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