Don't Underestimate The Importance Of A Workout Journal

A workout journal will keep track of where you have been and help you plan where you are going... two things invaluable to fitness success.

The pursuit of fitness, health and physique is a journey. And like any worthwhile journey you must plan where you want to go and keep a journal of the trip. Yet as important this step is to over-all fitness success, most people either ignore it completely, or half heartedly write some numbers down on a scrap of paper.

In order to progress, you must know what you have done before and improve upon it. This is impossible if you don’t keep track of your workouts. The workout journal plans what you want to accomplish and evaluates the effectiveness of the plan. Keeping your workout journal in a handy and organized manner will give you a wealth of information at your disposal to aide you in accomplishing your goals.

Fitness, health and physique is a personal journey... no one can do this for you!

You might discover that you workout better at certain times of the day. Then you can factor this in to your over-all workout plan.
You might discover that certain workout patterns work better than others. Every other day, 2 days on and 1 day off, 3 days on and 1 day off, high intensity day followed by active rest day, progressive increase in intensity through the week followed by a 2-3 day rest, etc.
Long gaps in physical training will become painfully obvious. Compliance is the key to success of any workout program!

Remember, the point of keeping track of Date and Time in your workout journal is to find out what works best for you, and then incorporating it into your over-all workout plan.

What the workout plan hopes to accomplish for the day, or over a longer period of time.

You can only determine if your workout plan is effective if you know what you hope to accomplish by the physical training.
If you goal stays the same for a long time, it may be time to change goals, training focus, training methods, intensities and stresses.
Depending on what you are doing, the goal could be to increase weight, increase number of repetitions, reduce workout time, reduce rest periods or beat a personal record.

Remember, fitness excellence is a compromise. So change your goals and training focus periodically to keep from falling into a "routine" and neglecting the training of important physical abilities.

You can discover what exercises work best for you, as well as identify important exercises needing more of your attention.
If you see you are doing the same exercises over and over again at the same intensity, it is definitely time to vary your training methods, intensities and stresses.
Keep track of weights, repetitions, rest periods to compare to past performances.

Remember, the "optimization" of fitness comes from improving the skill level of 10 different physical abilities using the best exercises for the task, not the "maximization" of one physical ability using one exercise.(Review the definition of physical fitness.)

It is important to document how you felt about the workout plan, it's effectiveness and how you rate your own performance.

Did you like the workout plan or was it something that you struggled through without passion.
Do you think that the workout plan accomplished what it set out to do. For example, if you were focusing on maximum strength, did the workout provide the proper stimulus for maximum strength improvement.
How do you think you did? Could you have done better? Did you effectively accomplish your goals with the exercises, intensities and stresses used?

Remember, this is a personal journey and you cannot keep track of progress with numbers alone.

Maybe you were sick that day, or had a bad day at work or school.
Maybe you miscalculated a weight or rep range and want to correct it in the future.
Maybe you noticed a physical ability that you need to spend some extra time training.
Maybe you got a great idea for an exercise substitution that you want to implement in the future.

Write it all down in your Workout Journal!

The purpose of the Workout Journal is to get you involved in the planning and evaluation of your physical training. After all, who else is better to determine what is right for you than you are!