"If you don't measure it, you cannot improve it."

When we are exercising so often and doing similar exercises, machines, or even group classes, our perceived progress slows down…. A lot! We need to see progress, or even feel it, but sometimes we just don’t notice the needle moving at all.

The journey to lose twenty pounds is not so fast; The path to building muscle is a slow one; getting stronger, jumping higher, or running faster all takes time and dedication.  

During these training phases, motivation can easily drop or even screech to a halt long before achieving those goals. The easiest way to see progress is to record your training sessions in some way that makes sense to you.  Personally,  I prefer pen and paper while record-keeping on a printed Excel spreadsheet, though I know I am becoming the minority here as most people prefer phone apps such as Trainerize, MyFitnessPal, or even your phone’s Notes app.

Either way you choose, be clear and be consistent. Each training session needs a few basic bits of information:

• Date: 

• Specific Exercise

• Volume (Sets & Repetitions & Weight Lifted)

• Rest

• Feedback

From recording your dates, you can see how fast your progress is occurring and begin to project when your first few goals will be broken. This can be VERY encouraging when you feel progress has slowed to a stop. This will also help to drive motivation each session as the next goal isn’t too far away. 

Specific Exercise:

Record your specific exercise every single training session.  If you are like me, you have no problem doing the same six to eight exercises week after week, so this task is extremely easy. I will routinely make my staple exercises out of the following:

With my exercise selection remaining so simple, I can easily plug these lifts onto my program for the next 52 weeks ahead. My biggest variables are the weight I choose and repetitions I complete.  I can compare today’s number to two days ago, last month’s session, or even a session completed sometime before 2020.  Having too much variety week to week will make this task harder, as you have to search back to the day you did a 30 degree Alternating Incline Bench with Dumbbells, with a chest fly thrown in every other rep. Save yourself some time and keep exercises pretty consistent.

Volume:

Training volume is the crowd-favorite, though. Recording training volume consists of sets, repetitions, and weight lifted.  Recording these metrics will be the biggest help in maintaining momentum as seeing strength increase through the weight lifted is AMAZING! Glancing back to last month, you observe that your squat was extremely difficult for four sets of five reps at 105 pounds, but today you completed four sets of eight reps at 115 pounds.  Today, you have completed 12 more repetitions than last month, all while adding 10 additional pounds (or a 75% increase total!!)

REST:

Rest between sets is the most overlooked training metric. Generally speaking, resting between 45 and 90 seconds is adequate between sets within a training session but we can manipulate this variable as easily as adding weight or repetitions.  Beginning a week of heavy lifting can be intimidating, so give yourself enough rest to ensure proper form, safety, and confidence.  During this first week, rests may be 90 seconds, up to approaching two minutes.  The following week, without changing a single variable, complete the same session while resting no longer than 75 seconds between sets.  The following week, 60 seconds. For week number four, 45 seconds.

Decreasing your rest times in such a manner without changing the weight, sets, or repetitions, will increase your training density (how much work is done per hour).  You will have lifted the same volume but IN LESS TIME.  This is living proof that your body is healthier, stronger, and more capable than when you began the first week.  

My clients love to complain that the first week of workouts “...take sooooo long!” but they are very happy when training sessions go from 75 minutes to 55 minutes within a couple of weeks.  We don’t have to change much other than rest times, the human body simply adapts to deal with the stress.

Feedback:

Lastly, provide yourself feedback on the work just completed. I personally use a very complicated system to record feedback for myself and clients. The secret: Happy faces, sad faces, and a number of exclamation points.  After each set is completed I will use one of these tools. A happy face means no problem at all, weight or reps could probably be added.  A sad face could indicate pain during the lift, sub-par form, or anything else that needs attention.  I utilize exclamation points to indicate the weight and the reps are perfect for today and the client or myself are right where they need to be.  

Though subjective, these notations are very valuable.  For example, if a client bench pressed 135 pounds for four sets of eight last week, I will begin the session around that same number.  His first set will probably have a happy face.  

Second set we add ten pounds, arms are a bit shaky and he barely locks out without a spot. Exclamation point for perfection. 

Third set, same weight, needs a spot on number five. Sad face- he missed the prescribed eight reps. 

Fourth set, we go for eight again, but yet a spot is needed on rep number six. Sad face.

Without changing anything, the next time we revisit this session, I tell this client that we are still looking for 4x8@145, but now the session goal is to complete all four sets on his own without a spot.  We know he got stronger, though the training volume remains consistent. 

In conclusion, record everything that you can! 

It will keep you engaged and encouraged, dedicated and determined even when progress may seem slow. Record your weights, your reps and sets, how you felt after each set, or even after each session. 

Always refer back to see what minor changes you can make today to make the biggest difference tomorrow.