When we start working out, the overwhelming sense of achievement is enough to keep us going, but the most important component of exercising, in the long run, is about tracking our progress. If we have specific goals, it is incredibly important to make sure that we are progressing. One of the big mistakes many people make at the gym every week is that they are doing the same workouts with the same weights. This is not the purpose of exercise. If you are looking to get fitter and healthier, the importance is placed firmly on progression. This means we've got to get into the habit of tracking our progress. But what are the best ways we can do this?
Spot Testing Your Form
Instead of doing selfies in the gym or when you are running, start to think about using your devices as a way to truly check your form. There are many different ways to do this. If you are taking a selfie, you need to take a close look at every muscle in your body so you can address if things have changed. This is, of course, one of the key aspects of the before and after selfie. It is important to keep track of your body composition in this respect, but devices can also be beneficial to check your form.
Checking your form is so important, and you can do it in a number of simple ways. When you are exercising, you can put the phone in a corner of the room when you are doing exercises with weights or resistance bands. But what about when you are running? This is a lot harder to get right because improper form when running can cause damage, and you may only notice that you are doing it improperly when you are experiencing those little injuries and knee pains that come with poor form. One of the more creative ways to do this is to get a drone! Brands like DJI create mini drones, and the benefit of being able to film yourself running with a drone is that you can capture it from all angles.
One of the hardest things to do when it comes to tracking your form while running is to actually hold a device straight! The other option is to get someone else to film you, but if running is a practice that is very precious and solitary to you, a drone would be a better way for you to lose your inhibitions and do it properly.
Measure Your Body Composition
This is something that can benefit us before we start a fitness regime. If you have a specific goal in mind, measure your body first, which will refer to your muscles and fat percentage. When you start working out, you will naturally begin to gain more muscles and shed more fat, but this is why it's more important to check the composition rather than just measuring your weight.
Taking the opportunities to check your body fat percentage and physically measure your hips, waist, chest, and the body parts that you want to change isn't just a starting point, but it's the perfect way to see how far you've come. Don't make the mistake of measuring your body composition all too regularly. You need to set yourself a time far in the future, for example, six months, and you can see your progress far easier. Six months is a good window of time because it allows you to get over the initial aspects of exercising, for example, getting used to the workout regimen, while also allowing you to get into a routine.
Testing Your One-Rep Max
If you are undergoing weight training or doing any bodyweight workouts, one of the best ways to test your strength is to measure your one-rep max. Short for one repetition maximum, this refers to the maximum amount of weight that you can lift just once. The important thing to remember in doing this is that it is about giving your all. Testing your one-rep max should be done when you are fully rested, and once you have completed your one-rep max, you should wait until you have made noticeable progress in your workouts before trying again. For example, the weights are getting heavier, and you are getting used to the lifts.
It's vital to remember that when you are building up to testing your one-rep max, that you don't sacrifice form. When you test your one-rep max, it's best to do it on a compound move, for example, a squat or a deadlift. But if you are trying to strengthen certain parts of your body, you have to be aware of the impact of performing a one-rep max. For example, you will absolutely tax your legs when doing a squat. So if you are not looking to test yourself with the one-rep max, you can test your strength and various lifts. You can do this by using lower reps on an exercise and recording these amounts.
An important note to make at this point, it can be very disheartening to see from one month to the next that your strength can fluctuate. If you've been making steady progress, and then find one month your strength has gone down, you may need to bring in some perspective here. For example, if you lose some strength one month, is it because you've had external stress, or did you not allow yourself enough recovery? Recovery is so important when you are tracking your progress. So how can we do this?
Measuring Your Recovery
If you are trying to keep track of your fitness, you also need to keep track of your recovery. There are a few ways you can do this;
- Heart rate variability. This is something used by many athletes. Heart rate variability refers to the intervals in between heartbeats. However, it's one of the more expensive ways to keep track of your recovery. There are heart rate variability devices by companies like Elite HRV you can purchase heart rate variability devices.
- Testing your grip. One very simple, and cheap method to test if you've recovered is to check your grip strength. It's important to do this as soon as you have woken up. This is for the very simple reason that, throughout the day, you gradually warm up. You can test your grip strength through a number of ways, for example, getting your bathroom scale, and squeezing it as hard as possible, and measuring the result. There are also little grip devices you can purchase, for example, those rubber grippers shaped like a doughnut.
- Blowing air out like a straw. This is a test that can work wonders to truly get an idea of if you have recovered properly. The idea is to measure your carbon dioxide tolerance. This should be done as soon as you wake up. Take four deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth, making sure you engage the diaphragm. On the fifth breath, breathe in, but on the exhale, purse your lips, and blow the air out as slowly as possible, as if you are blowing through a straw. You then time how long it takes for you to completely get rid of the air in your lungs and not be able to exhale anymore. If you take under 25 seconds, this is a sign that you haven't necessarily recovered properly. Anywhere from 30 seconds and more is a good sign you have recovered.
It's crucial to remember that strength is reflected in the body's ability to recover first of all. Because if you are exercising three times a week, but you don't see any improvements in your strength, you may have to cut back to twice a week. It's all to do with giving your body time to recover, and this takes into account multiple factors, such as your nervous system, VO2max, and your strength.
A Workout Journal
It is one of the simplest ways to track how you are doing. It is very easy to become overwhelmed with the number of different ways to track your progress. But going back decades when there was no means of officially measuring your progress, people had to rely on pen and paper. It is one of the best ways to track how you are doing, and you will know if you are getting stronger based on the numbers.
Sometimes, we can listen to our bodies and give ourselves an extra day, but it's about getting their balance just right, especially if we are training for something. So if you find that you are lifting the same amount of weight every single session, you're not going to progress. This method allows you to keep track of how much weight you are lifting, while also setting the bar higher next time around, resulting in your muscle staying in a constant state of being challenged.
Some people go to the gym and arbitrarily lift weights, thinking that just because they are working out, they should see the benefits. But if you really want to see if you are progressing, these are some of the best methods. You should always be challenging yourself with every exercise you do, as this is the key to bettering yourself.
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