How do you tell a workout is good? Isn’t more cardio always a good thing? Doesn’t that help you burn more calories and get to your goal faster?
I remember early in my fitness journey, I defined a good workout as feeling really sore the next day. I associated that muscle soreness with muscle growth. It took me years before I realized that exercise was the tearing down of my muscles and that the improvement and growth I made in my fitness was from when I ate and when I slept AKA recovery.
Most significant muscle soreness people have when starting a workout regimen is related to unique stress of a new activity they did. It’s not actually a marker if the workout was particularly ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ If you have not been exercising for awhile, usually any repetitive motions will cause you to be sore. It’s also important to know that your soreness will decrease as you continue to show up and exercise. So, if muscle soreness is something you’re concerned about when starting exercise, do not worry, it will get better. (And conversely, don’t start thinking the workout isn’t good if you’re not sore.)
The real magic in working out and seeing significant progress over weeks, months and years is in what you do after. First, food. Protein is very important to muscle repair and growth. A simplified target for daily protein intake is 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you have difficulty getting in 1g/lb of lean bodyweight, then a protein shake is a great idea for you, right after you’ve finished your workout. If weight loss is a part of your goals, still eating a diet high in protein will help you get there. Protein helps you feel full, but it will also grow your muscle tissue. Muscle tissue, at rest, burns more calories than fat tissue. Your total calories should be in a deficit to help you lose weight, but the protein should remain high to make continued progress.
Secondly, sleep and recovery days. It is important to provide the nutrients to help you repair your muscle tissue you broke down in exercise, but it’s equally important to provide rest for these tissues to heal and grow. A solid 8-10 hours of sleep per night is ideal to help your body recover. It’s also equally important to have days of the week that you don’t exercise that are typically referred to as ‘recovery’ days. This doesn’t mean you can’t do any activity, but lower impact activities should be prioritized, like walking, swimming and moderate biking. The lower impact movement on recovery days is actually helpful in making you feel better after a hard workout and can help improve recovery.
Don’t forget that in exercise, too much can be, too much. Long cardio sessions every day of the week don’t allow for your body to recover and can cause additional stress and inflammation. That stress and inflammation ends up working against you in the long run, inhibiting your muscle repair and can lead to difficulty with losing weight… and sometimes even causing you to gain weight, when that wasn’t your objective.
And if you’re feeling particularly tired or ‘burned out’ take a complete rest day! The long term progress is made as you show up consistently over long spans of time, not in the 10 days at the beginning. Plan for sustainable, long term success in your wellness.
Coach Sarah, FNP-BC, MSN