How To Check Your Workout Quality By Yourself

When you work out at home and by yourself, how do you know that what you do you do right? Two items most of us have at home can make sure you get bigger gains out of your workouts!

Self-Control 101

Those of us who train at home without a spotter face a problem, even when we have a perfect workout plan, where every muscle group gets the exact amount of work we need.

No, I’m not talking about workout safety, that’s a different beast.

What I’m talking about is that we get no feedback on our form. Nobody is telling us if we cheat without noticing. That can limit progress or lead to injury!

Spot your mistakes, turn them off and your gains increase while the risk of injury decreases. You likely already own the items you need to do it:

Vigilance Leads To Better Workouts

As I remarked in the video, I too was sure that I always used very good form. Every movement was controlled and the range of motion exactly as it should be. Or was it? It took me that video on crunches to learn that I kept lifting my pelvis when doing them.

If you are like me and believe you are doing everything right, don’t rest on your laurels! Make sure by checking!

But Don’t Obsess!

Ok, all that being said, one word of warning: don’t obsess about picture-perfect form. Nobody has perfect form on every single rep. Look for bad form that occurs on every single rep (like what I did doing crunches) and turn that off, not the occasional oopsy.

Picture courtesy of Wojtek Pruchnicki.