I’ve written before about the importance of setting goals. In that post, I also wrote that you have to record your progress, so you’ll know whether you’re on track to achieving your goals. Recording what you’ve done is also a great way to plan for the near future. If your goal is months away, planning for the next month may be difficult if you’re not sure whether what you’ve been doing for the past month is effective.
One of the things you’ll hear about often is keeping a workout journal. It’s one of the most effective tools, especially when you’re starting out. I’ve been keeping one for as long as I can remember.
- You can set your goals for each workout – Before every workout, I write down the exercises I’ll perform and the weights I’ll lift. The only thing I don’t write at the beginning is the number of reps — I’ll write that after I’ve finished the set.
- You have an immediate record of what you did last week – This is related to the point above. I don’t write the number of reps until I do them, but I can refer to last week’s workout to find out what I did for that exercise, then set my target for that set. Suppose I’ll only increase the weight for the bench press after I’ve done 3 sets for 13 reps. If I look at last week and see I’ve done that, then I increase the weight. No need to remember some little detail about my workout last week.