Keeping a workout journal is one of the most crucial things to do if you want your body transformation plan to be successful; and not doing so would –or most probably will- cost you time, money, effort and above all, not giving you the dream body you’re gasping for.
Before I tell you what would you lose if you don’t keep a workout history; let’s talk about what should be in your workout records from the first place!
In minimum; there should be the next:
- Your body measures: such as height, weight, body circumferences, body fat% and anything else you might want to add.
- Your workout: like training days, time, session duration, exercises, weight lifted, number of exercises, reps, sets, rest time and intensity of your cardio workout.
- Your diet or nutrition guidelines: such as meals time, total calories consumed, meals themselves, and you might want to add supplements to those, if you’re taking any.
Now to the…
5 Things you lose if you don’t keep a workout history
1- Point of reference
We know that testing your fitness level regularly is paramount to see progress, but wait; you’re not relaying on your memory to compare the current test results with the old ones right! That’s why recording them is important.
And you probably know that old saying; “if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong”.
2- Source of motivation
Can you imagine that awesome feeling and proud look on your face when open up an old record of your body measures before losing 20 kilos of fat, gaining 5 kilos of muscles or moving from doing 20 to 60 pushups before you pass out of exhaustion?!
No I guess! Unless you had a workout record.
3- Proof of accomplishment
You might need a proof (which could be as simple as before and after images) of how much your body changed during the training program, to show people what are you capable of achieving; whether it’s for you or for your clients if you are fitness trainer yourself.
4- Identifying training gaps
Workout records, especially if done on periods as long as couple of months; will enable you to find out why are you not seeing results now as much as you did last season! What was different at times of high level of concentration you experienced! Or how certain social, personal or professional events in your life, affected your past training schedule!
Without a workout history record, you won’t be able to know if your diet and workout plans are paying off, spot the gaps, learn from them and plan how to deal with them in the future.
5- Making the right decisions to stay on track
Last but not least; unless you keep a workout history; you won’t be able to know all the previous points, and hence you probably won’t be able to make the right decisions that fixes problems or keep positive results showing while you march to your goals.
If you have any more ideas on what one would lose if not using a workout record; write it in a comment below.
Now regarding the form of recording; there is no one way to do it, you could use a note book, or you can do it easily and simply by using the advanced dashboard in your free Fitnessyard account, that is designed specifically for this purpose.