Your Most Important Piece of Training Gear - Part 2 (Lifting Gear Series)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

In Part 1 of this mini-series, we discussed why the training log is your most important piece of equipment. Today, let’s cover how to set one up and correctly use it.

Be sure to check out the included videos as they also cover some additional material not included in this article.

This is the seventh article in our “Lifting Gear” series. Click below to read the previous articles in the series:

New Week? New Page
A few basic guidelines make keeping an effective log straightforward and simple, and my first recommendation is that every week gets its own page. Whether you train two, three, four, or even five days per week, you can fit all of your training data on one page if you’re committed to doing so. 

If you don’t finish that week’s training - suppose you’re supposed to train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but you missed Wednesday’s session - don’t use the unused space on that page to start a new week. If it’s a new week, then use a new page.

How to Setup the Page
At the start of the week, divide that week’s page into the appropriate number of sections. For example, if you train three days per week, you’ll draw two horizontal lines - one line a third of the way down the page and the other line two-thirds of the way down the page - to divide your page into three sections or “boxes.” This will force you to fit all of a given day’s training into a reasonable amount of space and will ensure you don’t run out of room at the end of the week.

Day and Date
In the upper left-hand corner of each section, write the day and the date of the workout - for example, “Mon, 08/19/24” if you’re training on Monday, August 19, 2024 will work just fine. The date is a must - you need the ability to look back and know exactly when a certain session took place.

Component #1: Prescription
Suppose today’s session consists of the squat, press, and deadlift. Set up three corresponding columns inside today’s box for those lifts. With the squat as the sample lift, you start by writing down the first component of the lift, which is the prescription for the day, i.e., the name of the lift and the planned sets and reps. For example:

Squat
3 x 5

This ensures that you’ve recorded the goal for the day, which is to squat 3 sets of 5 reps.

Component #2: Warm-up
Since you already know what you’re going to load on the barbell for your work weight (since you’re able to look back at your last session in your log), it’s time to write out the second component of each lift - the warm-up. If your work weight for the day is 235 lb, your warm-up might look like this:

45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1

Separate your prescription from your warm-up with a short line, and with this done, your training log now looks like this:

Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1

Component #3: Work Sets
Now, it’s time to record the data for the work sets, which will be 235 lb x 5 reps x 3 sets. As a result, you have the following in your log:

Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3

Remember the golden rule of lifting notation, which is that the number of reps is always the second number written down - watch the included video if this is confusing.

Component #4: What You’re Going to Do Next
You squatted 235 lb today, and you successfully completed all of your work sets, so your next session will move to 240 lb, and thus, your training log looks like this now:

Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Next: 240

This would also be the time to note any upcoming programming changes. For example, perhaps you’re planning to squat 240 lb for a top set of 5 reps and then move on to 2 back-off sets of 5 reps - this “Next” section is the place to note it. Don’t walk out of the gym without writing this part down. Ever.

If you’re only performing one set at a given weight, the “1” at the end of the notation is optional. If you’d like to be a bit more concise, you can write it all out as shown below:

Squat
3 x 5
—-------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
185 x 2
215 x 1
—-------
235 x 5 x 3
Next: 240

What Else?
You’ve got your prescription, your warm-ups, your work sets, and what you’re going to do next, so what else is there to write?

For starters, write down any cues that you want to use for your next session. “Midfoot,” “knees out,” “stay in your lean,” are all examples of cues that you might want to write down so that you remember what you’re working on the next time you lift.

You can also record how the training session went that day. Something like “235 felt pretty heavy today” is very satisfying to look back at 6 months from now when 235 lb is just an easy warm-up.

Lastly, it’s a good idea to keep a PR sheet. Set aside one page in your log on which to record your PRs - 1-rep PRs, 5-rep PRs, what you’ve done in training vs what you’ve done at a meet, etc. This is an excellent way to look back and measure your progress.

As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better. 

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?

Your Most Important Piece of Training Gear - Part 1 (Lifting Gear Series)

/ Testify Strength & Conditioning/

Today, we're going to talk about your most important piece of training equipment. It’s not your belt, shoes, or wrist wraps - it’s not even the barbell or the squat rack. Your belt, shoes, and wraps can be easily replaced, and people train on different squat racks and with different barbells all the time. The one item that cannot be replaced - the one thing that is specific to you - is your training log.

In Part 1 of this mini-series, we’re discussing why the training log is important and why you should keep one, and in Part 2, we’ll cover how to set one up and correctly use it.

Be sure to check out the included videos as they also cover some additional material not included in this article.

This is the sixth article in our “Lifting Gear” series. Click below to read the previous articles in the series:

Exercise vs Training
Your training log is important since it’s specific to you, but it’s important for a number of other reasons as well. For starters, the training log separates exercise from training.

There’s nothing wrong with exercising, and it is certainly much better than doing nothing at all. However, exercising is what you do when you want to get hot, you want to get sweaty, you want to get tired, and you want to feel like you’ve accomplished something. Training, on the other hand, is what you do when you actually want to accomplish something, and that’s what we’re focused on.

Your Training History
Your training log is also important because it contains your history. As a result, it of course contains your lifts, warm-ups, work sets, etc., but it holds more than that. It tells you how training went on a given day - you can write down notes about your training sessions, and I encourage you to do precisely this. Notes such as “Today was a great day,” “Today was terrible,” or “185 for work sets felt awfully heavy!” are all examples of what you might write in your log.

Remember - someday 185 lb will just be a warm-up weight, and on that day, it will be very satisfying to look back and remember when 185 lb was a challenging work weight.

Your Training Compass
Because you train, you have a program and a plan. You have goals, and because your training log contains your history - i.e., where you’ve been - it also functions as your compass and helps guide you in the direction you want to go.

The log works as a compass in two ways - first, before you leave the gym each day, plan your next session. You want to walk into the gym for your next workout knowing what you’re going to hit for your work sets, so write all of that down before leaving the gym.

Second, the log functions as a compass because you’re going to write down your goals: “I want to squat 315 lb,” “I’m going to get my first chin-up this year,” or “I want to bench 225 lb at my next meet” are all solid examples of goals to write in your training log. These help guide you, motivate you, and make the process much more gratifying when you achieve these milestones.

Your training log is important - it separates training from merely exercising, it contains your history, and it’s your compass as you go forward. Next, it’s time to learn how to keep a log, so in Part 2, we’ll cover precisely how to go about setting up and utilizing your training log. In the meantime, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.

(Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Testify earns from qualifying purchases.)

If you found this helpful, you’ll love our weekly email. It’s got useful videos, articles, and training tips just like the one in this article. Sign up below, and of course, if you don’t love it, you can unsubscribe at any time.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?

Your Training Log - Part 3: The PR Sheet

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(If you like, you can scroll down to the end of this article and watch a video on this topic. This article is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 01/15/21.)

A few months ago, we covered the importance of keeping a training log in Your Training Log - Part 1: Just Do It, and we also covered how to keep one in the cleverly titled article, Your Training Log - Part 2: How to Keep One. Today, we’re going to add to this series and discuss adding a PR sheet to your log.

The concept is very straightforward - simply designate one sheet of paper in your training log for keeping track of PRs (Personal Records). I would recommend using the first page of your book, the last page of your book, or you can keep a separate piece of paper in your book that is only used for PRs (but don’t let it fall out).

On this sheet, record your 1-5 rep PRs for the Big Four Lifts - the squat, press, bench press, and deadlift. If you snatch and clean-and-jerk, do the same for those lifts. Pull-ups? Absolutely. Curls? Sure. What about a 7-rep PR? Knock yourself out. If you compete, have two PR lists - one for training and one for competition (the competition list will only have 1-rep PRs). We’re not talking hard-and-fast rules here, but at the very least, having your 1-5 rep PRs written down for the Big Four is a good place to start.

Here’s a sample for the squat:

Weight Reps Date
310 1 03/25/20
285 2 05/18/19
275 3 02/20/20
4
265 5 10/18/19
250 3 x 5 10/06/19

It’s fine if your sheet has some blanks - as you can see, our imaginary lifter doesn’t have a 4-rep PR yet. You’ll also notice that this lifter recorded his “3 x 5” PR as well (i.e., the best he’s done for 3 sets of 5 reps), and that’s another solid idea.

When you start out, you’re setting PRs every single session, so this might not seem all that useful at first. However, the longer you train and the stronger you get, the harder it is and the longer it takes to get stronger and set new PRs, so having multiple opportunities to set new personal bests can be very helpful in the motivation department. Plus, it’s a lot of fun to discover that you just pulled your old 3-rep deadlift max for a set of five, and how will you ever know unless you track these things? Give it a shot.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?

Your Training Log - Part 2: How to Keep One

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(If you like, you can scroll down to the end of this article and watch a video on this topic. This article is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 09/04/20.)

In last week’s article, Your Training Log - Part 1: Just Do It, we covered the importance of keeping a training log. Now that you’re utterly and forever convinced of the wisdom of keeping a training log, let’s discuss how to keep one. Your log needs to contain several basic elements organized in a readable fashion, but it’s not a complicated process. Grab a plain old composition notebook, and let’s get started.

First, give each week its own page. We tend to think and plan in these chunks called weeks anyway, so it makes sense to organize our training log this way as well. If you complete all your training for a given week and you have extra space at the bottom of the page, don’t be tempted to start another week on the same page. Again, each week gets its own page - no matter what - so start a new page every time you start a new week. The blank space on the preceding page will remind you that you didn’t do your job last week, and hopefully, this will compel you to do better this week.

At the beginning of the week, divide your new page according to the number of days you train per week. For example, if you train three days per week, you’ll divide the page into three sections (horizontally or vertically - either will work). You can and will fit three or four days of training (even five!) onto one page, and allocating a specific amount of space to each day at the beginning of the week will ensure that you color inside the lines.

When training, label each lift, e.g., squat, press, deadlift, snatch, etc. Abbreviations are fine, but you need to be able to go back and understand what you’re written, so don’t get too clever there, Copernicus.

Next, write the goal - the prescription - for the lift you’re about to perform. If you’re planning to squat three sets of five reps for your work sets today, then simply write “3 x 5.” After that, write out your warm-ups and your work sets (remember, reps are always written second), and finally, write out what you’re going to lift next time. Here’s an example:

Squat
3 x 5 Today’s goal
----------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1 Warm-up sets
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
----------
240 x 5 x 3 Work sets
Next: 245

If you’re only doing one set of something, the “1” for the number of sets is optional (remember multiplying by “1” in school?), so you can leave that part out if you like. In that case, it looks like this:

Squat
3 x 5 Today’s goal
----------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3 Warm-up sets
185 x 2
215 x 1
----------
240 x 5 x 3 Work sets
Next: 245

Beyond this, you’ll also want to write down cues that you’re using or will use next time (“Midfoot!”), reminders (“Next time, put belt on for last warm-up and all work sets”), and even how the training session went (“Smoked it today!”). Keeping a PR sheet somewhere in your training log is also a great idea, and perhaps we’ll cover that in a future article.

Of course, you can keep a training log anyway you want to, but this is my article, so you’re getting my recommendations. If you’d like to do it differently, that’s fine . . . just don’t tell me.

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?

Your Training Log - Part 1: Just Do It

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(If you like, you can scroll down to the end of this article and watch a video on this topic. This article is a Blast from the Past article originally posted on 08/28/20.)

I was having a conversation with one of our members the other day (you know - not this day, but the other one), and this member  - let’s call him Bill - had come upon a startling revelation. Bill had recently gone through several workouts without using his training log, and when he started using it again, he immediately realized that not using his training log had been a huge mistake. He realized that - without the log - his lifting had been unfocused, and the weights were often incorrect. Bill even asked me to never let him get away with that again. Bill is a wise man.

When we train with weights, we do exactly that – we train. Training has a purpose - a goal in mind. To achieve these purposes, to work toward these goals, we need data, and this is where the training log comes in. Without the log (or journal, notebook, etc.), we quickly find ourselves adrift in a sea of barbells and weights with no direction whatsoever. We find ourselves lost in the Sea of Exercise . . . and there be monsters.

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with Exercise, and it's certainly better than Doing Nothing, but let us not confuse Exercise with Training. Exercise is what you do when you want to get hot and sweaty and tired and feel like you’ve accomplished something. Training is how you actually accomplish something. The log separates Training from Exercise.

The log is our history - it tells us where we've been, what we've done - our lifts, warm-up sets, work sets. But it is a more complete history than this - it also includes PRs, how we felt on certain days, how proud we were of our accomplishments, how utterly disappointed we were with our failures. If you had a poopy day squatting 185 lbs for your work sets, write it down in your training log (seriously . . . “this was a poopy day”). Success is magnified by knowing how far we’ve come, and on the day when 185 lbs becomes your second-to-last warm-up set (and that day will come), the knowledge that this weight used to be terribly heavy will remind you of the progress you’ve made.

The log is also our compass - it tells us where we’re going. We write down the weights for our next workout, yes, but we also write down our plans and our goals. I want to bench press three plates. I’m gonna deadlift 250 lbs at the next meet. I WILL get my first pull-up this year. Write this stuff down. All of it. Write down the date on which you set that goal. Someday, you’ll reach that goal, cross it out . . . and set another one.

Don’t kid yourself. If you want to exercise, go right ahead - you’ve got plenty of options. But if you want to put in the hard work of actually training, keep a log. You’ll thank me later, and your coach won’t lose his or her mind when you can’t remember what you’re supposed to squat today.

Next time . . . how to keep a training log (hint: it’s not complicated).

At Testify, we offer small group training, private coaching (in-person or remotely via Zoom), online coaching, and form checks. Would you like to get quality coaching from a Starting Strength Coach?

Your Training Log - Part 2: How to Keep One

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IMG_4308.JPG

In last week’s article, Your Training Log - Part 1: Just Do It, we covered the importance of keeping a training log. Now that you’re utterly and forever convinced of the wisdom of keeping a training log, let’s discuss how to keep one. Your log needs to contain several basic elements organized in a readable fashion, but it’s not a complicated process. Grab a plain old composition notebook, and let’s get started.

First, give each week its own page. We tend to think and plan in these chunks called weeks anyway, so it makes sense to organize our training log this way as well. If you complete all your training for a given week and you have extra space at the bottom of the page, don’t be tempted to start another week on the same page. Again, each week gets its own page - no matter what - so start a new page every time you start a new week. The blank space on the preceding page will remind you that you didn’t do your job last week, and hopefully, this will compel you to do better this week.

IMG_4237.JPG

At the beginning of the week, divide your new page according to the number of days you train per week. For example, if you train three days per week, you’ll divide the page into three sections (horizontally or vertically - either will work). You can and will fit three or four days of training (even five!) onto one page, and allocating a specific amount of space to each day at the beginning of the week will ensure that you color inside the lines.

When training, label each lift, e.g., squat, press, deadlift, snatch, etc. Abbreviations are fine, but you need to be able to go back and understand what you’re written, so don’t get too clever there, Copernicus.

Next, write the goal - the prescription - for the lift you’re about to perform. If you’re planning to squat three sets of five reps for your work sets today, then simply write “3 x 5.” After that, write out your warm-ups and your work sets (remember, reps are always written second), and finally, write out what you’re going to lift next time. Here’s an example:

Squat
3 x 5 Today’s goal
----------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 1
135 x 3 x 1 Warm-up sets
185 x 2 x 1
215 x 1 x 1
----------
240 x 5 x 3 Work sets
Next: 245

If you’re only doing one set of something, the “1” for the number of sets is optional (remember multiplying by “1” in school?), so you can leave that part out if you like. In that case, it looks like this:

Squat
3 x 5 Today’s goal
----------
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3 Warm-up sets
185 x 2
215 x 1
----------
240 x 5 x 3 Work sets
Next: 245

IMG_4310.jpg

Beyond this, you’ll also want to write down cues that you’re using or will use next time (“Midfoot!”), reminders (“Next time, put belt on for last warm-up and all work sets”), and even how the training session went (“Smoked it today!”). Keeping a PR sheet somewhere in your training log is also a great idea, and perhaps we’ll cover that in a future article.

Of course, you can keep a training log anyway you want to, but this is my article, so you’re getting my recommendations. If you’d like to do it differently, that’s fine . . . just don’t tell me.