How Do You Know Your Workout Program Works? | Timothy Valentin

How Do You Know Your Workout Program Works? | Timothy Valentin

"How Do You Know Your Workout Program Works?" Do you jump on the scale right after your workout only to find out that you didn't lose any weight?  How disappointing. Actually there is a better way or should I say there are better ways to tell if your workout program works.

How Do You Know Your Workout Program Works?

We can break this down into three symptoms:

• Soreness
• Hungry
• Slow

Soreness

Your soreness comes from your fast twitch muscle fibers.  Your body has two types of muscle fibers, slow twitch and fast twitch. You get sore because you are asking your body to do something that it is not used to doing. The fast twitch muscle fibers are the first ones called into action so it is only natural that these would be the ones to break down first and become sore after your workout.

Getting sore is a good thing, it means you are making changes to your body and your workout is moving you in the right direction.

 You're Always Hungry

Okay you have changed your diet, tracking calories, and are eating right but you are always hungry. Why? Well you are asking your body to make adjustments to the types of food it is getting and you are experiencing some cravings. These will go away over time as your body adjusts to the new plan so just stick with your plan ( this is why you make a plan in the first place).

In addition to changing your diet you are burning more calories and breaking down your muscles (part of the process of building them up) your body is looking for more energy to do the repairs. This is a natural part of starting a new workout. So here again, create your plan when you start and stick with it. The cravings will soon pass and you will be off an running in no time.

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A note from expert Denis Faye: "If you're hungry even though you've eaten all your calories and you're trying to lose weight, your first course of action is to fight it. Hunger doesn't necessarily mean you need food. It just means you're used to food. However, if you're going completely nuts, then you want filling foods with few or no calories. Herbal tea is good, so is broth or veggies, as long as they're fresh and raw. If you must eat something more substantial, I'd opt for a straight protein, like chicken or egg whites. It's not going to impact your blood sugar as hard and it's not all that yummy, so you know you're not just comfort eating."

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 You feel "Slow"

Yup, you are in a phase where you are building up your muscles this is called " hypertrophy."  At this stage of your workout program you are building new muscles--they are new, big and dumb.  As your muscles are growing their ability to move slows down. This is also a natural stage that you will go through as part of starting a new workout routine and build or retraining your muscles.

Do keep in mind all three of these "Symptoms" are part of stages and are not chronic, and you should only expect to experience them for a short time when starting a new training program.

These symptoms are a way that you can answer the question "How Do You Know Your Workout Program Works."

Enjoy your workout!


Timothy Valentin
Team Beachbody Coach