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One of the best things that I ever did was to start a workout journal to chart my progress. I have all of my workouts that I have done over the last fifteen or so years. It is great to be able to go back and see what I was doing that many years ago and what worked and what didn’t. I can easily see how strong I was (or wasn’t) and how much I weighed. My only regret is that I don’t have one from my very first workout, way back over 25 years ago! It would be great and probably funny to see what I did!
During that time, I competed in powerlifting, did one catastrophe of a natural bodybuilding show, and did many Tae Kwon Do fights. It is really helpful to see how I trained and even what I ate. If you aren’t keeping one now, do yourself a favor and start. Once you get in to a routine, it really doesn’t take that much time and it will definitely make you more productive in the gym.
[This is all it has to be, just a plain .79 cent spiral notebook. It may be cheap but it will bring you more value than you can ever imagine!]
I never have to wonder what I did the workout before, how much weight I used, and how many reps I got. Without writing it down, I would literally be lost trying to figure out if I am getting stronger or going heavier. I definitely do not lift as heavy as I used to, but I still belief that you need to have progressive resistance in order to force your body to grow. It could be adding weight, adding reps, decreasing rest time, etc. Regardless you need to know what you did last workout to know what you should do this workout.
I know that some people just wing it and train to failure depending on how they feel for that day, they may go heavier or they may not, but they concentrate on going to failure. Being a past powerlifter, I know that your mind plays a big part in how much you can lift on any certain day. If you have a set weight and reps scheme that you are trying to beat, odds are you will beat it. If you just wing it, there is far less chance that you will do more than you did last time.
I actually think that my workout journal is one of the most valuable things that I have in regards to training. It helps to push me to always try and beat my last workout and do better than I did in the past. I have around ten or more of these notebooks and every once in awhile, I will take the time to look through and see what i was doing last year or even ten years ago. It will be cool to pass these down to my kids years from now so they can see what I was doing and hopefully learn from them!
Don’t worry too much about how to do it and what type of notebook. Just grab a typical spiral notebook and write down the date, time, and what you do for each workout. I also track my weight and any cardio training that I do. Do this every workout for a month and see what you think. If you decide to do this, you won’t regret it and it will become a habit that will be hard to break.
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Exactly how people should go into the gym, prepared. Turning up and what do I feel like to day doesn’t cut it. They need a plan which is written down.
I’ve been lifting weights for 18 months and I have surpassed many who have been there for years simply because I know my exact progression and what is happening. Knowing when i’m going forwards or not.
Another tool I use is a stop watch I time my whole workout even the rest periods this measures instensity.
These are the only two things you need to make insane gains. Cool Post
Raymond´s last blog ..Male Body Image, The Dark Side : Negative Behaviours You must Avoid
Wow, you are disciplined! I’m a bit too scatterbrained to have gotten one of these yet, but I have thought about it. I wish there was something like a workout journal program to put on my computer. I’d really like to be able to search for my heaviest lifts, most pull ups, and when I did them, etc.
Darrin´s last blog ..Forearm Exercises: A Cautionary Tale
Raymond,
That is so true. If you watch people at the gym, there are so many just milling around going from one machine to the next with no direction or idea of what they are trying to accomplish! This is why so many people don’t really make any progress after the first initial six months or so!
Darrin,
You could just do it with an Excel spreadsheet, I would think. If you do, you can get some fancy graphics and a copywriter and sell it online for $39.95! There’s a lot worse stuff than that selling for a lot more!
I could see the sales page now, “Diary of a Frustrated Gym Rat!” LOL
the trouble with having a computer applications would be that you wouldn’t have it with you at the gym, so you’d end up having to write it all down anyway.
I had a spreadsheet on my phone for a while logging my lifts, but I’ve since abandoned it.
LD@DSD´s last blog ..Best workout routine when you don’t have much time
LD,
Yeah I think just writing it down in a cheap spiral notebook is good enough. It has worked for me for years!