How you should feel after a workout...

[AZFitnessGuy]

ok well you guys slammed me on my first post, but I'm gonna give this one more go as too often I see people I want to help but cant due to whatever circumstance, I'll preface this by telling you guys I am a personal trainer and have been in the gym for several years and helped countless people lose weight, I am sorry if I offend anyone here and would love any feedback you guys may have:

Things to feel post workout:

1) You should have broke a sweat. We're not talking I feel a little hot, we are talking moisture. Unless you have sweat gland issues where ever you sweat the most there should be signs of it. I'm a back sweater personally, when I leave my back is like a water slide. Unless you are doing super intense cardio, your body should not be totally dripping... yet.


2) You should be thirsty or hungry. If you have done everything needed in the gym you should feel the need to replenish your energy stores.


3) You SHOULD NOT be able to do your best set again. If you walked in to the gym and did 10 clean pull ups, you should not be able to do another 10, you should be able to do between 1-3.


4) You SHOULD have some soreness the next day in the part you trained, the only exception being abs, they are incredibly resilient at getting sore, now it may not be a bad thing if they are sore, but if they are not, don't worry. I had the record number of sit ups in my police academy (72 in a minute, there were 1400 people in my class) and in the last 15 years of training my abs have been noticeably sore maybe 15 times. If something doesn't feel sore, stretch it and double check, sometimes that soreness hides.


5) You SHOULD NOT be debilitated. Keep it intense but at an intensity your body can handle.


6) Your mind should feel great. There are times in my life where I have the weight of the world on my shoulders, oh crap how am I gonna get all this done? Oh damn, I have to work 100 hours at the firehouse this week, geez my car is crapping out how am I gonna afford this... And then you walk out of the gym, and it feels like you literally cleaned your mind. It's ok, I'll get this done, I'll get the work at the firehouse done, I'll figure out my money situation. The gym makes you feel good when you are training right, and it will be an integral part of making a lot things in life better other than the obvious fitness and health.

Hope this helps!
-Joe

 

[amy1985]

What's with the blanket recommendations? This post is a lot better than your initial one (or at least more generalisable), but still... it won't work for everyone. There are people here who are going through rehabilitation or conditions which resemble rehab, who can't work some or all of their body properly (some of whom can't join the gym for financial and other reasons), who might look at this and say "well, as the only thing I can do is walk, given my knees are stuffed and I don't have access to a gym/ pool, and walking doesn't make me sweat, I shouldn't bother exercising, because this personal trainer says I need to sweat after I exercise." That'd be the wrong conclusion to take, and yet it's the logical one from what you've written. (My advice to them would be "any exercise is better than no exercise")

Or someone who hates exercise- let's take me. I was that nerdy kid who even the sports teachers picked on (I'd come last in races except for the kids with intellectual disabilities- sometimes they didn't even understand why they were there. Yes, I'm that crap), I'm clumsy and ungainly, and I have a hate-loathe relationship with my body and physical activity. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and work my arse off, but for the most part, I hate it (I've recently gotten back into swimming, and really love that- but then, I don't sweat doing that, so I should probably get back to something I like less). It hurts (albeit in a "muscle burn" rather than "injury" way), it makes me self-conscious, and no, I don't feel good afterwards, except for "thank heavens that's over". It's a demon to be fought (and one I'm slowly winning against), not a big thrill like so many people who are into exercise seem to think. Even when I do things I enjoy (swimming, and I'm starting to get more out of weight training), my overwhelming feelings are fatigue (and no, I don't think I'm overtraining) and "glad I've got that out of the way". Why do I do it? Because I want to lose weight and have a decent shape. I grit my teeth and get through it. If I was to take your recommendations to heart, I should stop exercising, because "yeah, baby!" is not something I'm ever going to feel as I come out of the gym. Again, that would be absolutely the wrong path to take, yet it's not a stretch to take that as what you would think in my case.

My advice to you? Read what the people here are actually doing. Look at their individual circumstances and preferences. Advise individually, as everyone here is so different. There are some personal trainer on here who give great advice, but for the most part it's "you want to try to do X? If you want to do it for purpose A, then adapt it from X to Y. This is how hard you should be working/ the way to work out what weight to lift/ etc." And individual encouragement when the person losing weight reports back on their results. (For example- I made this thread when I was getting frustrated with the weight training I was set up with at the gym, and several people with experience jumped in and gave me advice. I've significantly revamped my weight program and feel like I'm actually achieving something: http://weight-loss.fitness.com/weight-loss-through-exercise/48418-question-low-rep-high-weight.html )