how do you know?

I don't think I'm working my quadriceps hard enough. They're never sore anymore.

It's odd, because at the time that I'm working out, they feel so exhausted, and I start to lose my balance by the time I get to the end of the first set of exercises. But even after doing 2 sets, there's no soreness or fatigue the next day or the day after that. Which makes me think that I'm not working them hard enough.

The same thing happens with my calves, though I haven't quite gotten to a point where I feel like I'm doing the calf exercises right. I threw away all my phone books (that's what the internet is for), so I don't have a block high enough to rest my feet on for the seated calf raises. I've tried a binder, but there's some slippage...I may have to invest in one of those aerobic step things, but it seems like such a waste to get one for just this one set of exercises. Then again, I guess these things come with a step aerobic video...I could do that on the off-workout days.

So, how do you know that you're working hard enough? At the time of the workout I feel like I am, but then I'm not sore later, which is the gauge I normally use for these sorts of things. I have heard that the soreness starts to go away if you work out more regularly, and maybe that's what's happening here. If so, I need to find something else to measure whether or not I'm working hard enough. It seems a shame to be sweating my ass off and have it turn out that I'm stopping before it's really doing any good.