2659: 10 Ways to Measure Progress (That Aren’t Weight Loss) by Amanda Wheeler of Mark Fisher Fitness

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[00:01:11] by Amanda Wheeler with markfisherfitness.com. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik, reading you some of the most popular health and fitness blogs out there, with permission from the websites and always with

[00:01:22] a bit of my commentary at the end. Now I'm going to keep this intro nice and short, so let's get right to the post as we optimize your life. 10 Ways to Measure Progress That Aren't Weight Loss

[00:01:37] by Amanda Wheeler with markfisherfitness.com. Oftentimes we get caught up on using the scale to measure progress. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to lose a few pounds. And while constantly checking in with what you weigh can keep you in check or make you so sad,

[00:01:55] there are other ways to measure progress that are more empowering. 1. Weight Lifted Can you lift heavier this month than last month? Congratulations! That's progress! Strength progress is super empowering. While it may not be your goal

[00:02:11] to win a powerlifting competition, getting stronger will increase your lean mass, decrease your fat mass, help you burn calories more efficiently, increase bone density, and keep you kicking into your older years. Side note, the number one reason people go to nursing homes is because they can't

[00:02:29] get up by themselves. Also, the STD rate in senior citizens has more than doubled in the last 10 years. Moral of the story? If you're not getting stronger, you'll likely end up in a nursing home with an STD. Ask my grandma Marilyn, she's the life of the party. 2. Recovery

[00:02:47] How do you feel between sets? Are you able to bring your heart rate down quickly and bounce back in? Being aware of what's happening between sets is a useful way to measure progress. Let's say

[00:02:58] you're doing 1-minute intervals with equal rest time. If, after the first few minutes, you feel like death and can barely peel yourself off of the floor when the rest is over, your ability to

[00:03:09] recover isn't the best. If the next month, you're able to stay standing and feel like you're ready to jump in after the rest, that's progress. We can only progress as fast as we can recover, so recovery is a great measuring tool. 3. Repetitions for time

[00:03:27] Doing work for time is called density training. It refers to the volume and duration of your workout. If, over several sessions, you can do more work in the same amount of time or the same amount of

[00:03:39] work in less time, that's progress. Here are two examples. Task 1. Complete this ladder as quickly as possible. 5 repetitions of each exercise down to 1 repetition of each exercise. Deadlift, hang power clean, front squat, push press. If the first time you do it, you complete the task in 7

[00:04:02] minutes and 53 seconds and then the next time you try it, you get a 6 minute and 22 second mark, that's progress. You've done the same amount of work in less time. Example 2. Time. Complete as many rounds of this as possible in 10 minutes. 20 squats, 15 push-ups, 10 pull-ups. If the first

[00:04:24] time you do it, you complete 5 rounds and the second time you try it, you complete 8 rounds, that's progress. You've done more work in the same amount of time. Give yourself a high five.

[00:04:36] 4. Resting heart rate Your resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute at rest. If your resting heart rate is low, your heart is more efficient. It tends to be a healthier

[00:04:48] heart. If your resting heart rate is high, your heart has to do a lot of work to get blood distributed throughout the body while you're not doing anything. Imagine how hard it has to work if

[00:04:58] you exert any effort. If you don't have a heart rate monitor, an easy way to find your resting heart rate is right after you wake up in the morning. Before you jump out of bed, give yourself

[00:05:09] a minute or two to relax. Using your pointer and middle finger, find your pulse on your opposite wrist below your thumb. Count the beats for 15 seconds and then multiply that by 4 to get your

[00:05:21] heart rate. The average adult has a resting heart rate of between 60 and 100 beats per minute. If you're a trained athlete, that number can be anywhere between 40 and 60 beats per minute. If you've been training, eating well, hydrating, sleeping, and monitoring stress and your resting

[00:05:38] heart rate goes down, awesome! That's progress. 5. Aerobic window. Your aerobic window is the difference between your resting heart rate and your anaerobic threshold. The anaerobic threshold is the level of intensity where lactic acid builds up in the body faster than it can be cleared away.

[00:05:58] What the heck does this mean? Have you ever taken a high-intensity interval training class and been able to cruise along for a while when all of a sudden your muscles start to burn,

[00:06:07] your heart is pounding out of your chest, and you can't go hard anymore? That's your anaerobic threshold. The aerobic window is how long your body can use oxygen to do the work before you

[00:06:18] cross over into the anaerobic or without oxygen system. Once you cross over, it'll only be a hot minute before you'll have to slow down or stop. If you can increase the time you can do work with

[00:06:31] oxygen, this is huge progress. 6. Mobility or range of motion. Mobility is a great measure of progress. Can you reach your arm straight over your head without arching your back or shooting your face forward? If not, start to observe where your end ranges are while keeping your core

[00:06:52] engaged and spine neutral. If you notice you can get more range of motion without getting false range from other parts of your body, usually the spine, that is excellent. Being able to move

[00:07:02] your joints freely through their end ranges is not only a super important part of training, but of life. Your 75-year-old self will high-five you if you are progressing in mobility. 7. Energy. How do

[00:07:16] you feel during the day? Are you gulping 32-ounce bubba kegs of coffee at regular intervals to stay awake or do you have a consistent pep in your step? If you're finding that you aren't crashing

[00:07:27] out midday or reaching for the extra dose of caffeine or cookies, no judgment on any of your vices. That's progress. 8. Sleep. Have you tossed and turned in the past but noticed that you're

[00:07:40] sleeping through the night and waking up rested? Ding ding ding! That's not an alarm. That's great news, sleeping beauty! There are scientifically 1 jillion ways that sleep affects your emotional, mental, and physical well-being. If you are progressing in your sleep patterns, it's likely

[00:07:56] you are progressing in life. So let's take a momentary pause and do a happy dance. 9. Clothing. How does your clothing fit? Does it feel like it's getting looser? Yes, there is potential that weight loss has occurred if your clothing is fitting differently, but if you are increasing

[00:08:13] lean mass while you're decreasing fat mass, there might not be a lot of movement on the scale. Using clothing to measure progress is a great way to feel good about yourself without diminishing the feeling by the number on the scale. 10. Confidence. How do you feel

[00:08:30] about yourself? If you are starting to feel more confident, you'll show up differently at your job, in your daily interactions with your peers, in your relationship, and definitely in the bedroom. Feeling more confident is a measure of progress that gets overlooked but is a huge influence in

[00:08:46] all you do and how you show up in life. You don't need a scale to deflate that. Try these on for size. As you try out some of these methods, see how much changing the tools

[00:08:58] you use to measure progress can start to shift your mindset and help you feel empowered. You just listened to the post titled, 10 Ways to Measure Progress That Aren't Weight Loss, by Amanda Wheeler with markfisherfitness.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:09:18] Dr. Neil here for my commentary. As today's author Amanda described, progress doesn't have to only be about getting six-pack abs or being able to lift a heavier weight or running a mile in under 7 minutes. It can be about so much more. If we ever find

[00:09:34] ourselves frustrated at what we think of as a lack of progress, we now have at least 9 other ways to rethink that assumption. And again, that's thanks to today's article. Look, I'm human too and have shared how frustrated I can get with my own perceived lack of progress.

[00:09:51] But whenever that happens, I try and stop and think for a second. I'll think about how much progress I have made. Maybe it's something as simple as recognizing that I was never able to

[00:10:01] perform a certain exercise and the fact that I can now repeat that movement multiple times is pretty amazing. And now that I think about it, isn't this all similar to expressing gratitude? Whenever we feel frustrated about our perceived lack of progress, stopping and expressing gratitude

[00:10:19] for the ability to just move our bodies in the way we want to in the first place is often enough to get us back into the right mindset. Expressing that form of gratitude works for me every time.

[00:10:31] Now, if I can just get myself to do it more often... Alright, that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening and being a subscriber. And of course, I'll be back here

[00:10:42] tomorrow for our usual Friday Q&A, so stay tuned for that where your optimal life awaits.