Thread: Do you keep a journal of what you have trained each day?

Definitely keep a journal. I don't understand how people can w/o without keeping one, those are usually the same ppl i see in the gym who never change, never add weight, never get more cut etc.

When i don't improve and i see it in my journal i know that i am doing something wrong and i start to tweak things until i start improving again (i'm bulking/strength training, so no improvement in strength usually necessitates more food)

I agree with you Yanick!


I have kept a journal since I began lifting. and yes in detail

me too - detailed journal. you said you think it might keep you from progressing sometimes. i find the opposite. when i see what i did the last time i trained a bodypart i make sure i go up in weight or reps or SOMETHING to keep from stalling.

I have several composition notebooks with old journals, they got those new ones with the bungee cords I bought some the other day. I jot down sets/reps/weights sometimes I write notes on how I felt and things to change.

hmm a journal is a good idea. what's this bungee cord journal you mentioned?

last 2months i have started using my pda to do this.. there are several programs out there that can help you do all the journaling for you... (pdabs by acrocat (sp?), weight training tracker) if you need more pm ...

The pda keeps me motivated to keep a journal.. the reason i don't keep a journal on paper is cause i got so much paper in my room that i can't seem organize myself on that. (college student).. but maybe i should

I got a training journal from netrition.com, it has a MuscleHedz cartoon, a advertisement for a product, a place to record your eating habits and calories, notes section, and finally rep/set/weight chart for p to 10 excersies. Its pretty small and conveiniet to.

yeah i do..i see so many pple at the gym who wander around aimlessly trying a little bit of this and that...and its a waste of time, these are the pple that quit because they dnt keep a journal and cant track their own progress, i think it is v. important!

Originally posted by nikegurl
me too - detailed journal. you said you think it might keep you from progressing sometimes. i find the opposite. when i see what i did the last time i trained a bodypart i make sure i go up in weight or reps or SOMETHING to keep from stalling.

I agree with all that, yo.

I keep a small notebook with me. I'm getting tired of all the buttmuches in my gym asking what I keep writing in it. NOYFB.

Being able to look back on recent workouts helps push me to do more. If I can do a couple more reps or a little more weight than the last workout, I am moving forward. Those few extra reps and/or little extra weight add up to a lot over the span of a few months.

I keep a very detailed training journal which includes notes about current bodyfat, weight, best lifts, etc.

detailed to the time, attitude, rest interval, and other little comments, like i wish those goofs would pick up after themselves.

I track every aspect of my training!

Yes I do.. before I started a online but I saw no point in updating it.. so, now my journal is on the wall.

i didnt for a long time, but do now... i think it helps a lot! before id just thikn i was in a slump, and maybe try to eat more, but now i can really see which exercises im NOT going up in and try to adjust. plus it takes the guesswork out of what weight to work out with.... and is a good motivator to keep improving and keep my diet on track.

I keep a journal of the exercises, wts, sets and reps. I do not track my attitude or how I am feeling. Except if I am comming down with a cold, I will exercise with less intencity (but I will not skip a workout), then I note in the journal I was not feeling well so when I see the lower wt or reps I will better understand why.

I feel that I have enought to remember in doing my job and other things (like my ATM password). Keeping track of your progress in a journal allows you to see your trend. Also if you change up your routine every 6-8weeks you have a reference point when you go back to the exercise 6 months from now. What the heck was I lifting on BB curls? Look it up, aha, here it is, I can add a little more and move on.

I keep my BF and wt on a calender as I measure once a week (saturday mornings). So it is not in my journal, but I am tracking it.

I am again keeping a journal. The purpose of taking one is so that you can see if you are improving or not, if you aren't, there is a fair chance its because you aren't trying.

Add 5 pounds to that weight, dont make a guess if you can do it or not, just do it.

Yep...detail

Journal everything....training and diet......i am a loser.

For the 99.78% of us who are not driven to the point of excess, a journal will allow you to be accountable to yourself. If you are not progressing you can look back a week, a month, three months - and say hey, I haven't been upping the weights at all, I'm just going through the motions.

Or for your diet, same thing - you can see in plain view how long it has been "your fault" for not doing anything but the same old same old.

So for most of us it is a good idea, and will improve the speed at which one progresses IMO.

I made up a spreadsheet on excel to keep track of every exercise I do:what weight I did for a certain exercise and how many reps it was, that way I know when to add or subtract weight. It keeps me focused and quite frankly it's hard to remember what I was lifting for what exercise for however many reps on the split I'm doing, so it's definately a great help to me.

Originally posted by JoeR.
I got a training journal from netrition.com, it has a MuscleHedz cartoon, a advertisement for a product, a place to record your eating habits and calories, notes section, and finally rep/set/weight chart for p to 10 excersies. Its pretty small and conveiniet to.

ME TOO!!! Love my journal!

Originally posted by SkinnyKid
hmm a journal is a good idea. what's this bungee cord journal you mentioned?

http://www.meadweb.com/cgi-bin/meadweb.storefront

Has bungee cords on the corners to hold it together, rugged front cover that won't tear off.

I have to write it down. I simply can't remember the weight that I use for all the different lifts I do. When I first started I didn't write it down because I was doing a full body workout comprised of only compound lifts, which is a far smaller amount of information to remember. However, in terms of reps, I only keep track of the number of reps I do on the first set.

I keep a journal too, it's the only way i can make steady improvements.