Who will want to work for a whole month and not get a paycheck at the end of the month? The answer will be no one, as everyone will want to get something in return for the effort they put in.
The same goes for exercises. If you grind for a month doing all the exercises but do not get proper results, wouldn’t that demotivate you? In most cases, it certainly will.
Exercise is good, but if you are not doing it correctly, then it will be just another activity you waste your time on. So, doing the exercises properly is very important. There is no magical formula or correction pattern that you can follow to perform your exercises correctly. Because of this, it becomes difficult for beginners to identify whether they are performing exercises correctly.
No one has perfected their form in a single day; it takes time and, most importantly correct knowledge to identify if you are doing an exercise correctly or not. Someone’s day 100 in the gym will not be the same as your day 1 in the gym.
Some indicators will help you to understand if you are doing exercise correctly or not. We are not saying these indicators are absolute, but they can give you an educated assumption. The top 5 indicators are:
Check if you are getting a pump or not
A pump is a state in which you feel a particular muscle getting harder and fuller after training it. This happens because when you train a muscle, the blood flow increases in that muscle, and due to excess blood flow in the veins of that muscle, that muscle looks fuller at that time. Usually, a good pump lasts for 2 to 3 hours.
When you train, check if you are getting a pump on the particular muscle you are training. If you are doing biceps curls, then after 1 or 2 sets, you should be able to feel the pump. Just grab the muscle and check if it gets harder than before. If you are getting a good pump after training any specific muscle, then it can be a good sign that you are training that muscle.
However, it becomes hard to track whether you are getting a good pump for a particular muscle in some exercises. There are two kinds of exercises based on the muscle involvement.
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Compound Exercises:
In compound exercises, multiple muscles are activated at once. Usually, in compound movement, one or more muscles receive the most stimuli, and other muscles assist in completing the exercise.
For example, when you perform a deadlift, the primary muscles are the glutes and back; however, your core, forearms, calves, etc., also assist you.
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Isolated Exercises:
Isolate exercises are those in which you only train one particular muscle without assistance from other muscles.
For example, you only train your quadriceps muscles when you perform leg extensions.
A pump can easily be tracked when performing isolated exercises, as they mainly engage one muscle. The same cannot be said for compound exercises, as the pump is hard to track because of the involvement of different muscles. Identifying whether you are getting a pump when performing compound movements takes some time. Developing a good mind-muscle connection can resolve this issue.
Not using excessive momentum
Identifying this problem can be tricky. How will you know whether you are performing an exercise using excessive momentum?
Well, there are two ways. The first one is if you are working with a partner, and if your partner has moderate-level exercise knowledge, you can ask for feedback from your gym partner. You can use momentum in the last one or two reps to grind the last bit of energy, but if you cheat from the first rep, you will leave many opportunities to grow on the table. How can you track it if you do not have a partner?
It is not that difficult, but then you will need another kind of partner, which is your mobile. Just record your workout, and after finishing a set, check the recording and see if you are moving way too much unnecessarily. Check it after each set and judge yourself if you have improved your current set movement from the prior set or not. You need to be brutally honest with yourself; otherwise, it will be meaningless.
Making Progress Overtime
One of the best signs that you can get that you are performing the exercise correctly is that you can progress in that exercise weekly or within two weeks. However, progress should be made by doing exercises in the correct form rather than cheating.
One key aspect of muscle growth is progressive overload. Progressive overload can only be achieved when you become strong in a particular exercise or movement.
If you do a bench press with 40 pounds and, after two weeks, you can do the same number of reps with 42 pounds, it is a sign that you made progress in that exercise.
Progressive overload can also be done in other ways. You can increase the number of reps using the same weight.
For example, if you previously did a bench press with 40 pounds for 10 reps and in the next week if you can do a bench press with 40 pounds for 12 reps, it will also be considered as progressive overload. You can also slow down the exercise to make progress, such as slowing the eccentric phase to make progress in that exercise.
If you can make progress weekly or every two weeks, then you are performing that exercise properly, and as a result, your muscles are improving each session.
Increase in Range of Motion (ROM)
Range of motion is stretching and contracting a muscle from a fixed joint. It is a really important aspect of muscle growth.
If you are not fully contracting or stretching your muscles, then you are doing half the training and leaving the other half on the table. When you start, it is normal that you will not have a good range of motion. Over time, your joints will become flexible, and you will adapt to the exercise, which will increase your range of motion.
For example, beginners can usually go down as far as 90 degrees when they perform squats. Over time, if they perform squats, their ROM will increase, and at some point, if they have good enough
Felling Soreness
Soreness is a good indicator, but it is not absolute. If you train a particular muscle correctly with good intensity, then there is a high chance that you will feel sore the next day.
Soreness is a build-up of lactic acid in the muscle. When muscles go through an intense workout, they produce a good amount of lactic acid during the training, and if that lactic acid does not get flushed from the muscle, then soreness occurs.
If you are training biceps and you experience soreness in your forearms, you should understand that you are not performing the exercise correctly. You are bending your forearms way too much when performing biceps exercises.
However, it is not that if you do not get sore, you are not training correctly or hard enough. Your body adapts to changes, and after a particular time, you feel less sore or not at all when performing the same exercises using the correct technique.
That is why we suggest you not make decisions based on soreness alone. If other muscles get sore rather than the targeted muscle, then you should be concerned as you are not performing exercises correctly.