Your Training Log - Part 1: Just Do It

(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).


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