do you guys train on instinct?

[AntonioAMP]

Training on "instinct" alone is a very unobjective means of progress for all the aforementioned reasons Soundness has given, i would however also like to add that while the muscle iself cannot actually calculate how much its lifting like our brain does, the amount of weight you use is entirely relevant because of the muscle fibers you are activating. the slower your repititions are the more you access your aerobic pathways, the faster your repititions are the more you access your anerobic pathways, the heavier weight being handled would ensure the use almost exclusivley of your anerobic pathways... so the most objective means of progress is makeing sure your muscles (not including the nervous system necessarily) are getting stronger in a form consistent with activateing the type 2 muscle fibers.

[nodeal]

i go into the gym sometimes not even sure of what exercises im going to do, so yeah i guess i train on instinct. i do set very general guidelines for my workout though. basically i keep my splits the same, and train intensely. reps can be low, moderate or high depending on if i feel like going heavy or not. number of sets vary, depending on the body part  being worked out. i think training on instinct is awesome, its shows a good connection with your muscles and body overall. but obviously you must give it everything you got, regardless of what you decide to do. and i usually remember how much weight i did on a particular exercise previously, so i know if i am increasing in strength or not.

[jpm101]

This is a general observation on my part but I notice that guy's who train on instinct usually do their favorite exercises or easier exercises when working out. And only those. Bet not too many guy's would be doing  6 sets of heavy squats, or DL's, because their instincts told him to. Guess that might be why so many misguided people  are so in love with benches, lat pull downs and curls only in a workout. Forget about legs and the other hard stuff.

Actually the muscles can calculate the force of resistance met when preforming a task first. Follows are the adjustments to use or over come that resistance after an impulse message is delivered to the brain.  Numbers placed on pounds mean nothing, but fiber recruitment & adjustment (calling more fibers in to help with a work load) does. Good Luck.