How do i know if i have had a good workout?

[Inchamery]

should i be soar the next day?

 

[Rodja]

I have a few parameters for a good WO:
1. Mind-muscle connection
2. Strength
3. Pump
4. Intensity
5. Feeling of accomplishment

If I get at least 3 of these, then I feel like I has a good WO. My list is not exactly in order of importance, but I do have a hierarchy.

 

[Inchamery]

I have a few parameters for a good WO:
1. Mind-muscle connection
2. Strength
3. Pump
4. Intensity
5. Feeling of accomplishment

If I get at least 3 of these, then I feel like I has a good WO. My list is not exactly in order of importance, but I do have a hierarchy.

Can you explain more about the Pump? I know it has to do with blood rushing to your muscles post workout.

 

[Rodja]

A good pump is when the muscle that you are training becomes engorged with blood and subsequently increases in size. Vascularity is usually improved along with the increased blood-volume.

 

[Inchamery]

A good pump is when the muscle that you are training becomes engorged with blood and subsequently increases in size. Vascularity is usually improved along with the increased blood-volume.

Thanks :head:

 

[Ronnie]

By my standards, if I have to ask myself if I had a good one then I know I didnt push it.

 

[bLacKjAck.]

By my standards, if I have to ask myself if I had a good one then I know I didnt push it.

Word!!


This is exactly my thoughts. If I had a stellar workout --- then I know it, won't wonder at all.

 

[justreading]

Cold hard numbers man! Use your first set as a judge, if you can go up in weight and get the same number of reps then you had a good workout.

 

[jlowsho]

or compare it to last workout's numbers. If you've improved your weight or volume of weight lifted then it was good, if not - there is a reason and you should find it.

 

[bitterplacebo]

I usually judge it by how much progress I was able to make over the previous workout where I did the same exercises. If I was able to do more reps or add more weight, then it's a good workout for me.

I don't think soreness is a good measure. Of course you can make yourself extremely sore by just demolishing yourself with exercise after exercise, but it's not a good workout if you can't recover properly from it (get stronger/bigger). I also know that I'm still able to make progress even if a muscle is not sore from a workout.

 

[justreading]

Use a heavier wieght than you have ever used before and I guarentee you will be sore.

 

[heebs10]

when u can ring the sweat out of your shirt, your tired, and u dont want to wash your hair in the shower because your arms/shoulders feel like jello.

 

[Inchamery]

when u can ring the sweat out of your shirt, your tired, and u dont want to wash your hair in the shower because your arms/shoulders feel like jello.

lol... that doesnt happen to me often when i work legs i sweat more..

 

[heebs10]

i always soak my shirt in sweat, i think i sweat more than a lot of other people, im always hot. when i do any upper body WO, i always feel so week and like jello after my workout, it can be a little difficult to scrub if i shower within a half hour post WO.

 

[bitterplacebo]

I always find stairs an awkward task right after I've done legs.

 

[EasyEJL]

I know I've had a good workout when at least during 1 rep on at least one body area I exerted myself so hard that time and my brain both stopped momentarily, and I can't hear whats playing on my zune.

Even if its only 1 body area, at least I know I hit 100% on something

 

[bitterplacebo]

I know I've had a good workout when at least during 1 rep on at least one body area I exerted myself so hard that time and my brain both stopped momentarily, and I can't hear whats playing on my zune.

Even if its only 1 body area, at least I know I hit 100% on something

I know what you're talking about. When it's like the blood supply to the brain got choked because it's all rushing to your muscles.
It's a good set when you go temporarily blind.

 

[RedwolfWV]

I like Rodjas list, especially the feeling of accomplishment. If I have that feeling, I know I had a great workout.

On a funny note, I always know I had a great chest workout if I go tanning afterwards, and cant open the friggin tanning bed to get out of the S.O.B.

 

[Inchamery]

I know I've had a good workout when at least during 1 rep on at least one body area I exerted myself so hard that time and my brain both stopped momentarily, and I can't hear whats playing on my zune.

Even if its only 1 body area, at least I know I hit 100% on something

i get that too sometimes i love it ! ! :head: :head:

 

[Force of Green]

I have a few parameters for a good WO:
1. Mind-muscle connection
2. Strength
3. Pump
4. Intensity
5. Feeling of accomplishment

If I get at least 3 of these, then I feel like I has a good WO. My list is not exactly in order of importance, but I do have a hierarchy.

I agree with everything except #3. Pump. I think it's severely important to have mind muscle connect and a superb feeling of accomplishment after a workout is complete. I also agree that intensity is the factor that should be considered above volume and time under load. I believe all exercises should be completed with total (high) intensity or you should stay out of the gym. I can't stand people who do 4 sets of a friggen exercise and save up on all 3 sets for the last one. They're not even straining on most of them. I cannot advocate HIT training enough. My slogan for my clients: "All for one, or all none."...Just like on the bottle of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap. Do it all out once, or shut the f* up and get out of the gym or whatever area it is one works out in.

I used to guage my workout efficacy by the pump, but no longer believe that blood flowing to the area is any indicator of a good workout. I can take a good dose of an NO product and carry a load of groceries from the garage to the apartment and get a sickly pump. Does that mean that I better take advantage of the nutrient superhighway that was just created by my grocery load baring arms? Even without an NO product, even though the type of pump NO creates is on the same parameters as the 'blood flow' pump... I can get a good pump by laxidazically performing some dips and pullups.

I DO agree with you that the 'pump' caused by the contraction of a muscle is a great secondary indicator that a target area is being forced to saturate itself with blood for oxygen and other nutrients, but I don't think that one should walk out of the gym and say, "dammit, my chest didn't get very pumped today. I didn't work it out enough... yada yada yada"... The pump feeling is something that meatheads get when they're doing a few sissy pushups to jack themselves up before going in a bar door... the pump feeling is something I can get by even sitting in a movie theatre and then getting up and stretching... I felt pretty pumped today after watching the new Die Hard... but I don't think anyone, newbies especially, should take the pump into consideration, for it's an aesthetic thing and nothing more. I'm not knocking NO products, so it would be pointless for a company to attack me, but go ahead if you will I happen to like NO potentiaters.

 

[neoborn]

I have a few parameters for a good WO:
1. Mind-muscle connection
2. Strength
3. Pump
4. Intensity
5. Feeling of accomplishment

If I get at least 3 of these, then I feel like I has a good WO. My list is not exactly in order of importance, but I do have a hierarchy.

1. You can close your eyes and see through the muscle you are working out, all focus is on this muscle and it's contraction.

2. Your poundages are increasing with every workout / weekly basis.

3. Your muscles feel huge while in the gym and appear to be "pumped up".

4. You feel like A) Puking B) Dizzy C) Think and repeat to yourself "this is too much fackin hard work" or "there has to be an easier way"

5. You can physically see the changes in your body occuring. If not take pictures if you have a digi cam etc take them daily / weekly / monthly and you will see the changes.

For posterity have these things in order

1. Workout hard - There are many different workout regimes, many that work well. Generally: Strength training is in the 6 rep range / Bodybuilding in the 8-10 rep range. - Rep range warmup: 15 ( sets 1 & 2 ) Working: 10, 8, 6 last three sets add drop sets to failure )

2. Fast Efficient Workouts = 1hr - This is not hard and fast but studies have shown that Cortisol rises after 1hr

3. Protein shake immediately after workout and then protein meal with carbs etc within 1hr

4. Creatine - Mono or CEE you decide ( with post workout shake ). Both before and after workout.

5. Daily meals - 5 - 6 day ( including shakes ) protein = 1g per pound of body weight. Meal 1 ( breakies ) is shake plus oatmeal or whatever else you want ( apple is good fibre / system crap mover ), Meal 6 is post workout shake with creatine etc and then solid food meal. Carbs tapered down from morning to evening and fats tapered up from morning to evening. Protein is a constant.

6. Sleep 8 - 10 hrs a night ( very imp for all natural BB'ers )

7. Supps - Do you note the order in which these are and where supps come??? - a) Multivitamin / B complex b) Whey protein c) creatine e) Test boosters / stacks etc

Most importantly do you see the order of these things?

Exercises: Compound movements i.e. two arm two leg exercises.

1. Squats - Biggest muscle and boosts test like crazy, work em hard and see results big time.

2. Deadlifts / Chins / Bent over Rows / Pulldowns - 1st attempt either an palm up or palm down chin at the beginning of your back workout, if you can do one, try two if you can do 15 add weight. Most important for back is to make the mind / muscle connection. Concentrate ( start with low weight and excellent form ) on getting a good contraction and not swinging with the weight. Calm controlled up down with good squeeze of lats at bottom of rep. All about the connection / squeeze

3. Leg press

4. Flat Bench Dumbell / Barbell - Always swap it up, it takes more muscle etc to do dumbells ( stabilizing muscles etc ) but switch it up - Start with dips to hit lower chest then move to flat bench / incline.

5. Core work - Abs / lower back - work the weaker harder.

This should give you a good idea....Best thing for test.....squats ....good form, warm up well, be careful and grow!

 

[soseg]

that arm jello feeling where u cant wash ur hair coz ur triceps are so screwed is amazing i havent had it in a while

i fear one day ill work my calves out so hard they'll be like that and i wont be able to drive home cause i wont be able to use the accelerator or breaks properly, lol...

i recon if u crash ur car driving home from gym due to an intense calf workout then u know ur doing it, prob explains why its so hard to get them big coz no1 likes pushing them lol

that aside mine tend to cramp

 

[EasyEJL]

i fear one day ill work my calves out so hard they'll be like that and i wont be able to drive home cause i wont be able to use the accelerator or breaks properly, lol...

i recon if u crash ur car driving home from gym due to an intense calf workout then u know ur doing it, prob explains why its so hard to get them big coz no1 likes pushing them lol

that aside mine tend to cramp

I do standing calf raises with 285 pound on a barbell across my shoulders. My shoulders hurt more than my calves at the end

 

[soseg]

yeah we got a standing calf machine which for me i can do all the weight and not feel anything unless i do more than 15 reps in a set, but we got this seated one where u add freeweights i find it good but yeah i dont know if my calves will grow ill give it a lot of time might try doing standing ones on like a smith machine or something

 

[EasyEJL]

yeah we got a standing calf machine which for me i can do all the weight and not feel anything unless i do more than 15 reps in a set, but we got this seated one where u add freeweights i find it good but yeah i dont know if my calves will grow ill give it a lot of time might try doing standing ones on like a smith machine or something

And make sure that whatever you have the balls of your feet on is at least 2 inches tall, that way you get full range of motion. for laughs in a parking lot the other day (was out with some friends) I picked up my wife and started doing standing ones

 

[asianbabe]

It is ALWAYS a good workout after leg day!
I know I've done well that day if, by the time I'm done, I'm pretty much in a daze and need to sit down for a few minutes just to settle myself down and not pass out.. hasn't happened for a while, and when it does, it is always/only on leg days.

 

[soseg]

And make sure that whatever you have the balls of your feet on is at least 2 inches tall, that way you get full range of motion. for laughs in a parking lot the other day (was out with some friends) I picked up my wife and started doing standing ones

eh i didnt understand that too clearly

 

[EasyEJL]

eh i didnt understand that too clearly

Well like in this pic

its critical that the start of your raises is with your calves already stretched, doing it from a flat floor doesn't give half as much value. I was doing the ones with my wife on my back on the curb

 

[jonny21]

nausea close to vomiting on leg day usually means an excellent workout.
I typically know that I have worked the part out completely if I cannot get 8 clean reps of my warmup weight which I typically drop set to and my final set on the last exercise for the bodypart.

 

[Force of Green]

I don't understand the point in breaking down the workouts into isolated bodyparts... especially 'arm day'. What the hell is arm day? You either spend equal amounts of time in the gym than you do other bodypart days and become victim of overtraining (aka Gym Rat Syndrome) or you get into the gym and you are in and out within 2-3 minutes... because that's all it takes for effective tri/bi stimulation for growth. Unless you train each bodypart twice a week, your muscles are going to undergo some atrophy on your down time as well.
The primary muscles like chest and back will not get enough weekly stimulation they need and the muscles like the biceps and triceps will be overstimulated if they're being used as secondary targeted muscles for days in a row (biceps assisting in back exercises, triceps stimulated during pushing movements, etc.). If you have a 4-5 day breakdown of bodyparts structured throughout the week and you miss a day, everything gets thrown out of synch. You either skip that bodypart for the week (not likely), end up stressing over getting into the gym when it's no optimal or convenient for you (I remember once going into the gym to do legs at 2:00am. This was when I was naive.), or doubling up on bodyparts and end up spending over 2 hours at the gym in some cases. Certain muscles that your stimulating throughout your week also become severely overlapped and end up just burning out and many injuries are caused by stabilizer muscles or tendons, joints, or ligaments that haven't had enough time to rest and recover.
I don't know how ones body can be totally in harmony and synchronization when one is performing these truly split up workout sessions. One day you leave the gym and your arms are surging with blood, one day your chest is pumped, the next day you can barely walk out because your legs are like limp noodles.... Also... when doing this routine, unless you adjust your post workout nutrition, your giving the same amount of macro and micronutrients to the big and the small muscles. Logically, that'd be like me feeding a Great Dane (legs) the same amount of food as a Yorkshire Terrier (arms). Not to mention the differences in caloric expenditure on a day to day basis are NEVER the same... like two fingerprints, none are equal, but two can be very similar.
A few misconceptions about full body (HIT!!!) workouts are:
1.full body workouts are for the time constrained individual only.
2. full body workouts can't give me the stimulation I need for a muscular physique.
3. full body workouts are for older people and those who can't handle the bodybuilding routines.
4. how can I work on building my pecs if I'm only doing 1 exercise each time for chest?

Each workout is not for everyone. There I said it. However, EVERYONE can adopt and/or create a full body HIT workout that is for them. Leave the split body part crap for the roided out prom queens (Cutler, Coleman, Priest,etc). Lee Priest works up a sweat getting into a race car on the off season. You won't receive any of the wealth of benefits doing split routines, that you would by doing true HIT training (full body). The weights will go up for some time, then you realize your redundancy and patheticism (is that a word?) and your ego crashes down like a 500 lb weight stack after a rotted steel cable decides to suddenly snap while your at the peak of the concentric movement.
Everything works as a whole or it doesn't work at all. Train as a whole, and engage at full throttle. This "Oh I'm saving up for my heavy set" is absolute laughing stock.

 

[jonny21]

I don't understand the point in breaking down the workouts into isolated bodyparts... especially 'arm day'. What the hell is arm day? You either spend equal amounts of time in the gym than you do other bodypart days and become victim of overtraining (aka Gym Rat Syndrome) or you get into the gym and you are in and out within 2-3 minutes... because that's all it takes for effective tri/bi stimulation for growth. Unless you train each bodypart twice a week, your muscles are going to undergo some atrophy on your down time as well.
The primary muscles like chest and back will not get enough weekly stimulation they need and the muscles like the biceps and triceps will be overstimulated if they're being used as secondary targeted muscles for days in a row (biceps assisting in back exercises, triceps stimulated during pushing movements, etc.). If you have a 4-5 day breakdown of bodyparts structured throughout the week and you miss a day, everything gets thrown out of synch. You either skip that bodypart for the week (not likely), end up stressing over getting into the gym when it's no optimal or convenient for you (I remember once going into the gym to do legs at 2:00am. This was when I was naive.), or doubling up on bodyparts and end up spending over 2 hours at the gym in some cases. Certain muscles that your stimulating throughout your week also become severely overlapped and end up just burning out and many injuries are caused by stabilizer muscles or tendons, joints, or ligaments that haven't had enough time to rest and recover.
I don't know how ones body can be totally in harmony and synchronization when one is performing these truly split up workout sessions. One day you leave the gym and your arms are surging with blood, one day your chest is pumped, the next day you can barely walk out because your legs are like limp noodles.... Also... when doing this routine, unless you adjust your post workout nutrition, your giving the same amount of macro and micronutrients to the big and the small muscles. Logically, that'd be like me feeding a Great Dane (legs) the same amount of food as a Yorkshire Terrier (arms). Not to mention the differences in caloric expenditure on a day to day basis are NEVER the same... like two fingerprints, none are equal, but two can be very similar.
A few misconceptions about full body (HIT!!!) workouts are:
1.full body workouts are for the time constrained individual only.
2. full body workouts can't give me the stimulation I need for a muscular physique.
3. full body workouts are for older people and those who can't handle the bodybuilding routines.
4. how can I work on building my pecs if I'm only doing 1 exercise each time for chest?

Each workout is not for everyone. There I said it. However, EVERYONE can adopt and/or create a full body HIT workout that is for them. Leave the split body part crap for the roided out prom queens (Cutler, Coleman, Priest,etc). Lee Priest works up a sweat getting into a race car on the off season. You won't receive any of the wealth of benefits doing split routines, that you would by doing true HIT training (full body). The weights will go up for some time, then you realize your redundancy and patheticism (is that a word?) and your ego crashes down like a 500 lb weight stack after a rotted steel cable decides to suddenly snap while your at the peak of the concentric movement.
Everything works as a whole or it doesn't work at all. Train as a whole, and engage at full throttle. This "Oh I'm saving up for my heavy set" is absolute laughing stock.

:blink:

Breaking in a new soapbox?

BTW, I agree on most points. A 2-day split is my preference. Back/Traps/Legs/Bi's & Chest/Shoulder/Tri's.

 

[Force of Green]

:blink:

Breaking in a new soapbox?

BTW, I agree on most points. A 2-day split is my preference. Back/Traps/Legs/Bi's & Chest/Shoulder/Tri's.

Sweet. Some people like a little split. For sure. I also advocate that if a muscle is still too sore from the last workout, you can not emphasize it as much and vice-versa.
For example: I felt that I could do better on chest than what I did 'Monday' which was pushups to failure and emphasizing iso-static holds upon failing until I fell to the ground. I didn't leave the gym dissatisfied saying, "my chest exercise f*in sucked! I need to go back and bench press to get a better pump!"
... I beat the holy hell out of it the next workout a couple days later. It was a full body workout of course, but chest emphasis went a bit deeper. I pre-exhausted in with a chest level cable crossover configuration then hopped on an incline bench with 50 lb dumbells in each hand and popped out single arm incline dumbell presses... I counted off patterns to myself and cranked out reps for the life of me. "1... 1... 1,2... 1,2... 1,2,3,4,5... etc"

 

[rms80]

I know it is a good workout when I get a migraine after from lack of oxygen and lactic acid build-up....usually only happens when we run 120 meters up to 300m sprints and have to stay in range (80-90% of fastest time)....and have to do 8-10 reps

400 the Hard Way x 3 will do it to you as well.....

The result (after the migraine wears off)- you feel PHENOMENAL...


PS- I usually can't get this feeling off of weight training work outs any more, no matter how hard I push myself.....

 

[bitterplacebo]

Sweet. Some people like a little split. For sure. I also advocate that if a muscle is still too sore from the last workout, you can not emphasize it as much and vice-versa.
For example: I felt that I could do better on chest than what I did 'Monday' which was pushups to failure and emphasizing iso-static holds upon failing until I fell to the ground. I didn't leave the gym dissatisfied saying, "my chest exercise f*in sucked! I need to go back and bench press to get a better pump!"
... I beat the holy hell out of it the next workout a couple days later. It was a full body workout of course, but chest emphasis went a bit deeper. I pre-exhausted in with a chest level cable crossover configuration then hopped on an incline bench with 50 lb dumbells in each hand and popped out single arm incline dumbell presses... I counted off patterns to myself and cranked out reps for the life of me. "1... 1... 1,2... 1,2... 1,2,3,4,5... etc"

I agree that a workout exclusively for arms is crap, but I've made progress for the past 4 months with splits. Once before that I had done full body workouts, but without much progress probably because my diet wasn't well and I didn't have access to heavy equipment to work with.

However, I'm getting a little bored and want to try it again and was wondering if you could provide me more insight as to how to distribute the number of sets per part within a workout and the frequency of workouts? Is it like every other day with 3 sets on legs, 2 sets on back/chest, 1 set for bi/tri/trap/calves, everything all out?

By the way, I think the full body workout is probably the best solution to eliminating any worry from "not having a good workout," because you aren't going to be waiting a whole week to hit something again.

 

[Force of Green]

I agree that a workout exclusively for arms is crap, but I've made progress for the past 4 months with splits. Once before that I had done full body workouts, but without much progress probably because my diet wasn't well and I didn't have access to heavy equipment to work with.

However, I'm getting a little bored and want to try it again and was wondering if you could provide me more insight as to how to distribute the number of sets per part within a workout and the frequency of workouts? Is it like every other day with 3 sets on legs, 2 sets on back/chest, 1 set for bi/tri/trap/calves, everything all out?

By the way, I think the full body workout is probably the best solution to eliminating any worry from "not having a good workout," because you aren't going to be waiting a whole week to hit something again.

Give me until later tonite or tomorrow and I'll post my entire workout philosophy and insight to full body HIT training in this thread. I'm late for a pool party! Have a good day yall!

 

[bitterplacebo]

Give me until later tonite or tomorrow and I'll post my entire workout philosophy and insight to full body HIT training in this thread. I'm late for a pool party! Have a good day yall!

Sounds good. I am infinitely patient.

 

[Dagron]

Full body workouts worked great when I was a noobie. I've found that now that I have a good deal of mass, I can't do a simple two or three day split, because the poundages required to achieve stimulations on the movements I would be doing are just too tough on the joints. Five day splits allow you more gym time, so I can pre exhaust the target muscle before I go to compounds with less weight, yet achieve the same effort as I would have required to push much heavier weight without pre exhausting the target muscle.

They both work fine, though, and anybody that tries to pretend that any one split is significantly 'better' than the rest is kidding themselves for the ego boost they get knowing that they're smarter than everyone else for doing it 'their way'.

 

[Force of Green]

Full body workouts worked great when I was a noobie. I've found that now that I have a good deal of mass, I can't do a simple two or three day split, because the poundages required to achieve stimulations on the movements I would be doing are just too tough on the joints. Five day splits allow you more gym time, so I can pre exhaust the target muscle before I go to compounds with less weight, yet achieve the same effort as I would have required to push much heavier weight without pre exhausting the target muscle.

They both work fine, though, and anybody that tries to pretend that any one split is significantly 'better' than the rest is kidding themselves for the ego boost they get knowing that they're smarter than everyone else for doing it 'their way'.

Hmmm... I'm not a fan of making assumptions, but I am going to go out on a limb here... maybe a big limb and say that you are saying that by me advocating the method I employ for myself and others, that I am looking for an ego boost? Hmmm... There's also a difference between full body workouts 'the wrong way'... full body workouts (period)... and full body (true) HIT training. Something tells me that I can't assume that you were actually living the HIT philosophy and just performing the same crap and trying to get stronger with continual repetition and redundancy.

I honestly hope that you don't think I'm looking for an ego boost, because the last thing I'd be doing is preaching at an online message board trying to boost an ego.

Fact is...
I know plenty of people who have seemed to have fun doing the 5 day split ****. Then I don't see them for a month or three. The crap gets old. It's not a lifestyle; It becomes a goddam chore.

When you're taking so many supplements or designer steroids, calesthenics will make you a walking, breathing monster. You can get big beating your meat taking pheraplex, superdrol, etc.

Also... When you don't have a grasp on the full concept of a certain training method, you can't reap the full benefits. You can do a program out of a book, but until you learn to walk on your own 2-feet and start modifying the programs and developing your own exercise philosophies, you'll always be stuck in first gear.

You can knock on me and my posts all you want, or you can try and make a jackass out of me and say that you weren't directing your comment to me at all. What I'm saying is that the body wasn't designed for such programs as those 'bodybuilder' type splits. Everyone knock on me please for making such a statement. Go ahead.