Keeping accurate records of your workouts is beyond important when you are serious about achieving results in the gym. Yes, indeed, a tiny $2 notebook can help amplify results more than you think. Use these tips to help you get started on a training log and it’s benefits to help you get where you want to be.
Pre-workout:
Monthly: At the beginning of each month, make a habit of marking every day you will be working out, and what body parts you will be working out on these day. Take into account days off and a smart muscle group split. For example make sure to have at least 2 days of rest each week, and to let a specific muscle group rest for at least 48 hours.
Weekly: At the beginning of each week, take a look at the training days you’ve marked in your monthly calendar and write out the complete workout for those days. Exercises, sets, reps, weights
and rests.
Daily: Before your workouts, read through your workout and get pumped for each exercise. I read somewhere that Arnold used to make a tick “/” for every set he was to do in his log on a specific day. This is great for visualizing getting ready mentally for sets remaining.
When you set a goal for yourself by writing out the above, you will be holding yourself accountable for doing what is in your log. You will feel a much greater sense of achievement when you’re done. Also, the continuing use of this will reinforce how strong your mind is (and determined) to make every workout as good as possible. I GUARANTEE going into a workout with a plan on what you’re going to do will reduce those “bad workouts”, as they usually occur when chaos or things are unorganized.
During workout:
Always (always) write the results of each set, with weight and reps. Have one column for your plan, and another for the what you actually achieved.
Example:
Exercise | Plan | Achieved
Bench Press | Set 1: 200lbs x 10 reps | 200lbs x 9
(Med Grip) | Set 2: 230 lbs x 6 reps | 230lbs x 7
| Set 3: 200 x 10 reps | 200lbs x 12
The end result (when done consistently) is a statistical log that shows growth, strengths and weaknesses. You can see each week the numbers that prove you are lifting more weight or reps (or whatever your goal).
As I mentioned about Arnold s “/” method in his logs, cross “X” out those ticks as you complete each set. At the end of the day if you had 15 ticks and only 10 were crossed off, you can grade yourself a 67% and know this isn’t going to cut it. A half-assed effort gets you half-assed results.
Also, lets pretend in the month of January you worked out out 20 times and did chest 10 times, arms 5 times, back 3 times and legs 2 times. You log may show significant growth in chest for that month, but the growth in your legs was negligible. It is clear here that you need to do your legs more to promote growth. So for the month of February you may want to workout legs more. This also aids you in knowing how long you’ve done specific workouts and exercises, so you know when to switch it up or plan a de-load.
Post-workout:
Another simple tool is at the end of each day to mark jot notes about that day’s workout. Feelings, pains, highs, and lows should all be written. “Today's workout was awesome, I felt great and lifted heavy, but my legs are still sore” or “Today's chest day was sluggish, I couldn’t get the drive I needed to lift as much as I wanted.” This can help drive you to make the next workout better (knowing the last one sucked). Also mark the supplements you have taken (if they aren’t in your food log). This will help make connections to supplements/diet to workouts. For example if one day you note “Sluggish workout” and notice you didn’t take pre-workout, you should pay attention to more days that you don’t take pre-workout to determine if there’s a connection. Or you may note “still sore” and notice your protein intake for the previous days was deficient. Here you can make that connection as well.
I can guarantee that a training log will boost results and help you achieve the results you want. It takes about a dozens minutes at the beginning of each month and week, and you can write during breaks between sets during your workout. The statistic will boost your morale because you have visual proof of growth over time. You’ll also have the edge psychologically as you have daily goals that you’ve written at the beginning of each day. Skip today's coffee and buy a $2 notebook, and start maximizing results.
Tyler Pritchard
CanFit Pro P.T.S
tylerrpritchard@gmail.com
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