Designing A Workout Journal

We've already discussed what needs to be present when you are creating a food journal, but now we need to turn our attention to workout journals.

Journaling is a very good method of both keeping track of how much progress your making, as well as serving to be a very strong motivating factor.

Having a journal, be it workout or food related, is also going to serve as a self-check on accountability because if you're noticing a lot of empty space in your journal, this will send a strong wake-up call that you aren't putting much effort into your health and fitness program.

That said, there are some specific things you want to be sure you include when designing a workout journal so you can be sure you are getting top notch results.

Here is what to consider.

Date of Workout

The most important thing to have down is the date of the workout. If you forget to do this, you're not really going to have a strong indication of how much your progressing over time.

While you can see trends, you don't know how much time this is over. Adding ten pounds to your bench may seem impressive, but if it's over 15 months time, all of a sudden it may not be quite so - over three months though, that's a whole different story.

Furthermore, it's good to have specific dates for periodization purposes.

For example, if you are consistently finding that by week three of your six week cycle you're starting to get fatigued and it just goes downhill from there, you'll know for you next six week cycle that you need to include more rest time in these initial three weeks.

Write down that date - the day of the week, the day of the month, and the year.

The Time of The Workout

The next thing you'll want to include is the time of the workout. Some people are much better lifters late at night while others thrive in the morning.

If you currently don't really know when you lift the best - you just lift whenever, track the time and try a few different times out.

By stating how you feel and looking at the weight your lifting, you should be able to see clear trends as to when it's optimal for you to be getting your workout in.

The Sleep You Had The Night Before

Sleep can have a huge effect on our workout performance, so this too is important to keep record of.

Write down, as best as you can remember, approximately how much sleep you had the night before your workout - and what kind of quality it was.

This way, when looking back, if you notice a few less than optimal workouts over the course of the month, you might just be able to determine exactly why that was - lack of sleep.

Nutritional Status

Finally, the last thing you want to note is what your nutrition was like both the day prior to and the day of leading up to the workout.

This will help you determine what types of foods work the best for you and what combination of nutrients.

Some people perform much better on higher fat diets, while for others, they need those carbs in there.

Track this so you can see the direct correlation between your eating habits and your workout performance.

So, next time you're in the gym, make sure these measures are listed. Obviously you'll also want the basics - the exercises performed, the reps, the weight, how many sets, and how much rest you too, but these other factors are just as important to give you the whole picture with regards to how you're progress with your workouts.