6 Reasons You Should Record Your Workouts
Ensure progressive overload. The foundation of strength training (and exercise in general) is the overload principle. In order for our bodies to change, we need to progressively overload our physiology. We need to ask our body to do something just a bit more than it’s done previously. For strength training, this means we need to attempt to lift slightly heavier weight or perform more reps with the same weight.
Assess short term progress. Recording the weight that we lifted and the number of reps we did last workout tells us, “did I get stronger from last week?”
Assesses long term progress. Recording the weight and reps over the course of time allows us to ascertain if we are stronger than we were this time last year, five years ago, or ten years ago. Last week, long-time DS Exercise Physiologist, Rick Rignell and I performed a workout at our original Plymouth location (our last workout together before we moved this location). I pulled out a workout we did together on February 24th, 2014 – 11 years ago. We did a total of 12 exercises in that workout and I was stronger on 11 of the 12 exercises.
Higher level of intensity (almost automatically or subconsciously). Knowing that we used 134 pounds and completed 10 reps on leg extension during our last workout compels us to at least match 10 reps this time. We’ve all been in a workout, in the middle of a grueling set, we’ve completed 8 reps and we think to ourselves “there is no way I can do another” and then we are reminded by our trainer that we did 10 last time. And of course, we somehow summon the ability to perform the 10th rep. Without the knowledge of our previous performance, we may succumb to the fatigue and discomfort and stop short of what we are capable of doing.
Learning from long term trends. Recording allows us to discover long-term trends in our training. Am I over-training? Am I ill or coming down with something? Am I lacking sleep acutely or chronically? What do I respond best to (lower rep ranges or higher rep ranges for example)? How does protein, fasting, creatine, etc. impact my performance? As I train for a marathon and run more and more miles, am I gaining or losing strength?
Assessing return from an injury. Am I back to 100% following an injury? Following a major surgery such as a hip replacement or ACL reconstruction, we can use our training data to indicate whether or not we are truly back to our pre-surgical strength. Rather than rely on subjective assessment of pain, our training data tells us exactly the strength or force production abilities of our muscles pre and post injury.
To do this well, record the amount of weight, number of reps, and keep variables like seat positioning consistent. In addition, keep the order of exercise consistent within upper body or lower body workouts. For example, in a given routine, always perform leg extension before leg press because if you change the order, the weight and reps that you can perform will be dramatically different.
And of course, YOU don’t have to record any of this (you can hire someone for that ).
