I can second this from personal experience. People that spend an hour in the gym pumping away at 50% capacity with bicep curls are never going to see the kinds of gains they imagine. You will get the gains you want by pushing yourself to muscle failure within a couple of sets every single time you hit the gym. Short, powerful workouts is how you encourage testosterone production, which is exactly how you get strength (and naturally, size follows). As a side note, you must be very careful about preventing injury. It's very easy to injure yourself if you're always doing your max. It takes incredible concentration.