To know whether you training enough is tricky. There are so many articles that talk about overtraining. But for me, the question that I asked myself most is–do I really train hard enough?

Let’s be honest, it is easier for us to think that we are training hard than it actually is.

In this post, I will split the content into two sections: the training structure, and the training performance.

Training Structure

To know how much is too less, we need to look at how much training volume is acceptable for those that wish to build muscle or increase strength.

Here’s the suitable volume for those that wish to build muscle:

How many sessions for a week x How Many Exercise x Sets = Training Volume In a Week

A recommendation is that the volume for one muscle group in a week is between 12~15 For beginners, 15 ~20 for the more advanced trainer.

This should depend on your goal, for building strength 5-10, for hypertrophy is 10~15. you need to make sure you meet technical failure when you reach that rep range. Muscle endurance is probably more than 15, but try not to exceed 25 reps because that isn’t much effective for muscle activation, it will soon turn into aerobic exercise.

If your goal is to burn more fat, let’s say you wish to train for more aerobics, then tracking your heart rate is effective to determine the intensity.

Training Performance

After knowing how much is too less or too much, then we will move into the next session, which is the most important aspect of this post.

There are a lot of articles that help us determine whether we have enough training volume, that is the training properties. For me, I think that the measurement is the basic step we can get to know whether we train enough, but the most important is how you feel during each training session.

First thing first, these are a few things that should not be us to measure whether our workout is effective.

Sweat:

A good workout might come with some sweat, however, it doesn’t mean every sweaty workout is a good workout. The factor of us sweating could vary from hot weather or genetics. It is also possible for us to sweat when we just sitting.

Soreness:

Most of us will assume our workout is ineffective because we did not feel sore. If you just come back from a long break, then you might feel soreness after the day of the workout. However, if you are someone who workouts out regularly, then you won’t feel soreness.

Facial expression during training:

This is a funny one, but I still need to clarify it.

Yes, it is true that a terrible face is a clear sign that you feel challenging during your workout. I included, every time I will look at my terrible face and be convinced that I had a great workout.

However, although this is a good way to tell, it isn’t applicable in every situation. Some of us are just being thin-skinned and you will still have a bad face even if you did not train enough.

Only Yourself Able To Tell An Effective Workout

A few things you can make in the first place are make sure you meet each external requirement. Once you pass that threshold, you need to pay attention during your session. In the end, it is hard to tell how to determine whether you have your workout is effective just by looking at the workout structure itself.

This is also something that I realised, I can have my entire session look exactly the same, but can tell one of them is an effective workout but another is not.

The difference here is how you feel during the workout.

You get to feel that pump.

Every movement had fully activated the muscle, no cheat move was allowed. And you know that you are in the training zone by focusing on every movement.

I could say that a good training plan is the first step of an effective training session, but to determine whether you have an effective training session really depends on yourself.

Overtime Progress

The last thing that you need to take into account is also the most important aspect for you to look at. Which is long term progression. We can’t just merely look at the performance of a single session to judge whether it is effective enough. However, looking at your strength or fitness level over time is the best indication.

Do you constantly make progress?

Do you find the form better than last time?

Do you find you able to perform the same exercise better than last time?

Only you can tell the answer. If the answer is positive, you are on the right track