I never used to work out in public gyms until recently. The last year to be exact. There’s one thing that amazes me about the people who work out there, at least 95% of them: they keep no records of their workouts. Nothing.
I can’t comprehend that. How do they remember how much weight they lifted for each exercise plus how many reps they’ve done if they don’t keep records?
Here are my workout records for yesterday:
Bent Over Dumbbell Row, 50 pound dumbbells, 3 sets of 10 Chin-Ups: 10x, 8x, 7x
Seated Cable Row: 105 pounds, 1st set 10, second set 10, third set 9.
This is all written down in my little exercise notebook
Every workout. Every weight. Every set. Every rep. Now, I’ll stop right there so I won’t bore you. Let’s look at the Chin ups and Seated Cable Row as examples. I will be doing this workout again probably in about a week. If I didn’t write it down, would I remember that I got10 chin ups on my 1st set, 8x on my 2nd set and 7x on my 3rd set? Absolutely not. My memory is not that good. I might have thought I got 10x, 8x, and 6x.
Guess what happens when I go to do that workout again next week? I will try and beat my numbers from yesterday. As we all should try and do with our workouts. Since I couldn’t remember exactly and I might have thought I did 10x, 7x and 6x… I will now shoot for 10x, 8x, and 7x. If I get those numbers, then I’ve made no progress. Because that’s what I did yesterday.
Same for the Seated Cable Row. Maybe I thought I got 10x, 10x, and 8x reps respectively on my 3 sets. So I then shoot for 10x, 10x, and 9x.
Same as the previous workout, no progress is being made
Or worse yet, what if I thought I did the seated cable row with 100 pounds, but in reality it was 105 pounds. Now I’m actually regressing by using a lighter weight than last week, and this is just a few exercises of one workout…
I know you are probably busy just like me and you have a million and one other things to “keep track” of and remember. How can you possibly remember how much weight you’re using, how many sets you’ve done and especially, how many reps you’ve done for each exercise for each set! But yet I see so many people just winging it!
I can honestly count on one hand how many people I’ve seen in the gym over the last year with a notebook, keeping records of their workout. What about you? Are you keeping track of what you’re doing? Are you keeping track of your weights, sets, reps, etc.?
Like I said earlier, I write everything down. Then, I take a look at it before every workout. I’m lost if I go to the gym without my notebook. I really am!
Next week, I will look at yesterdays workout and see that I did the Bent Over Dumbbell Row with
50 pounds and I did 3 sets of 10. Since my range is 8-10 reps, and I was able to get 10 reps on all 3 sets, I will use the 55 pound dumbbells next week… And that’s how we make progress.
If I didn’t write it down maybe I don’t remember if I used the 50’s or not. Or maybe I don’t remember how many reps I did. It doesn’t take long to write down and can easily be done in between sets or exercises.
It will make a huge difference in your training. Trust me. If you’re not doing it now, I highly suggest you start.
Kevin
