Are your workouts working out for you?

Mar 10

Written By Mikaela .

First look at the format, and there better be a format, not just a bunch of stuff thrown together with no reasoning.

optimally, each muscle group needs worked twice a week with proper intensity. For beginners once a week is great, but for more experienced lifters twice a week is best.
there should always be a clear intent for the day. Upper body, lower body, cardio, or full body.
there should always be an intended muscle group, which needs to be the limiting factor in the workout. Otherwise you're not going to get the results you want.

Why not more? I think I need more!

if you have proper intensity twice a week is best. This allows you to work hard but also have proper time between workouts for recovery.
if you think you need more volume, chances are you don't. You need more intensity. You never want to sacrifice form or range of motion but you need to work hard enough to have a good muscle breakdown. That will result in you being sore for a few days, meaning you want be able to workout at optimal intensity during that soreness phase. *it should always be a good muscle soreness, NOT joint pain/soreness.

Not convinced, I still think I need more.

am I getting 8+ hours of quality sleep per night (not just laying in bed awake watching tv or on my phone)?
Do I know exactly how many calories I'm getting in (including protein, carb, and fat breakdown)?
How's my hydration (including little to no alcohol or sodas, and getting electrolytes)?

these are tough questions to answer but they are all very important to everyone health and fitness journey. Especially when you start to want more and more out of your workouts.

There's bodybuilding, CrossFit, Power Lifting, Olympic Lifting... what's best?

it depends on where you're at with your fitness journey. Start with body weight, then progress to dumbbells/kettlebells, then a barbell. Once proficient you can mix them all in!
regardless of your style, there need to be muscle breakdown. That muscle breakdown needs to be in the intending muscle group. There should be no other limiting factors. Meaning:

if you're trying to crush a CrossFit workout but your skill or mobility won't allow for proper movement/intensity - that might not be the optimal workout style.
if you're trying to learn kipping pull ups or muscle ups but your shoulder aches - that's definitely not an ideal workout/movement.
if you're trying to back squat a ton of weight but you can't perform a proper air squat - that is not the best exercise to work on.
if you're trying to back squat to grow your legs but your back hurts so you can't add weight or reps - that won't help you achieve your goal
if you're trying to squat snatch more wight but your balance/technique is off resulting in joint pain - that program/movement is not optimal

in all the above scenarios you are limited by something other than an intended muscle group. Which means, long term steady progress will not be achieved.

Summary/quick tips to remember:

there needs to be an intended muscle group in your workouts
that intended muscle group needs to be the limiting factor in the movement
you need to work the muscle enough that there is muscle breakdown
once you've broken down the muscle you need to recover enough (time off that muscle group, nutrition, hydration, and sleep) before working it again

Remember, muscle grows during recovery. So be sure to recover between hitting the same muscle group for optimal results!

Hardwick Health