Top 3 Ways To Track Your Workout – I have a friend who has stacks upon stacks of old spiral notebooks she has used over the years to track her workouts. She has logged everything from reps to daily food intake, and how she felt a particular workout went that day – good, bad, or indifferent. Even though most of those journals are several years old and have zero empty pages left, she hangs on to them as a reminder of how far she has come.
There are countless ways to track workouts. Many fitness buffs, like my friend, still puts pen to paper in a journal. But technology has evolved with easy to use high-tech apps and fitness gadgets.
Really, it’s whatever works best for you. But bottom line, you should ALWAYS track your workouts. How can you measure results if you don’t track it is what I always say.
Keeping track of your workouts allows you to know exactly where you’ve been so you can plot the course on where you want to be in your health and fitness journey. Maybe you were only able to eke out six burpees one week, but two weeks later you got up to 15 reps without resting. Or maybe you ran a 5k two minutes faster than what you were able to do just a month earlier. Write that down! Track it!
Progress is a motivator to push yourself harder than you’ve ever imagined. And it’s fairly quick and easy. Or, put your money where your mouth is to track your workout. Sometimes the smallest investment in something like an app, a fitness program or a meal plan will actually hold you accountable and make you track your progress. If you have a place where you are recording what you eat or what activities you do every day, you’ll have a constant reminder of your fitness goals. Setting a goal and sticking to it is attainable with digital reminders and notifications.
Some other benefits of tracking your workouts include:
- Setting clear goals and expectations for yourself.
- Ability to plan workouts in advance.
- Ability to set meal plans, track your calories and weight loss.
- Track setbacks.
- Track rep ranges and weight used.
You can’t possibly remember from week to week or day to day which exercises you did, how many reps you knocked out, and whether or not the workout was challenging enough. So the idea is to set up your routine in advance, track it as you move through the workout or immediately after, and refer back.
And like I said, there are many ways to do that. Here are just a few ways to track your workout:
- Workout Journal – Trust me, there is nothing wrong with going old school like my friend, buy a simple spiral notebook from Target, and start tracking right now. It’s great for home exercisers or gym rats because it’s compact, but you don’t even have to do that. Most of us have our phones nearby, so use the calendar in your smartphone to accomplish the same thing.
- Phone Applications – I promise if you go to the App Store or Google Play, you will find a ridiculous number of fitness apps designed to track your progress or act as an online coach. There are even apps that remind you when to drink water, check your heart rate and count calories. Tracking your workout is supposed to be efficient and low maintenance. All of these apps accomplish that and more. Some of the best free apps out there are Nike Run, Endomondo, FitNotes-Gym Workout Log, and Jetfit Workout.
- FitBit – Fitbit is a wireless activity tracker that promises to track every part of your day, even when you are simply walking around the mall. There are various types, but most monitor steps taken, exercise, food, calories burned and individual sleep patterns. The data can be synched to your computer or phone, so you can stay on top of your fitness goals.
Personally, I am a pen to paper kind of gal. When I start a new workout program, (I do ALL beachbody programs and am currently doing 22 Min Hard Corps) I like to pin up the calendar that comes with the program to my bathroom mirror. Each day I complete the workout, I literally put an “X” on that day! I see & feel success with each “X.”
What are some of the ways you track your workouts? Are you still old school, or have you gone completely high tech in your approach. I would love to hear about them, comment below.