Not sure if your workout is effective? Gidon Gabbay shares 7 ways you can tell.

So many articles on fitness focus on the ways in which you can achieve your fitness goals. Aside from losing weight (which can be slow for some people), there are several ways to tell if your workouts are actually doing you any good. In fact, it’s possible to tell within 24 hours of your last workout if you’re exercising properly. Just look for these clues.

You Feel Like a Champ
Okay, so you might not feel like you’re Olympic athlete material, but if you feel strong during your workout, you’re doing well. If, for example, a treadmill workout turns from 30 minutes of hell to 30 minutes of “hey, this isn’t so bad,” you can pat yourself on the back. Or maybe, after a few months of trying to do a chin-up you finally manage to do one—heck, that’s progress.
A good way to track your progress during your workouts is to rate how challenging the workout feels. Rate how you feel on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means the exercise is extremely easy and 10 means you’re working so hard you can’t talk. If you're training properly, that number should go down every few weeks. When you dip below a 5, it's time to increase the intensity. Keep an exercise journal to record sets, reps and weights, as well as how hard the workout felt.

You’re “Feeling the Burn”
No people, I’m not talking about sun, razor or carpet burns: I’m talking about muscle burn. When a working muscle feels like it’s burning, it means the muscle isn't getting enough oxygen for energy. This is a good thing—it means you are pushing your body’s threshold, which eventually causes the muscle to increase in strength. You should feel your muscle fibers heating up during the last third of your reps or cardio workout (and during speed bursts). If you’re not feeling the burn, add more weight or add 1 to 2 minute speed intervals every 3 to 5 minutes.

Your Heart Recovers Fast
If you have strong chest muscles, pushups are probably quite easy for you. If you have a strong heart muscle, pumping blood is also easy for you. A strong heart will pump more blood in a single beat than an unfit one; this means that a person who is in good shape, cardio-wise, will have a lower heart rate than someone who isn’t in shape. Another way to determine the health of your heart is to take your pulse both before and after a cardio workout. Your heart rate should return to its pre-workout rate within 5 minutes. If it takes longer to drop, scale back your workout to avoid burnout and injury. Then crank it up gradually. If recovery takes less than 2 minutes, you're just being lazy.

You Get High
What some people do with drugs, you can do with exercise. There is a plethora of studies out there that show moderate exercise is a great way to improve your mood and your response to stress. You'll most likely notice the "high" minutes after moderate-intensity exercise. The “happy” side effects of more demanding workouts will come later, because the body's first priority is recovery. If you don't feel good a day after your workout, it means that either you are not working hard enough or you’re working too hard. Over-training can have the opposite effect on your mood, so don't overdo it.
Your Libido Perks Up
Exercise boosts blood flow to your nether regions, heightening arousal. This effect will last at least 20 minutes post-workout, so get home to your special someone fast.

Your Muscles Get “Pumped”
Ever heard guys talking about getting a great “pump” from a weight-training workout? This is a phenomenon that happens to everyone when they lift weights properly and at the right intensity. What happens is that when you lift a dumbbell, your muscles contract and put pressure on the blood vessels, temporarily impeding the normal flow of oxygen and blood to the muscles. When you're done, backed-up blood rushes into the muscle and makes it look bigger. The effect lasts about half an hour. If this isn’t happening to you, you may not be targeting the muscle properly or you might need to lift heavier weights. Check your form first before you increase the intensity of your workouts.

You’re Not Hungry
A good, high-intensity workout will curb your appetite. This happens because the area of the brain that regulates hunger (the appestat) slows down when you're hot, zapping food cravings. Exercise also stimulates the secretion of a hormone that suppresses hunger. Nevertheless, try to eat a snack, such as a handful of trail mix, within 20 minutes of your workout to speed recovery and prevent yourself from eating something that isn’t good for you when the appetite-suppressing effects wear off.
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follow the signs
All in all, you should pat yourself on the back for simply keeping regular exercise as a habit. Give yourself credit for a job well done. Learning to read the signs of having a good workout will help you on your way to getting to your fitness goals and staying there.

Original article link: http://www.thesoko.com/thesoko/article1381.html