We all have our own personal goals in health and fitness. Most of those goals involve progress from where you are now to where you want to be.
In many cases, there is a goal involving how your body looks, feels, or moves. Whether it’s losing body fat, improving your joint health, gaining strength, all these things fall into this category.
If we didn’t expect some sort of progress toward our goals then we wouldn’t be doing It in the first place.
So how should I know if something is working or not?
The first thing I want you to think about before looking at anything else is to realize that there are MANY indirect things that will occur and pile up that will help you toward your goals along the way.
Let’s take fat loss for example. Someone looking to lose 20 pounds this year. In many cases the best way to start out is by eating a little more and strength training 2-3 times per week. This will help build their metabolism up to a healthy range and allow them to build a good strong foundation.
People see this as ass backwards. I want to lose weight so I need to eat less and move more. Why would I eat more and not do cardio? This is why we need to realize that many things play into progress, and they are not always direct.
So let’s take a look at a few things that we want to see on the road to progress:
1.) Getting Stronger
This is a big one. This is also objective, either you are stronger or you aren’t. Either you did 1 more push-up than last week or you didn’t.
Strength is the base for just about every single goal in health and fitness. On the road of building strength you will (most likely) gain muscle, build your metabolism, gain greater ranges of motion, increase joint strength, improve joint resiliency, burn body fat.
All these things are not easy to detect but just know that they are happening if you are getting stronger.
2.) “Feeling” Good
Feeling is not always very objective. So It isn’t easy to detect if you are feeling better than last week or vice versa. Instead of thinking of feeling better than before, think about if you feel worse.
If you feel worse than when you started things are not progressing the way they should. This could be from a list of different things– overtraining, not recovering well, eating like crap, tough sleep, not moving throughout the day.
You can’t always train your way out of an unhealthy lifestyle, but just know that if you are feeling worse then when you started, you are not seeing great progress.
3.) The Scale
I wanted to put the scale in the good section because I feel that I don’t give the scale enough credit.
If used in a healthy way, the scale can be a good indicator of some goals. If you want to get stronger and feel like your strength has stayed the same, but when you weigh-in you lost 5 pounds, well you are stronger in relation to that bodyweight.
Same things can be seen for someone looking to lose weight. If things seem to be going great but at the end of 6 months they are up 20 pounds, well some things need to be changed.
Use the scale appropriately and It is a great tool.
Now let’s look at some things that may not be great ways to track your progress.
1.) The Scale
Well, here we are again, ragging on the scale.
Most of us use the scale in an unhealthy way. A few pounds in either direction is very normal. So many things can affect your overall weight, and we have to take all of them into consideration. Maybe weighing yourself every single day is not doing you any favors.
I find a great tactic can be to weigh yourself once a month at the same time, right in the morning. Take that information and make appropriate changes for your goals.
2.) Exhaustion
Your workouts are not there to create full exhaustion. They are there to make you feel energized, strong, and ready to work harder. Being exhausted after your workouts is not a sign that things are working.
Even worse, if you feel exhausted all the time, your workouts are likely creating more negatives than positives.
Find a balance where you push yourself BUT feel like you can still give just a bit more effort.
3.) Soreness
This is my least favorite. Everyone wants to be sore. Everyone thinks that not being sore is a waste of a session. NO.
Soreness is a response from your body that you introduced something It wasn’t used to. Now feeling some small tenderness from a workout is great, you did just the right amount, but not being able to move your legs or arms is just a sign that you did too much.
The moral of the story–>Get stronger, Feel better
In good health,
Jeff
P.S Whenever you are ready, here are 3 ways I can help you change the way your body looks and feels…
1.) Would you be interested in testing out our program for two weeks… With no payment?
Right now you can give our program a shot for two weeks with no payment and get on the road to looking and feeling how you really want.
If you are interested in this free test, reply “TEST” to this email.
2.) Come in for a FREE body scan
We are letting you get a better idea of where your starting point is by getting a free InBody scan. This can test your body fat, muscle mass, and water levels.
If you would like a free InBody scan, reply “SCAN” to this email.
3.) Workout Programs
I have been toying with the idea of creating programs for anyone to use and follow. They would come complete with videos, descriptions, and program demos.
If you have any interest in a program such as this, reply “PROGRAM” to this email and I will get you the ideas that I have been thinking about.
