Signs Your Workout isn't Hard Enough
By Sara Butler
You should be taking rest days at the gym – and taking it easy pays off. But if you’re working toward a fitness goal, whether it’s to achieve a healthy weight, run a marathon, or improve your strength, you have to be prepared to push yourself in order to meet those goals. Slacking off at the gym isn’t going to help you get where you need to be. How do you know if you’re slacking? These signs shout it out loud and clear!
Your Strength isn’t Increasing
Four to six weeks of regular training should yield great strength. If it doesn’t, then you may not be pushing hard enough! You may have to increase your intensity to see gains.
This means that you have to keep your reps low but your weight steadily increasing. If you’re new to strength training, then you should stick with three sets of eight or so reps for every exercise you do. Add more weight once you can go up to 12 reps with proper form intact!
You’re Not Sore Anymore
You may not miss the days of waking up after an intense workout and feeling as if someone snuck in your room to beat you up while you’re asleep – but being sore lets you know you’re pushing yourself!
Soreness within the first day or two after exercise is considered a good sign. It indicates that you indeed pushed yourself hard enough to break down muscle fibers in order to build new muscle. You don’t want to feel sore every day of the week but you do want to be sore sometimes – it lets you know you’re getting there! If you’re not sore, then gradually increase your workout volume and vary the types of movements you’re doing during them.
You Can Talk and Run
Not every run should have you wishing for the sweet relief of death, but you should be pushing yourself just a bit at least a couple of times a week. You can easily measure your effort by your ability to form full sentences during the most intense parts of the workout. If you’re easily chatting away, then you’re not going hard enough!
Try to do a couple of minutes each run at a very brisk pace, followed by a recovery pace. You should also aim to have between two and four high-intensity workouts each and every week to help push yourself. Just don’t forget the rest days in between!
To learn more about your health and wellness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Cypress, Tex.