How To Go About Measuring Success In The Gym
Anytime you set out to accomplish something, you need to know how you are progressing. Are you lagging behind or are you making strides nicely and in a timely fashion? If I was taking a cooking class and wanted to make a lovely dinner for my wife at it’s conclusion, I’d have several barometers at my disposal. Firstly, does what I prepared taste good? Does it smell and look good? Are the portions ample? Measuring success at this task is relatively straight forward, but how do we go about measuring success in the gym?
The realm of health and fitness is no different in that we need to be able to quantify our progress somehow. In other words, we need to know that we are making gains and not just wasting time, effort, and money in it’s pursuit. Plain and simple, we need to be measuring success in the gym towards our predetermined goals. Unfortunately, it can be a bit more complicated than making a meal.
Thankfully, measuring success in the gym isn’t as difficult as one would imagine. There are many ways upon which one could judge their fitness progression. For example, are you stronger? Are you more energetic? Are you leaner and have any visible muscle showing? These are the obvious basic questions we can ask ourselves, but what if we are more advanced as trainees and are shooting for a sport specific goal. As an Austin personal trainer, one of my clients plays in the NBA and together, we drew up some very specific and lofty goals for him. These goals aren’t measured by body fat calipers, tape measures, pounds lifted, or reps counted, but by his actual performance on the court.
Reps and poundages are great for bragging rights, but if our work doesn’t parlay over to the basketball court, it’s all for naught. With all that goes into his routine as a professional basketball player, there’s a lot to do, and also a lot that can go wrong. For example, we needed to focus on his glutes because with the tightness he had in his hips that rotated him through to the left side, he had become quadricep dominant, though to a small degree. That level of imbalance would be almost negligible to most people, but his ability to jump, as well as change direction laterally was being compromised, and that is a serious problem for someone who has a multi million dollar contract to do just those things.
If we were to be too aggressive and overwork a certain muscle, that could create a game time imbalance. Far worse, would be if we overworked a muscle that was imbalanced and created a tear, thus sidelining him.
How do we measure success in such an aforementioned scenario? By his ability to move. If we aren’t properly zoning in on the areas needing improvement, we aren’t doing much in the way of helping him.
For those who aren’t dependent upon such things for their livelihoods, but whom rather are just interested in making basic changes, such as bigger arms, flatter stomachs, etc, that is a far easier task. You can literally see the difference in photographs, how clothes fit, body fat calipers, etc. Those are quite simple, but no less important to the individual.
Ultimately, progress only comes to those willing to consistently put in the time and effort in order to succeed. This means doing things you may not want to do when you have no interest in doing them. Whether you play in the NBA, or are just looking to make a few changes to your physique, put in the time consistently and you’ll stand a much greater chance of seeing the results you are looking for.
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Andy
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