Training and learning Process for Assessing your workouts and improving
Plan
Have a plan for your workout. What muscle groups are you working and when? Which exercises are you doing? Are you doing cardio? What days?
To create a plan, you have to think about your goals. Believe it or not, when I talk to a client, they don't usually start out with clear goals, but they do have an idea of a body they want- which is actually a physical and emotional feeling. We discuss and clarify, and I create a plan. But, with some background knowledge, you can create a plan for yourself. It will give you direction when you go to the gym and help you be more effective in your workouts.
Practice
Practice mind-muscle connection and form. Practice the movements with lighter weights or resistance and work your way up! You are supposed to start where you start! I still often practice an exercise to activate a particular muscle: Lats come to mind!!
Form is important for safety in the movement as well as effectiveness. When doing squats, where do you feel it? What muscles are being targeted? Does anything pinch or have pain? How much flexion and mobility in the movement do you have?
Perform
Think about how you measure the success of an exercise. Maybe you are training for a marathon, so you have a plan, you train using that plan, then you perform the actual event of running the 26.2 miles. There are so many ways to "measure". Distance over time. Amount of weight lifted. Aesthetics and body composition... When are you ready to go up to the next level? We call that event "personal record" or PR!
Process
By process I mean the verb. Process or think about the performance, the practice, and the plan. What were the positives? What could be changed for next time? What would have made it better? How did you feel? Was there pain or injury? Did you have trouble sticking to it or have emotional/ mental challenges?
If we don't think about these things, we can't improve. This kind of thinking will help us become really good at strategizing and it applies to all areas of learning in our lives.
If you have any questions about training or would like a Plan. Practice. Perform. Process worksheet, click here:
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