While a pair of squat shoes will help you squat with better form and a pair of straps will help you pull more, there is actually nothing more important that you can bring to the gym than a training journal.
Every time you go the gym you should have a goal in mind of beating a previous performance. If you don’t write down what you did in each and every workout you will never know what numbers you are trying to beat and will never be able to track your progress accurately.
The most important principle in weight training is the oldest and most basic one and that is the principle of progressive overload. The principle of progressive overload states that if you want to get bigger and stronger you need to continually lift heavier and heavier weights over time. In order to be sure that you are following this principle you need to write down everything you do at every workout and then look back at those numbers and try to beat them in upcoming workouts.
Another reason why keeping a training journal is so important is it shows you what worked and what didn’t. Everyone is individual and thus not everything will work exactly the same for everyone. Whenever you try a new training system or exercise for a month or two, you should keep detailed notes in your training journal and track your size and strength gains closely. It is also a good idea to keep notes about how you felt during the workouts for future reference. When you do this you can also look back in future months or years and find out what worked best for you and what you liked doing best.
It is also highly motivational, especially at times when gains seem to be coming slowly, to look back a year or two in your training journal and see that your although you are struggling with your squat lately, it has actually gone up over 150 pounds in the last two years. By looking back at your progress you can keep your motivation high and always keep moving forward.
Every workout is you vs. the training journal and you need to do all you can to emerge victorious. If you’re not writing everything down you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Good luck.
Please leave your comments below.
15. Mar, 2010
at 5:17 am #
Awesome. This is my biggest weakness. Motivation comes from success (and also from failure).
28. Jul, 2010
at 3:01 pm #
This is what have best worked for me. I never had any gains until I find your sites and I am very dumb when it comes to notebooks and records, I even suck at it for college because its almost always a mess for me to write it down and remember to check it. The god thing! is that I found a way arounfd it, having a clipping board and a calendar there with the days big enough for me to make some notes. Then I can see al the trainings of the month in a quick look, and while its simple it has helped me tons for mootivation and progress. Thanks a lot for all of this!
30. Aug, 2010
at 5:59 pm #
I’ve been doing this from day 1. No reason not too…
When I was younger (17 or so) a lot of the bigger and guys in the gym looked out for me and it made me feel really good getting advice and motivation from guys 2-3x my age and size going out of their way to help me like that. They’d teach me new exercises, give me advice on fixing my form, motivate me, and best of all they triedyto hook me up with hott girls my age in the gym. lol!
I felt really great when they started to notice how I wrote down everything I did in the gym. I recorded my mood, how long the workout took, what I was training, how many sets and reps I did, what exercise, etc.
It made me feel even better when I, a 17 year old kid, inspired those 200lb lean dudes to get back to the basics and start carrying around a workout journal. After about a month all of the SERIOUS lifters in the gym were carrying workout journals and if you weren’t… then you weren’t a SERIOUS lifter haha.
08. Mar, 2011
at 1:54 pm #
I cannot imagine myself without a training journal.
I use it not only to record my progress, but to keep notes on how the session went and how the exercise felt. If my form is less than satisfactory, I will write every single detail down and remind myself to brush up on it for the next time I perform the movement.
In my opinion, you should record down as much as possible.
16. Mar, 2011
at 10:59 am #
@Clement: Smart man.
@Vaclav- Talk about paying attention to detail. Good stuff, man
08. Mar, 2011
at 8:27 pm #
NOTHING BEETER THEN A GOOD HARD WORKOUT!
09. Mar, 2011
at 10:26 am #
Training journal is one of the most important things indeed. I track my body meassurements on monthly basis. Then I have a special sheets for each muscle group where I track down how many sets,reps and weights I did in each workout on each exercise.
After few months you will be able to create a chart of your progress and that is where it gets really interesting.
28. Mar, 2011
at 1:21 pm #
Jason,
This is great advice. I rarely see anyone tracking their workouts/ progress on a notepad. I can probably say that the number of people I have seen doing this is easily in the single digits. Every time it has been guys but I have never even seen the ladies doing this with their workouts.
I have noticed that the guys who have used a notepad to track their progress and workouts are the ones I have seen make the most gains in their physiques; that may be losing fat, gaining muscle or getting stronger.
Enjoyed this tip.
-Sam
04. Apr, 2011
at 3:09 pm #
you are so right that keeping notes is highly motivational. With all my private clients I keep a folder with every workout they have done.
Every single client I have had has wanted to look back at the old workouts and see how they have progressed. Every single client. I haven’t had thousands of clients but it has been in the hundreds and it never fails. They do enjoy seeing how far they have come.
Great tip
05. Apr, 2011
at 4:09 am #
Ooops. Forget to write down todays squat. How could I? I beat my PR!
05. Apr, 2011
at 6:44 am #
I always have a journal. First i had a pen and a paper, but a hint for those who have a android phone, … i had my music, metallica, daughtry, acdc in my phone, and then i came across this brilliant program for us, it is Jefit :
https://market.android.com/details?id=je.fit&feature=search_result
It is uploadable to a webside and lots of features :-) f.ex you put in your program, sets and resttime and its beebs in your headphone when the rest period is over and you should get off your ass and take the next set ;-)
Very handy and easy, just brilliant, and now i have the journal and my music in one place.
05. Apr, 2011
at 9:12 am #
In my experience, 99% of everybody that trains doesn’t write their workouts down. Seems most people just ‘wing it’ and simply exercise without any goal in mind other than the obvious ‘I wanna get jacked!’ or for the ladies ‘I want a J-Lo butt’…but the thought of writing down their progress (or lack thereof) has never crossed their minds…
And it’s funny how many people that cross my path in the gym, see my workout journal open, will look so confused as to why I’d be writing down my workouts…and the reason is simple..I have goals that you can’t see in the mirror!
Do I want to look good? Sure. But what I really want is to deadlift 500 lbs by the end of this year and keeping track of my workouts really is the only way to project with any sort of confidence whether or not it’s even possible.
Good post Jason…more people should see this post!
05. Apr, 2011
at 10:02 am #
Great advice. An important discovery for me was finding what I liked doing. I spent years precisely following magazine workouts and got frustrated with exercises I hated or that didn’t work for me. When I finally focused on the exercises I actually enjoyed, I loved going to the gym and… saw results!
05. Apr, 2011
at 8:42 pm #
thank you Jason!
09. Apr, 2011
at 6:30 am #
Jason – I agree that this is The Most Important Thing.
For the past few years, I have been making my workouts an appointment in the Calendar on my Blackberry and entering the exercises, weights, sets, reps, moods, mistakes, etc. in the notes section of the appointment.
When I repeat the workout the following week, I copy and past the prior week’s notes and just update weights and reps. It is easy to search the calendar later on for “deadlift” or “bench” to look up work done in the past.
10. May, 2011
at 11:59 pm #
I ordered your e books but I dont go to the gym .I got barbells , dumb bells& a bench is there any substitution for excersice requiering machines where can I get this imformation
06. May, 2012
at 8:28 pm #
I have been using a training journal for years. Couldn’t imagine training without one. I really don’t understand how so many people just go into the gym and “wing” their workouts. I plan my work and work my plan.
20. May, 2012
at 8:59 am #
You’re absolutely right. I opened my workout spreadsheet now and I’m embarrassed to admit that I forgot to write down the actual workout for a week. I just look up my plan and periodization and GO. So now there’s two or three days like “… up to XXkg raw deadlift + I forgot the rest”… Bad, bad lifter… :( Thanks for reminding us