How do you know if you're pushing yourself enough?

how do you know if you're pushing yourself enough?

you see progress

if you don't know then you're not pushing yourself enough. anyone doing a sufficiently hard routine will sometimes find themselves in the situation where progress stalls or goes backwards because you did too much work. obviously you want to avoid this, but it will happen from time to time anyway.

is it a fine line between pushing yourself to the limits and pushing yourself too much which may result in damage or counter productive exercise?

Or you feel muscle pains. I usually train to get gainz after they get sore, works every time...

thats where my curiosity stems from. i dont want to do too much or too little just to lose progress. but i guess its an instinct after sometime.

Does anyone else get tunnel vision on the last squat on the last set?

as a beginner the line is not very fine at all. as an intermediate you'll start to experience it, and the more advanced you get, the finer the line becomes.

as an intermediate it's probably more likely that you're underrecovered than overworked, though. insufficient diet, lack of sleep or other stupid, avoidable shit will make you stall. it's only when you're sure you've fixed all those things that you can start talking about pushing yourself too hard.

in what way?

thanks, this is enlightening

Blackness begins to form around your vision when pushing up and ends when you finally lock

nope, i guess im not doing enough. sounds like orthostatic hypotension

as a rule of thumb, if you can do the same as last time without issue, but don't see any progress, then you're not working hard enough. if you can lift less weight/sets/reps than last time then you've done too much and sufficient recovery hasn't occured.

Sounds like you need to breathe more

when you fall over

should i fall over the 3 days im exercising?

Makes sense, I do feel like I'm out of breath once I'm done.

Yes.
But that fine line is hidden under a layer of ignorance and arrogance.

A way to tell that you're overworked and over trained is if you're tired even after a good nights sleep and eating a bit more
If you're lethargic and quick to temper.
If your heartrate is high as fuck for no reason.
If your body doesn't feel like it's fully rested and your joints are aching a bit.

Then you're over trained.


As for pushing too hard and getting there? It's really a personal thing. You have to know your limits. If you're not sure then look into the two extremes of working out that are published by two workout schools of thought.

Working hard(as a natural) and knowing how much rest you need, being able to recouperate well and having adequate diet.
VS
The minimum effective dose.


The former is a really tough workout that you can do that takes advantage of the very edges of your recouperative ability and requires a lot of time and energy and rest. Meaning that your life will have to come to a screeching halt and be dedicated to Exercise.

The minimum effective dose is doing as much is as needed to get a positive physical adaptation and maintain it.
The minimum effective dose is a single full body, single set lift for strength and or mass.
Two aerobic conditioning sessions a week to maitain and build cardiovascular strength. And you can choose HIIT or really hard tabata protocols to do that. Which will take no time at all.

Then there's the russian philosophies of "do as much as possible while remaining as fresh as possible' which I find...refreshing for lack of a better word.

that's what it takes
you need to push yourself real hard

You will be sore, all the time.

Not like something is broken painful sore.

Like a dull version of DOMS, noticeable mostly when you wake up, and before you go to sleep.

You will obviously also be getting bigger. But remember growing takes a fuck load more time than the juiced up faggots spout ofd about in film interviews.

You won't look like a Spartan in 7 months.

You might in 4-5 years.

in my experience, the heavier the weight, the more you need to breathe every rep.

if i'm punching out a 1pl8 warm up, i just hold my breath for the 5 reps all fine. if i'm going for a 5rm pr then i breathe every single time i do a rep. you'll legit pass out eventually if you don't.

im getting this sore feeling mainly in my quads and arms so i guess i need to push myself harder for other parts of my body. i get fatigue really quickly since im a skinny fuck and am not very experienced with working out, but i guess my endurance will pick up (as it already has after 1 week of exercise)