Hi, this is my first post on this forum but I’ve been a fan of T-Nation for a while now. Go easy on me
I noticed there’s a forum on here for training logs, and seems people are diligent about tracking their sets and posting them. I have always found that to be the best way to stay focused in the gym, and to hold myself accountable to continually improve.
I was wondering if people use any apps to log their workouts, or if they prefer to walk around with notebooks? I personally like apps, but couldn’t find anything that really seemed to work for me.
I’m interested to hear how you all track your workouts, and would love any feedback you may have on whether you find my app useful.
I have aways just used pen and paper. Now, I will sometimes use excel to write up stuff or I will type out my plan in a Word document and print to keep in my notebook. However, I record everything with pen and paper. I have used a notebook since day one.
Then again, I am one of those people who just uses my iPhone for calling, texting, and podcasts. I hate using a phone, they make me edgy lol Personally, one of the last things I want to do when I am lifting is mess with my phone. For some people, I think there is too much going on in their phone to get them distracted from getting/keeping their mind right for lifting.
I’m old school so just used to use pen and paper on a clip board. Training split would be already written out for each day so just a matter of filling in weights and reps in the sets column. Pretty easy and uncomplicated.
This was mainly for strength training where progressive overload is important.
For hypertrophy training I don’t think logging is all that important.
I don’t even take my phone into the gym so can’t help you with apps. I like to stay focused. Last thing I need is someone phoning or texting me when I’m trying to lift. I do a lot of rest pause training these days so being in the right frame of mind is vital.
I used to use a pen and paper. Luckily I’ve got a pretty good head for numbers so typically now I just do it all from memory then log it on this site later. I find posting it online keeps me slightly more motivated to push stuff when appropriate and generally make slightly better decisions.
[quote]zukini220 wrote:
Hi, this is my first post on this forum but I’ve been a fan of T-Nation for a while now. Go easy on me
I noticed there’s a forum on here for training logs, and seems people are diligent about tracking their sets and posting them. I have always found that to be the best way to stay focused in the gym, and to hold myself accountable to continually improve.
I was wondering if people use any apps to log their workouts, or if they prefer to walk around with notebooks? I personally like apps, but couldn’t find anything that really seemed to work for me.
I’m interested to hear how you all track your workouts, and would love any feedback you may have on whether you find my app useful.[/quote]
I open up a blank email on my phone and record every set, rep, load, and workout start and finish time and email it to myself. Then at home I enter it into my Word log.
[quote]zukini220 wrote:
Hi, this is my first post on this forum but I’ve been a fan of T-Nation for a while now. Go easy on me
I noticed there’s a forum on here for training logs, and seems people are diligent about tracking their sets and posting them. I have always found that to be the best way to stay focused in the gym, and to hold myself accountable to continually improve.
I was wondering if people use any apps to log their workouts, or if they prefer to walk around with notebooks? I personally like apps, but couldn’t find anything that really seemed to work for me.
I’m interested to hear how you all track your workouts, and would love any feedback you may have on whether you find my app useful.[/quote]
I open up a blank email on my phone and record every set, rep, load, and workout start and finish time and email it to myself. Then at home I enter it into my Word log.[/quote]
That sounds awful
When I was doing 5/3/1, I’d just write out my TMs. If you can’t work out your working/supplementary sets in your head, you have bigger issues than tracking.
Nowadays, I use a notepad. I’ve always found apps rather cumbersome for not much benefit.
I used fitday to track my food when I first started dieting I still use it from time to time to make sure I’m on track I also log my weight on there and I have recently started taking measurements as well. If you know how to download torrents you can get it for free.
I plan on starting 5,3,1 in a few months and I’ve seen a few apps that look really good I plan on using one.
But currently I just track everything with a note pad and pen, I think I am the only person at the gym that carries a book, thanks makes me cool dosnt it?
I write down my sets for main work and assistance with some comments. Then I’ll write them up later to my log (word) and highlight PR’s. Reason I write my workouts is that I’m quite lazy with my log, and update it maybe once a week.
I just print out my weights to be used (doing 531), and make the only number that I have to remember is the number of reps I hit for a PR set (and my fiancee’s). When that’s the only number I make myself responsible for remembering I actually seem to remember everything else much better. After which I jot it into my log here. Honestly keeping a log on here is by far the best method I’ve used to track everything.
[quote]zukini220 wrote:
Hi, this is my first post on this forum but I’ve been a fan of T-Nation for a while now. Go easy on me
I noticed there’s a forum on here for training logs, and seems people are diligent about tracking their sets and posting them. I have always found that to be the best way to stay focused in the gym, and to hold myself accountable to continually improve.
I was wondering if people use any apps to log their workouts, or if they prefer to walk around with notebooks? I personally like apps, but couldn’t find anything that really seemed to work for me.
I’m interested to hear how you all track your workouts, and would love any feedback you may have on whether you find my app useful.[/quote]
I open up a blank email on my phone and record every set, rep, load, and workout start and finish time and email it to myself. Then at home I enter it into my Word log.[/quote]
That sounds awful
When I was doing 5/3/1, I’d just write out my TMs. If you can’t work out your working/supplementary sets in your head, you have bigger issues than tracking.
Nowadays, I use a notepad. I’ve always found apps rather cumbersome for not much benefit.[/quote]
I started working out again in August and since have done everything by feel. I generally do the same exercises, but sets/reps/loading varies. I don’t recommend that for everyone, but I am in a somewhat unique situation (defensive lineman in college, met wife & stopped lifting, started it back up almost a decade later). If I did a program with prescribed loading, I’d pre-write it and just track my comments.
Interesting. Yeah I’ve tried Fitocracy, but I thought the points system was a little bogus to be honest. I couldn’t figure out how it calculated the points haha. I ended up creating my own app to track my workouts, mostly as an educational project. It guides me through my sets, times my rest, and forces me to log in order to continue to the next exercise. Since I already have my phone on me for music, might as well use it for tracking!
