You’ve been training for a little while now, you’ve found your groove with your daily workouts and are seeing improvements in your fitness levels and body composition. We love this for you!
But while you’re reaping all the benefits of your training, have you recently thought you could be working harder or even muttered the words “that wasn’t too bad” after a workout? These are two signs that it is probably time to level up.
What are the other signs? Read on – and if you say YES to any of the below, it’s time to challenge yourself.
1. You could do another round
As much as we cringe at the saying “no pain, no gain”, it does have some element of truth behind it. We’re not saying you have to exercise to the point of hurting yourself, but there needs to be a challenge in your training in order to see and feel changes.
When you feel like you have tried your best at a workout, kept good technique throughout and could still complete another round, you are no longer being challenged and it’s time to up to the next level.
2. You no longer feel the good DOMS
You probably already know that DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)is a great sign that your body is being challenged and your muscles are responding to your workouts.
However, the body is very efficient at adapting to exercises and super clever at creating a mind-muscle memory for movement patterns, so an exercise that gives you DOMS one week might not give you the same DOMS the next week. If you’re working hard and being challenged enough in each session, you should feel some DOMS on a regular basis.
If you haven’t felt any DOMS for a few weeks now, it could be time to level up!
But remember, there are good DOMS and bad DOMS – please make sure it’s the good ones you’re feeling.
3. You could push out more reps
When there is a set amount of reps in a training session and you can complete them with ease, let’s shift you up a gear!
A simple test is to examine the last few reps of an exercise: do they feel slow and strenuous, leaving you short of breath? Or are they the same speed and effort as the first reps of a set and you could probably complete another 10?
You should always have a few reps left in the tank – that’s what is going to get you through the rest of the session – but if you know you could do more, it’s time to look at increasing the weight you’re using or moving on to a progressed version of the same exercise.
The next time you complete one of Torre’s muscle-building sessions or Luke or Ingrid’s HIIT HIRT sessions, focus on how you feel during those last few reps.
4. Your fitness tracker tells you to
Using a wearable fitness device is a fantastic way to keep track of all your workout performance data – from your heart rate before, throughout and after workouts, to energy used each session and your basic health information.
If you're not already, use your fitness device to keep track of your stats and see how you’re progressing each week. Compare your stats during this week’s HIIT session with Luke to last week’s HIIT session, or even the to the first one you ever did. Did your heart rate get as high? Did you burn more or less calories? Is your resting heart rate getting lower?
If your stats are telling you that you’re not training as hard as you could be, you know what to do… step up a level.
5. When you hit a plateau
Fitness plateaus are frustrating. You can be training on a regular basis, thinking you’re training hard enough and really getting the workouts done, but you aren’t seeing any results and any progress you were making seems to stall.
Hello fitness plateau! Your body has adjusted to the workout routine and level you are currently training at and, quite simply, it isn’t being challenged enough anymore. That's why you’re not seeing any changes.
It is absolutely time to level up your training! You need to send your body a wake up call, challenge it, mix up your training, do something different – stepping up your training will do all those things and you’ll start to see progress again.
How many of the above did you say YES to?
Sitting in your comfort zone isn’t going to get you the results you’re after, so be brave and take the next step. Increase your weights, choose the advanced progression of an exercise, level up from Beginner to Intermediate, or Intermediate to Advanced. If you've leveled up too soon, you'll know it:
- your technique goes out the window with a heavier weight
- your form suffers when you try to complete the set work time or reps
- you experience bad DOMS
There's no shame in realizing you're not quite ready to level up. You can always step back and keep working at your fitness before giving it a go again.
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