Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
So now that you’ve found the motivation to start becoming more active it is important to develop good habits that will help you stay focused. One habit that I picked up early on is to keep a fitness journal.
I have just about every workout I’ve done in the last ten years recorded in one form or another. When I first started keeping track of my workouts, I would write them all down in a hilroy. Since then I’ve gone hi-tech and use excel to follow my progress.
Writing it down doesn’t take long and it really helps down the road. Especially when you hit a “plateau.” Over time your progrees will level off and you’ll need to shakeup your program to try and spur on further growth. Our muscles adapt to workloads, so we have to switch up our programs by increasing the intensity. This can be done in a variety of ways. You can increase the weight, the reps, the number of sets or by decreasing the time between sets. There are many other ways to increase intensity that I will cover in the future. These include supersets, compound sets, circuit training, pyramids, etc…
By keeping a training journal it allows you to look back and see what was working and where you’ve come. I often include thoughts about my workout, the day’s events and my nutritional intake. There have been times when I was frustrated and felt like I wasn’t going anywhere with the program I was using at the time. But when I looked back at the journal I saw the gains in strength that I accomplished.
It is also important to set benchmarks. The more benchmarks you have the better an idea you have of your true progress. When a client comes in to train with me there are two very simple ones that I keep track of. You don’t need any equipment for these two; good old pushups and situps. Then once a month see how many you can do. It doesn’t take long and you’d be surprised at how fast these numbers can climb.
There are many other benchmarks that you can use for your journal. Some other benchmarks I use include; Bench Press 1 rep max, Military Press 1 rep max, Squat 1 rep max, etc… These numbers are good for the more advanced stages of training. It allows you to design a program using percentages based on your one rep max.
I’m not a big fan of body weight numbers alone. They can be very deceiving. You can get on the scale and be 120 lbs and then two months later step on and be the same. This can be very discouraging and take away from your motivation. Sure you might be the same weight, but you may have increased your muscle mass and lost body fat. What was your hydration level when these numbers were taken? What about your bone density? These all play a key factor in getting your “proper” numbers. So as a benchmark I take down weight, body fat percentage, bone density, hydration level and last but not least metabolic age. I’m lucky enough to have a scale that tells me all of this. For those of you who don’t, I invite you to come in and use mine if you want to keep track of your numbers rather than just your body weight.
By keeping a journal it also keeps you honest. There have been weeks when I would open my journal and realised that I hadn’t trained as hard as I usually do. This made me hit the gym with my usual intensity the following week. There is something about looking at your journal and wanting to beat the numbers you have already achieved.
Let’s recap…start a journal, keep track of your workouts, write down thoughts about your workout and life, set benchmarks and see where you are in comparison to these benchmark once a month. You’ll see that by simply taking five minutes at the end of your workout, you will add focus to your program and have the advantage of being able to take a look back at just how far you’ve come on your fitness journey.
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