I have this conversation weekly with clients and people that do some of our programs and they are seeking these markers that I’ll discuss today and connecting them to a great workout or great results
Here are 4 common myths:
- Exhausted or “smoked” from the workout
The mindset of “if I exhaust myself it must be a good workout” is completely overrated. You might be tired from a training session sometimes but just seeking it out is not a key as you could do some strength training not feel tired and see progress
- Being really sore from a workout
The saying “No Pain, No Gain” is a commonly used expression when it comes to getting in shape and it might be one of the reasons many of us think that you need to feel sore after a workout to know that you’ve done enough. Now you might get sore when you are new to training, with a new program or some new exercises being implemented into your program.
It’s NOT something you should seek out. Sometimes people say, “well I wasn’t really sore from that training session, so it must not have been a hard training session”. Instead of soreness we’re looking for progressive overload. If over time you’re lifting more weight, lifting more reps, improving your conditioning, well, then your improving- Improving has nothing to do with how sore you are after a session so you don’t need to seek it out
- Being drenched in sweat from a workout
This mindset of “if I got super sweaty, I’m gonna do everything that I can to get sweaty then it must have been a good workout”- there’s no science to this and again there’s no measuring progress. How much you sweat has nothing to with actually getting the adaptations needed to be stronger and fitter
- Switching up exercises to “keep the body guessing”
Novelty such as always switching it up because it feels like “ohh, new stuff, new stimulus so that must be muscle confusion and so muscle confusion is making my body change”- that doesn’t not work. What works is progression- make sure you track your progress to see that you’re improving or at least not going backwards and that plays how you will see whether your training is working
While you may have any one of those happen, and they’re not bad, they’re part of training with effort, they shouldnt be the marker that you strive for
What you strive for is progress that can be tracked. Whether that’s increasing weight, increasing reps, decreasing time it took you to do something, lower resting heart rate, more density etc
The goal is progress and being able to track it through a structured program that is measured every step of the way
And as far as novelty exercises go, I’m cool with them as some clients really enjoy them so I stick to the 80/20 rule that and 80% would be structured and 20% would be novel exercises (since enjoyment also matters and consistency is key 🙂)
A friendly reminder that when you work hard on a structured program, many times you may not be exhausted, sore, drenched in sweat and switching it up and you’ll be 100% on track because your doing what you’re supposed to and you’re progressing
