Do you train hard enough?

A reader recently sent me a great question:

“I always wonder if I press hard enough during strength training. My goal is to build strength and muscles – and not to be a fragile old lady.”

This kind of question is more common than you may think! It is something that almost everyone surprises: “How difficult should I work when I lift?”

Let us collapse.

✅ 1 .. Do your muscles feel used during and after your training?

You don’t have to destroy yourself to make progress, but you should The feeling that your muscles have done a meaningful job.

That could occur as:

• Feel tensions and “work” in your muscles when picking up
• The feeling that the weight becomes unintentionally slower when you get tired in the middle of your set
• After training, a slight muscle pump
• Light sore muscles the next day (but nothing brutal)
• I have the feeling that you have challenged yourself at the end of each sentence

If you end your training and have the feeling of doing the whole thing immediately, this could be a sign, it is time to increase repetitions, weight or sets.

✅ 2. What kind of pain do you get (if available)?

Contrary to the popular opinion, Pain is not the only sign of progressBut there can be clues.

I am looking for the following:

• Mild pain for 1–2 days? Great! You will probably get enough work.
• Extreme pain Does that take 4 to 5 days or more? This is too much. Choose it back.
• Never Nounds at all? It could be time to deliberately push things a little more or change exercises.

Here too there is pain signalNo scorecard. It is nothing to hunt, no matter what happens, but it is another piece of the puzzle to understand what works and does not work for them. 😃

✅ 3. Do you see progress over time?

Strength training is about to challenge your body and then your body ​Gradually increasing this challenge over time​.

• Do you lift heavier weights than 4 to 6 weeks ago?
• Do you do more repetitions or more sentences with the same weight?
• Do your movements feel more stable, more self -confident or more controlled?

If the answer is, you will become stronger. And that’s exactly what we want.

If not, it could be time to turn into a more structured plan, such as A ​Periodized program​ This increases the volume (sentences and repetitions) or the intensity (weight volume) over 6–12 weeks.

Note: Of course, we will lose some muscle and strength with increasing age. This is totally normal! However, we can help reduce this loss with intelligent strength training.

Even if you may raise less in your 70s than in your 30s, you can continue to progress in a training program to gradually increase the challenge. The principle of progressive overload continues to apply. 💪

🧪 Would you like to test your strength safely?

Another way to check whether you work hard enough?

Try what I call a Litmus set.

This is how it works:

1. Choose an exercise They made it consistently-such as body weight squats, push-ups, dumbbell rows or a machine press.
2. Make a solid warming up. Get your body in motion and your joints feel good.
3. Then go out everything: Make as many high -quality repetitions as possible with good shape. Stop when you know that you cannot complete another clean representative.

This is the easiest (and the safest) with:

• Machines (they are already “discovered”)
• Body weight movements (you can simply stop without risk)

Less ideal:

• Free weight movements such as barbell backs or heavy bench presses (unless you have a spotty and a lot of experience)

What are we looking for?

Compare your litmus set with your usual working sets.

Example:

• If you usually do 3 sentences of 10 Repetition And your litmus set brings you 12–13 repetitionsYou are right in this sweet spot within a few repetitions of failure.
• When you beat 20+ repetitionsOn the other hand, they leave more than 10 repetitions in the tank during their normal training. This means that it is time to increase the weight or repetitions in order to continue progressing.

Most muscle builders appear when they are inside ​1–4 repetitions of failure​ on a work kit. But if you don’t know what mistake feels It is easy to stop briefly.

A litmus set helps with the newly calibrated efforts and builds confidence that you can (surely) press harder if it makes sense.

💡 The end result

You don’t have to crush yourself to get stronger. But you Do I want your workouts to be targeted and challenging enough to adapt from your body.

Seek:

• Muscle tension (during the set)
• Muscle fatigue (after your training)
• Mild pain (especially at the beginning of a new training program)
• Progress over time (repetitions, weight, technology)
• … and the occasional litmus for clarity

What if you don’t see them? Let us optimize your approach and help you find this sweet spot.

And remember! If you ask this question, this means that you are already training what is amazing!

You have that.

– Coach Matt PS needs help with the search for the next step to make progress in your training? Shoot me an email and I will see how I can help! 💪