Get Stronger by Tracking Your Workouts

If your goal is to get stronger, get stronger by tracking your workouts. One of the simplest and most effective habits you can build is writing down your workouts – specifically, the weight and reps you use and complete on each exercise.

Get Stronger by Tracking Your Workouts: Small Steps, Big Gains

Why does this matter? If you don’t write down your lifts, you’ll go off feel, which is fine, but sometimes that keeps you in your comfort zone. If you can look in your notes and see you used the 20lb dumbbell for 3 sets of 10 last week on rows, you can now grab the 22lb dumbbell the following week and try to use that for 3 sets of 10. Maybe on your third set, you’ll grab the 25lb dumbbell! Adding weight also doesn’t always have to be the progression. Maybe you stay with the 20lb dumbbell, and you get one extra rep in on each set. Any of these slight increases leads to progress that accumulates big over time.

In our small group personal training program, we use the Everfit app so each member can follow their individual program and track weights and reps easily. If you work out on your own and don’t have an app to use, the notes app in your phone works great. You don’t even have to write every exercise down; just tracking the big lifts like squats, deadlifts, chest presses, and rows can go a long way!