I love this question.

The answer really depends on the training method.

For Strength Training
I would suggest that you actually don’t “kill yourself”

Improvements in strength are measured over years not weeks or days.

For most people training with a little less weight, increased total volume and perfect technique will beat slugging up maximal loads with poor technique just to get the buzz of “lifting heavy”

Give yourself periods in your training where you go for it and lift a maximum but spend most off your time sub max and practicing perfectly.

For Interval Training

I suggest you go for it but make sure that you build progressive overload into your program.

Most people do their intervals but have no way of measuring whether they did more or less than the last session. Keep the variables the same and know which one you need to change so that this session is harder than the last.

So that might be distance, rest, watts, calories interval length or resistance levels.

Whatever it is, make sure that you know how your overload is increasing.

For Resistance Training. 

I guarantee your not training hard enough.

Pretty much no one is.

That includes a heap of professionals, almost none of the Pro Sports Models PT’s, crossfitters or gym owners I meet or coach are training hard enough at the start.

They equate training hard with sweating or their perceived rate of exertion.

Now that’s ok for intervals, cardio and potentially CrossFit but it’s not going to cut it for resistance training designed to change your body composition.

You don’t stop when your tired or it burns you need to go to muscular failure on your overload work.

You need to be getting to muscular failure on your overload work.

Check this video I made for my girls in The Sports Model Project It’s what muscular failure actually looks like.

If you do sets 3 of 20 they should be a near death experience.

If you do 5 sets off 5 they should be a near death experience.

You need to annihilate your muscle If your using overload techniques like partial reps, drop sets or contrasts otherwise just stick to going hard on straight sets.

The sessions also need to be increasing in difficulty from week to week. More reps, sets, time under tension, less rest, greater density, increased range of motion or something so that you know you did more work than last time.

Where do I start?

Get some coaching.

If you have been training and you haven’t worked it out yet trying to decipher it from the internet and Instagram posts,  you won’t get you there now.

The training and nutrition required to get elite body composition are super specific.

I have a limited amount of space left in The Sports Model Project.

You can apply to join here.