeling of very loudly pressing their noses at some back alley of Cuppage Plaza to send a message, "limbu know where you all hide", where a fellow brother matt and beng just wants to take a deep drag of a cigarette of a breath after long 12hr shift clueless to the vulgarity of a human approaching.

If only the clenching of her nose were sufficient to send a message. But putting on their famous "luncheow bin", dark as the stormiest nights, the braver more experienced ones will provocatively throw in the more snide remark with a fellow ally of the same kind at her side tell their companion in the most sarcastic of tones, "WAH so SMELLY AH today? NEA never work today is it?!?!", when they were the ones that were intruding on 'enemy' grounds in the first place.

I'm talking about the person, 9pm in bed, scrolling through Facebook. Thumbs up emojis for Lawrence Wong's minister posts about unity and cohesiveness, heartshape emojis for local successes - "joseph schooling win gold medal leh, he so handsome", and the angry emoji for a post on far-meme-fringe forum reposting a CNA article on "Youth vaping on the rise" where the reposter is a poly kid writing a coherent argument and position against increased taxes on cigarettes unhappy about the current vaping laws speaking with who he thought was his crowd.

The advanced ones would throw in the highly intelligent comment, "just dont smoke la". Wise words.

I'm not too sure if you get what I am pointing at, but there is a 'type'. idk wtf is their problem, but why are you so anti anything that is not a machine of a human?

I am digitally native, and see people on various sm platforms say Singapore has no 'soul' and I seriously blame this 'type' of Singaporeans. Like wtf, can we not just embrace a bit of deviance, the person rough around the corners.

Let us be abit politically incorrect in our opinions without suddenly insinuating that we are destroying the country. Not gonna dive into the whole free speech thing, but damnnnn where is the room to be anything about anything with these free lance police. Can we not be hyper optimised for lee kuan yew?

I was just watching a video of Topuria progessively put on a beating on Emmet and saw the score cards for the fight were:

Judge	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total
Eric Colón	9-10 Emmett	10-9 Topuria	10-9 Topuria	10-8 Topuria	10-9 Topuria	49-45 Topuria
Sal D’Amato	10-9 Topuria	10-9 Topuria	10-9 Topuria	10-8 Topuria	10-9 Topuria	50-44 Topuria
Chris Lee	10-9 Topuria	10-9 Topuria	10-8 Topuria	10-7 Topuria	10-9 Topuria	50-42 Topuria

Emmet is a beast, don't get me wrong, but Topuria outclassed him beyond convincingly with 10-7 R4 being the most crushing round, it got me wondering what was the most imbalanced round where a fighter completely dominated the opponent on the score cards without taking them out?

I did some searching and found Steven Nguyen vs. Mohammad Yahya, Round 1, Nguyen dropped Yahya 5 times in the round which is kinda crazy in the UFC, but this was only scored 10-8 I believe, with the following stats:

Stat	Steven Nguyen	Mohammad Yahya
Knockdowns	5	0
Significant strikes	59 of 112	33 of 86
Sig. strike accuracy	52%	38%
Head sig. strikes	47 of 98	22 of 69
Body sig. strikes	2 of 2	9 of 13
Leg sig. strikes	10 of 12	2 of 4

I guess, my question is, was there ever a 10-5 round or, visually, a round where 1 fighter absolutely crushed the other technically? I am open to seeing grappling domination as well.