Ah yes, the oh so wonderful training log. I didn’t always use to think they were so great and I actually used to hate using one. During my athletic years, it was a command from our Nazi coach that we record every rep and every set for every single day we touched a weight. We had no choice as we only got the pleasure of living amidst his dictatorship.
What I used to despise, I now love. I used to believe recording my workouts in a training log was tedious and ineffectual. Of course, I was wrong and I soon found out why.
My First Time
Now for story time. I remember the end of my final football game my sophomore year. We all walked into the locker room, slowly un-padded and began turning in our gear. Our strength and conditioning coach walked around(with a grin from ear to ear) placing training logs in our lockers while we pampered our sweaty selves. I remember returning to my locker and seeing some big letters in Times New Roman font reading: IT’S TIME TO GET STRONG. I always liked the off season. I think I liked bit better than the actual season because I was more interested in strength training than playing football anyhow. This was my first time ever to consistently use a training log and it served me very well. I then learned how much I love progression.
To Progress or Not to Progress
I will never forget the first week back on the weights. That was the closest to any kind of hell I can ever recall. They were just short of my few, random near death experiences. We started off doing full body work 3x per week. Think of the MadCow Programming here. My legs were like grape jam all week long, as were everyone else’s. I remember waddling like a penguin from class to class because my legs were so sore and tender. Walking down the stairs was a chore. We all resembled a bunch of pantie waist’s to say the least.
So, about progression. As time went on, our coach took care of the programming details and we ended up splitting our workouts into an upper lower split hitting everything 2x per week. We were required to turn in a fully completed training log every week or we suffered punishment which usually ended in running the bleachers so we could enjoy our lunch one more time. I remember right before we left for the summer, we were given all of our previous training logs from the past 5+ months. I don’t remember what my starting weights were but I do remember that I was eventually squatting 315lbs for 8-10 reps with the lineman who usually outweighed me by 50-60lbs. I sat and pondered like a Tibetan monk for 10 days atop of my roof on how much I had progressed over the given time frame. I was nothing short of amazed. Recording every workout really was worth it.
One more tangent I would like to include: I just pulled out a training log from two years ago. I was stuck for a little while and had been spinning my wheels endlessly. Oh how dreadful it was! I hired a coach to set me up with a solid program to follow. Lo and behold I increased my bench press from 185×6 to about 255×6 in 16 weeks. These were not newbie gains as I had plenty of experience prior to hiring him. I did a few things very well over that 16 weeks. I ate a lot, trained sensibly and remained very objective. I did everything that my coach prescribed and reported back weekly to get his feedback. It’s such a wonderful feeling when you are not emotionally tied to an outcome. Being objective is the key to success in many endeavors.
I Love Setting and Accomplishing Goals
Now because I was forced to meticulously record all of my reps and sets, I learned a very valuable lesson. We can accomplish great things when we put in consistent effort towards a specific goal. During that invaluable off season, I realized the importance of setting goals and taking the necessary steps to achieve them. I then applied what I learned to other areas of my athletic training, academics, relationships etc. with much success. Habits are not always fun to create, however the habit of recording your workouts in a training log is one worthy of forming.
So Do I Still Have to Keep a Training Journal?
No. You don’t have take my word for it. However I always encourage everyone to begin using one, at least for one training cycle to see how great it feels to be able to chart how much you have progressed over a certain period of time.
So. True. Nat
Good one, JC. Like someone once said, “If your aim at NOTHING, you’ll sure hit it!”
~Nat
@Yavor: For sure. If you are training for general fitness/maintenance I don’t see keeping one to be a big deal. As you said, when focusing on bettering one’s self, it’s a must.
I use a log because it helps tracking progress – without progressive overload there’s no improvement,. But if you don’t have as a goal to improve size or performance you can get by without one.
Good stuff JC
Yavor
Absolutely. The whole point of keeping a log is to track progress you are longing to make. When you can continually see the improvements being made, it makes it that much easier to stick to your goals.
I think a training log is a great way to help one keep an eye on their progress. Thanks for a tip. I have a hard time keeping interest in something if I don’t seem to be making progress.
I never advocate obsession in any form but being somewhat obsessive to the point of making sure you log your workouts to ensure progress is never a bad idea. It will grow on you after a while. It may be tedious at first but like I said, I fully believe it’s worth the extra few minutes to write everything down!
Ah, well…maybe. My first impression is that I’ll obsess over it like I did counting calories, which I do NOT do anymore. But this idea may grow on me.