Learn and Adjust
How to know whether your workouts are effective or not? That is a very important question because it allows you to learn from your experience and to adjust your training routine in such a way that it becomes more effective. As I wrote at the top of this page, it is well possible that my way of training is not the most effective way of training for you, and that you may need to make some minor adjustments to optimize it for you personally.
Intensity indicators
There are three very important indicators that can tell you whether your workouts are effective or not. The first and ultimate indication is of course the speed at which your muscles grow and the final size your muscles have. This, however, will not tell you much about any specific single workout, because it will take at least a few months before you will see any measurable change in muscle mass.
The second indicator is a very useful one, and it really gives you feedback about one specific workout, and often even about one single exercise. I'm talking here about the muscle soreness that you feel in the trained muscle during the first 3 to 6 days after your muscle workout. The more muscle soreness and stiffness you experience in the days following your workout, the more effective your training was, and the stronger the muscle is stimulated to grow. The exact location of the soreness can be a useful indication about which exact part of the muscle was targeted most by one specific exercise.
The third indicator gives you almost real-time feedback about the effectiveness of your set. It is the well-known muscle pump, which is caused by an accumulation of blood in the muscle.
The higher the intensity of your sets, and the less rest you take between consecutive sets, the more your muscles will get pumped up, and the stronger they will be stimulated to grow. Because of various reasons, your muscle pumps will not be of the same intensity every day. However, on top days, your muscle pumps may be so intense that during the last couple of reps of your set you may even feel an intense burning sensation inside the muscle. Whenever you feel this intense muscle burn, you may smile, because you reached top intensity and your muscles are getting the maximum load of growth stimulation.
There are a few other simple indicators that may give you an idea about whether the intensity of your workouts is high enough to result in some serious muscle growth.
Your heart beat rate, breathing intensity, body temperature, and transpiration should significantly increase as your training intensity goes up.
You might even see some steam coming off your body. During a very intense workout of one of your biggest muscle groups, such as upper back or quadriceps, you might even experience a feeling as if you are going to black out. These are clear indications that you are not playing around in the gym, but putting some serious growth-stimulating intensity into your workouts.
If, on the other hand, you are able to talk, laugh and dance between your sets, you are very likely not putting enough intensity into your workouts to get any serious results.
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