[bpizzi]

Good advices. And we should repeat this: there's no need for putting extreme weight on bars. Repetitions, series and rest time are golden here. You can do wonders with 50-80kg deadlifts (not when starting weight lifting), no need to go after 150/200kg. Same goes, for example, for bench press: failing alone (which should not happen) under 30/50kg is very manageable, but the same under 150kg can cost your life.

[joncrocks]

I would agree with you, up to a point. I agree that one doesn't need to put oneself under undue strain every time in the gym, and you can get a good workout from doing lots of reps for light weights.

But naturally by virtue of not increasing the weight on the bar one will reach a point where one ceases to get stronger (measured by the amount of force you can produce). There are limits to what more reps will do for you.

So don't deadlift your 1RM every time you go to the gym, just slowly increase how much you lift in a safe and structured manner.

[saiya-jin]

This so much. I switched away cca year ago from trying to lift as much as possible during every session simply because it's stupid. I was walking on the edge of serious injury for no good enough reason. Anyway most people I know don't go to gym for bodybuilding, but rather getting/keeping in shape and looking good.

So unless you are a professional (then you already know about this more than I do), lower the weight and stick rather with 15-20 reps. If you feel that given excercise is too easy during set, just another 5 reps and try to do perfect movements. YOu can get the same famous 'burn' in the muscles. This also builds stamina, which is much more beneficial in real life compared to pure power for few seconds.

Needless to say, since I switched, i didn't have a single injury, not even minor stretches. Even if I am totally exhausted, I can handle the loads I use to put them down/to the rack safely.