Often, those who set out to adopt a healthier lifestyle and begin training experience initial enthusiasm that fades when visible results fail to appear. This is often due to low levels of self-imposed standards, as beginners may feel they are pushing themselves without realising that, in fact, they are working well below their potential and you are not training with enough intensity to provoke changes,
Three Keys to Making Your Workouts Effective
The key, according to the expert, lies in recognising that “you are very far from your maximum” and applying three fundamental steps to ensure the effort’s efficacy.
1. Reps to failure
For the trainer, the first indicator of an effective session centres on how close the muscle is to failure at the end of a set. Training below this threshold is considered to be “undertraining.” You know you’ve reached that point when “you can’t do more than five repetitions.” Indeed, she notes that, for the work to be effective, “you should feel that the last 2-3 repetitions cost a lot and leave you near muscular failure.”
To calibrate this intensity, she offers a simple trick: ask yourself whether, with a touch more motivation—as if you were giving yourself a bit more of a push—you would be able to squeeze out another repetition. If the answer is yes, it’s a sign that “you know you can do more” and you should increase the load or effort in the next set.
2. Speed and technique
“The second key is that if your first rep and your last look similar, you are very far from training with intensity,” says the expert. The fatigue accumulated during the effort should manifest visibly. So, if the first rep and the last are “identical in speed and technique,” push harder, she recommends. In a workout with adequate intensity, “the last repetition cannot have the same speed” as the initial ones, as muscular effort inevitably slows it down.
3. The post-workout feeling
The final step to ensuring the training’s efficacy, according to the expert, relates to the “sense of real work” you feel once you have finished the set or the entire session. If someone can finish their workout and you are able to walk away chatting calmly, it indicates that you are, again, under-training.
Therefore, the coach suggests conducting a simple test at the end: “Could you do the workout again?” or “Can you talk normally?” she asks. If the answer is yes, it means you are very far from training hard enough. The mark of a truly effective workout is that you are at full tilt and you should struggle to speak.
According to Sara Ariadna, if you follow these three steps, physical progression should be evident. The trainer also advises tracking progression through indicators such as photos, measurements or performance to guarantee improvement. Because if you train hard for real, you should notice a change in at least one of these indicators every 4 to 8 weeks, according to the trainer.
