The Importance Of Tracking Your Progress
We highly encourage people who participate in our group classes to track their progress. If you work with us one on one we most likely track it for you.
There are plenty of methods for tracking and it’s important to find the one that works best for you. If you’re old-school you may enjoy a journal and pen. If you’re into tech there are a ton of apps for you. We offer two free options at our gym. There are pros and cons to both, but in the end the one you’ll actually utilize is most important.
Why do we track? Tracking your workouts and results provide you with invaluable information that can be used in the future. It also does these things:
Allows us to build future workouts
Allows us to monitor progress
Allows us to identify patterns (good or bad)
Provides a snapshot of your daily work
Gives us past info to work with if you hit a wall/plateau
Here’s a common example of how having info might help.
Member: Hey Coach, I feel like I’ve hit a wall lately. I just can’t seem to improve my back squat.
Coach: OK, no worries. Let’s take a look back at your training log to see what’s going on. Do you have it with you?
Member: Um. I don’t track my workouts.
In the above example we’d just be guessing at what is going on. Even though our guess might be pretty close it’s still really tough to tell for sure because we have very little info to work with. Had we had access to training logs we would’ve been able to quickly identify some key issues.
So…what should you track? We say the more, the better! Here are some things we find helpful:
Dates
Workout
Results: Loading, Time, Reps, etc
Sleep: How much did you get?
Nutrition: Rate it 0-10 for the previous day
Stress from outside of the gym: Rate 0-10 for previous day
Motivation: Do you feel excited and ready or did you drag yourself in?
Micro goals: Set a micro goal weekly or even daily to keep you focused
You could surely add to this list depending on specific goals. Are you working toward weight loss? Then add your weight weekly. Working on running? Then add your accumulated miles to spark your motivation!
If you’re into tracking your workouts you should consider tracking your nutrition too! Follow the link below for some healthy recipes!