Disturbance in the force
The goal of training is to cause disruption, a disturbance to homeostasis, whether that's to muscles or entire systems.
You can't do that with a feather duster.
Your body is great at detecting disruption, and when it does it starts the machinery that repairs and rebuilds following a stressful event.
So you have to do the work, you have to hit a minimum level of effort force that response, a "minimum stimulus threshold".
That's why easy reps don't count, otherwise we'd all build slabs of muscle on our weekly trip to the supermarket.
I've never seen anyone accidently build too much muscle.
just like I don't need to worry about ending up on the pga tour if I go to the driving range, or haphazardly find myself wondering to the top of everest on a Sunday stroll.
It takes very regular, very consistent, targetted effort in a similar direction over a very long ass Time to make an impact.
So if you want to start the machinery, disturb the force, do the work repeatedly.
start with movements.
Then Learn to move very well.
Once you're moving well you can start to create a larger stimulus because now you can create tension, you can handle load and you can move said load through space with skill.
If a movement is a balancing act, tension is low, no tension, no growth.
That's why you hit a plateau on the bench before the squat, it's more stable, less to manage.
Once you're moving well, you can get to work.
I'm always asking people to score there sets out of 10 (aka RPE) or "How many reps could you have got" (RIR), doesn't matter how.
I want that score to reach the minimum stimulus threshold.
If you're too far from failure, its too easy, you might aswell go shopping because then at least you'll be going home with something.
I want you to find it hard, to be able to see the cliff edge of rep failure, because thats gonna switch your machinery on, that level of work is causing a disturbance that needs remodeling, it's gonna force adaptation.
I'm not bought into fluffy methods.
Don't get me wrong I like the mind muscle connection, but I'm not concerned if you can't "feel" the muscle when doing an rdl, if the movement is skilled and the work is done, it has no choice.
I'm a stickler for biomechanics but don't get that twisted, good movement and a brutal work ethic beats a perfect angle over time.
Get skilled
Do work
Eat
Repeat
Use the force.