Were you expecting gloves or something?
Let’s face it: most people you see working out don’t have a journal and bounce around from machine-to-machine and exercise-to-exercise. They can remember to take all their supplements, pills, and powders precisely 30 minutes before and after their workout, but if you ask them how much they lifted two weeks ago, they’ll scratch their heads.
Bringing a notebook when your workout is one of the best ways – if not THE best way – to optimize your workout routine and time at the gym.
Plus, it’s really really cheap.
Here are a few reasons why a notebook can make your workout more effective:
1. Track Your Progress
With a notebook, you can write down your exercises, your repetitions, your sets, the weight you lifted, etc. With each passing workout, you can see whether or not you progressed – you’ll know exactly where you need improvement and where you excel. Maybe you can tweak your workout here and there. Or maybe you can add weight somewhere else.
By writing this information down, you’ll have a great way to analyze your workout and see what you’ve accomplished, which leads to my next point…
2. Build Your Motivation
It’s so encouraging to see yourself improve. If you’re building muscle, your shirt feels tighter and pants feel snugger. If you’re losing fat, your belly fat vanishes, and you feel more energetic. Either way, things are good, and life starts resembling an AXE commercial. Although changes in mirror is a nice indicator, a fantastically accurate way to see progress by reviewing your journal.
If you saw that your deadlift jumped from 175lbs to 260lbs, that’s motivating. It’s always inspiring to flip back a few months and see what you were lifting.
3. Focus
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.”
By writing down your workouts, you know exactly what to do the next time you go to the gym. There’s no wasted time trying to remember what you did last time – you know right away. Hell, I go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I still forget what my warm up weight was, or how many repetitions I did during my very last workout (oops).
Give It A Shot
Try it out next time, and let me know what you think. There’s really no wrong way to use your notebook. Some write in rows, others write in columns – as long as there’s some semblance of structure, you’ll be better off than anyone without a journal. Hell, you could even write down the number of that cutie on the treadmill you’ve stared at for the past hour… (you know who I’m talking about)
Happy pimping lifting!
[tweetbutton]
Leave a Reply