If you’ve been training for a while and not getting the results you’re looking for, chances are that something is wrong with your workouts. I’ve seen this happen many times: people visit the gym on a regular basis for months on end; they put in the time, but their body doesn’t change. They remain exactly the same.
There are several reasons why this can happen: bad nutrition, lack of proper rest, but the likely one is that their workouts are simply not hard enough. If you’re unhappy with your results, it may be that you’re not training hard enough too. You may not even know that this is happening, because you can easily miss the signs. By the time you finish reading this post, though, the signs will be much clearer.
6 Signs That Your Workouts Aren’t Hard Enough
1. You’re Not Feeling It
Some people judge their workouts by how long they take. Others do so by how often they train. These are all inaccurate ways to judge the quality of a workout. The simple truth is that workouts are meant to be challenging. You’re supposed to feel that challenge in your body.
You need to ask yourself a simple question: Are my workouts really challenging for me? Do I just put in the time to do them or do I really need to dig deep in order to complete them properly? If the answer is no then your workouts aren’t hard enough.
2. You Do Endless Reps
A lot of people wonder how many reps they should do on each exercise. You give them a number and they go ahead and do those exercises, but they choose a much lighter weight than they should have done. The number of reps means nothing if you can do more of them, especially if the limit to your ability is nowhere in sight.
If you can do a high number of reps you need to increase the weight you’re working with. Otherwise, you will never get a proper workout.
3. You Don’t Sweat
Some people think that you’re only supposed to sweat when doing cardio, not during weight lifting. To that I say: start working harder. If you’re not sweating it means that your body isn’t under enough strain and that you’re not challenging it throughly. The sweat doesn’t need to be pouring down the side of your face in a torrent, but it is supposed to be felt.
If you do the kind of hard, metabolically expensive workouts that I do, I can guarantee that you will sweat. If you don’t then you need to lift heavier. Simple as that.
4. You Workout Hard Every Day
If you go to the gym on a daily (or nearly so) basis and feel that you workout hard every time, chances are that you’re deluding yourself. Unless you’re an athlete or physically gifted, doing a hard workout will leave you tired and weaker than usual. You won’t be able to repeat this tough workout the next day.
Hard workouts require rest and doing them actually reduces the number of times you need to go to the gym.
5. You’re Stuck At A Certain Weight
Are you lifting the same weight for months? Are you incapable of running faster? If so, then your body is no longer challenged by your workouts. You need to modify them and add a bit of diversity to them. You also need to ramp up the intensity to force your body to respond and develop.
6. Your Body Isn’t Showing Improvement
We go back to the starting point: if you feel like you’re running in place and that no matter how hard you work your body is simply not changing, then you’re not putting in the effort.
You need to change your workout routine, add more weight, try new exercises, train in a more intense fashion and you will start to see a change.
Do you recognize any of these 6 signs? If so, it’s time to get your act together and begin to train harder. This is how you get real results. Here are some posts on how to do that:
1. How To Make Your Workouts Harder
