Training Notebooks

Like most of you, I track my workouts digitally using TrueCoach.

The other morning, Hannah came into the garage with a brand new notebook.  She had filled another notebook with handwritten workouts. Something about that made me envious, and I longed for the days when I tracked my workouts with notebook and pen.

I started a training log when I was 16. All the bodybuilding magazines I was reading emphasized the importance of keeping track of your training to measure progress, and have a detailed history of what worked and what didn’t. A few years later, when I got my first coach and joined a strength and conditioning gym, I was handed a notebook and told to write everything down in it.

When the same squat, bench, clean or deadlift workout would come around, me and my lifting group would flip back through our notebooks to check our numbers from last time. We would try to beat the previous weight every single workout.

I continued logging workouts this way on and off throughout college and even tried a couple times in the early days of GAIN. I could never get back in the groove though, and maybe from writing them down so many times, I usually keep track of all the important numbers in my head.

Anyway, the point I’m getting to is that writing your workouts down in a notebook is really powerful. It connects you to your training in a unique way. It helps you learn your numbers, recognize patterns and be more progressed focused. Perhaps the reason I stopped writing my workouts down is there was always too much focus on progress, and getting bigger numbers. That tenacity is useful, but for periods of time, not permanently.

If you’ve got a race, or want to lock in a new consistency habit this summer, consider a training log to get more connected with your workouts.

Justin Miner

@justinminergain