Hand on heart… how do you judge the effectiveness of a workout?
Is it how sore you feel?
Is it how sweaty you get?
Is it how many calories you burn?
Hate to break it to you but in isolation all three are horrible measures of effective trainingI
I could get my baby niece to pick 10 reasonably strenuous exercises at random and there is a good chance she would come up with a routine which achieved one (or all) of the above.
Seriously.
Or I could say do 1000 squat jumps in the next 30 minutes.
By the end you would be sore, sweaty and heading straight for the physio.
It’s not nearly as engaging or marketable but a much better question to ask is this:
Does my workout stimulate a positive improvement in fitness while minimising the risk of injury?
If the answer is yes... you have an effective workout.
Boring but true.
PS - There is no reason why an effective workout can’t make you sore, sweaty and burn lots of calories. But on their own they are not good measures. First and foremost your workout should stimulate a positive improvement in fitness while keeping wear and tear to an absolute minimum.