Track your workout: how to write your way to faster muscle gains

Men's Fitness, Sept, 2003 by Ben Kallen

Some years ago, comedian Brian Regan observed that nothing marks you as a gym newcomer so much as taking notes as you work out: "Could you ever feel like more of a loser," he said, "than when you're walking around a health club with a clipboard?"

But things have changed: While there are still mega-glandular gym rats who will smile condescendingly if they see you with a pad and pencil in the weight room, sophisticated trainers and athletes alike have come to view an exercise journal as an important tool in reaching your goals as quickly and efficiently as possible. Which means you'll get the results you want without having to live in the gym.

If you require conclusive proof, look no further than former Mr. Olympia Frank Zane--one of only three bodybuilders ever to best Arnold Schwarzenegger in a competition--who often said he owed part of his success to keeping a careful journal, recording everything he did and basing his workout strategy on past accomplishments.

Whether you're looking for an Olympian physique yourself or simply want to become stronger and healthier and maybe receive a few approving stares on the beach, keeping a workout log will get you where you're going sooner. Here's a quick, seven-step guide to doing it right.

1 USE SOMETHING PORTABLE. Whatever you write in, it should be easy to carry around and keep in your pocket when you're working out. That could be a single sheet of paper, a notebook, or a PDA with a workout-log program. "I use small spiral notebooks with a pen or pencil," says Dan Wathen, head athletic trainer at Youngstown State University in Ohio and past president of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

2 RECORD EVERY SET AND WEIGHT, EVERY TIME. "Unless you've got a tremendous memory, you'll never remember these details on your own," Wathen says. That's true when you're just starting a workout program, but also when you've become more advanced. "When you've been working out a long time, you need to change your routine frequently to keep your body from acclimatizing to the stress," Wathen says. "Keeping a log makes that much easier to do."

3 LOOK AT YOUR PREVIOUS ENTRIES TO PSYCHE YOURSELF UP. Before each workout, take a look at what you did during your last session. Decide how much more you intend to do this time and tell yourself that it will be easy to continue improving, just as you've been moving forward each time until now.

4 STUDY YOUR GAINS OVER TIME. When you keep your records well organized, you can look back over the course of a month, several months, even several years. "You can almost chart your biorhythms this way and decide at which times of the month you perform at your best," Wathen says. "You can also look back and say, 'I'm doing twice as much weight as a year ago, so I must be doing something right.'"

5 KEEP TRACK OF OTHER DETAILS, TOO. Such information as your diet, the amount of sleep you get at night, and how you felt before, during and after the workout will help you track your overall fitness level. If you aren't moving forward as fast as you think you should be, or if your gains seem to come to a standstill, your records should contain a clue as to why. Have you been missing out on sleep, or have you been eating more junk than usual? Have you been doing the same exercises so long that your muscles have become accustomed to them and stopped growing? Or have you been over-training, without allowing enough rest between workouts? Once you've pinpointed the issue, you should be able to overcome it.

6 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS AGAINST YOUR GOALS. Preferably with the help of a coach or trainer, decide how much muscle, strength and endurance you can reasonably expect to gain, or how much body fat you intend to lose, over a certain amount of time. Every few months, check these objectives against your log to see how well your plan is working.

7 KEEP DOING IT. A workout log may begin to seem like just one more hassle involved in going to the gym. But when you read yours six months from now and notice how much your body has improved, keeping a record will seem well worth the trouble.

LOG GEAR

These products will help make it a snap to record your workouts.

The Fit Today! workout log is a pocket-sized notebook with room to record the basics: meals, water and supplements, and weight, sets and reps for each exercise. (Two for $22.95 from Kanak Enterprises; www.befittoday.com)

The PalmGear Workout Tracker is a program for your Palm PDA that allows you to record individual exercises, then makes an easy-to-review graph of your progress. (Free 30-day demo; $19.95 download from www.standalone.com)

The Ultimate Workout Log by MEN'S FITNESS contributor Suzanne Schlosberg is a bit too big to lug around the weight room, but that's because it's full of extra tools for tracking your results and plotting your goals. Keep it in your gym bag and write while your workouts are fresh in your mind. ($23 from Mariner Books)

Senior Writer Ben Kalle, records everything on Post-It notes.