How to Measure Progress in the Gym When You Feel Like You’re Down
You want to be fast. You want to be strong. But day after day you go to the gym, feel weak and slow, and it seems like nothing is changing. (Did I tell you? I also meant myself.) Here are some strategies to stick with your plan and make sure it works, even if you don’t see immediate changes in your work or appearance.
Remember there is always a lag
It would be great if we could start training on Monday and see results by Wednesday, but that takes time. Most of the metrics that matter to us, such as strength, endurance, muscle size and fat loss, take at least a week.
Think of the first few weeks of the program as the time between when you order something online and when it appears at your doorstep. You have placed your order, the profit is approaching, you just need to be patient until you collect the money. Until then, you have to keep working, because you don’t need just one small delivery. In this sense, the results are more like a subscription service.
This waiting period can be difficult. If you’re new to strength training, you can see strength gains in a matter of days. If you’re trying to lose weight or gain visible muscle, it can take months for people to notice you and start complimenting you. It’s tempting to rethink your entire plan. What if I’m not doing enough? Did I pick the wrong coach?
But here’s the catch: you have to trust your plan (or your coach). Doing something is always better than doing nothing, so it’s worth sticking to even a mediocre plan for a few weeks to see what results you get.
Connect small goals with your big goals
It helps keep you motivated if you have a big goal on the horizon: a race, a weight lifting event, or even something like “I want to look good on the beach in July.”
But this goal can only motivate you to do your day workout if there is a direct link. The marathon training plan is a great example: if you do the prescribed workouts, you will be doing it at the starting line of the marathon. (Remember how important it is to trust your plan?)
When I was getting ready for the marathon, my weekly long runs became terribly long. I could run five miles, but then I had to run seven, and then there was a jump to 10. The only thing that made me get out of bed on a 10-mile day was the realization that I was going to have to run 12 soon. that day, I would prefer to say, “Well, I’ve done 10 and this is just a little more” than to stand on the starting line that day with only seven miler under my belt.
Likewise, every workout and every exercise leads to your bigger goals. If I train my deadlift, I need to do the deadlift every week (or whatever my program says) to make progress.
So you can set small goals for yourself. In the name of consistency, you can simply mark each workout and consider it a completed task. Shatter and do yourself a little coloring: thermometer leading to race day. Or set goals in terms of exercise repetitions, total minutes worked, or any other variable that you have complete control over. You can’t control how quickly you get stronger, but you can control how many times you go to the gym.
Document and Measure
Another truth about progress is that it’s easy to miss. Today you can leave the cycling lesson feeling a little tired, but do you remember that a month ago you left the same class feeling completely exhausted?
I like to take inventory at least once a month of any metric that is important to me. How much I squat, press and pull; how fast can I run a mile. How many pull-ups can I do. If you are working on determining body composition, note your weight and body measurements.
I recommend measuring a few more things that you think you need. If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t just watch your weight; Also write down your body measurements, such as your biceps, which reflect muscle rather than fat, and maybe even your clothing size. The idea is that you have enough things to measure, that even if one of them didn’t budge, you could see and measure your progress in another area.
Your workout diary is invaluable here: write down a few things from each workout about what you did and how you felt. The next time you feel frustrated, go back a month or two and see how far you’ve come.
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