How hard should a good workout actually feel?
A hard session can feel satisfying. But soreness and exhaustion are not the same thing as progress.
Challenge, not chaos
Good training asks for focus and effort while keeping technique intact. Most working sets should end with the sense that you could have completed another clean repetition or two.
Recovery is feedback
How you sleep, move, and feel between sessions tells us whether the dose is right. If every workout steals energy from the rest of your week, the plan needs adjusting.
Repeatable wins
The most productive session is one you can recover from and build on. Consistency compounds. Heroic one-off workouts usually do not.