I am going to be recording every set, rep, and poundage in my workouts. In the past I have not always done this, and the chief difficulty I ran into was remembering the specific poundages I used the last time I exercised. I am planning on going into the need for logging workouts in a later post, but for now I just want to comment on how to physically record the workout. I will be posting my results to this journal, but obviously won’t be doing it from the weight room!
For me an index card and short pencil seems to work the best. I want something I can easily write on my knee, a wall, a bench, etc. Sheet paper is too easy to tear. Pen’s can leak ink all over the place, and you can’t erase. Nowadays there are all kinds of apps for iPhone, Android, etc, but why do you want to bring your expensive toy into a gym where someone can drop a plate on it? Plus they have other obvious distractions, and your goal is to lift hard, not mess around on twitter.
Here’s what you want to record on your card:
- Date and time if you do not work out the same time each day.
- Abbreviated exercise name
- For each set record:
- weight
- reps
It’s best to record your full workout on the card before you lift. Unless you are a highly disciplined person, you do not want to decide your pounds and sets while you’re working out. You can always pencil out/change what you’ve written after you do the exercises.
After you finish, you may want to record the results in some other system, but remember to keep the data entry during the workout as simple as possible.
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