You're in a functional training program. How do you know if you're making progress?

I love working out because I truly love to stay active. My personal training clients are not in love with exercise and feel differently from me. They are in love with progress because progress means they are closer to their goal, and they think that NOT seeing visible signs means they aren’t getting anywhere. Understandably, progress keeps most people going, especially those new to working out. This typically takes the form of wanting to lose weight or build muscle.

Tracking reps and sets can really help you to understand how you are progressing. If the weight you are lifting (either body weight or heavier) is starting to become easier after 3 sets of 12 reps. Then look to increase the weight and intensity so you find lifting 12 now becomes a challenge.

When I'm coaching, I mostly aim for 3 sets but it's not a fixed number. And I definetly dont' count reps! It's not about the reps for me, it's about teh quality of movement. That's what I'm teaching my clients. Learn to feel when the compensations kick in and that's where you stop. Train qualitiy movements, not the compensation patterns. And when you go to really high reps and sets, it's time to increase the complexity of the movement. Not necessarily the weight. Start easy, focus on quality and increase complexity.

If you are looking to track your mobility progress then measuring simple things like can you touch your toes. If so, is it just fingertips or more? As you can reach further then this is a great sign to see you are improving your mobility.

How you move and what movements you can do are a great indicator of mobility. Functional Training is about bodyweight, free weights. So you have to move and stabilize anyways. The ease and quality of the movement says enough, not to say more than (semi) static tests.

During exercises that are more aerobic and of a higher intensity, measuring your heart rate is a good indicator to see how you are progressing. If your heart rate is lower at the same intensity than you have been used to working at then this is a great sign you are getting fitter.

Mixing up the exercises you do is another great way to measure progress. Once an exercise becomes easier you can make small adjustments to help you progress. This might mean going from an assisted squat to a full-body weight one. The same exercise but more advanced to support your progress.

Asking for feedback and advice is a great way to know if you are making progress. If you have someone watching your form, tempo, etc they will be able to suggest ways to improve. External feedback is great because we cannot see what other people are seeing. We may think we are doing something correctly and find out we aren't. Asking other people for advice is also a great way to learn different ways to achieve a goal. For example: You are having trouble getting your hips back on a squat. Having someone tell you to pretend you are sitting back into a chair, could completely change how you move your body. I bet you will get you will push your hips back!

Step 1 is to measure where we’re at, specific to our goal: 🏋️ Strength and cardio: Note training numbers, and physiological data (HR, HRV, RR) if you have access 💪 Muscle and fat: Photos, body scan 🔋 Subjective measures like mood, energy, focus: use a 1-10 scale and write about how you’re feeling in each This is your baseline. Now we can easily assess progress week to week and at the end of the training block.