[quote]Professor Chaos wrote:
Everyone.
It’s stupid not to do so.
How else are you supposed to know if you’re progressing from week to week? [/quote]
Very few advanced guys use training logs. It’s almost always the little guys who have them and pour over their data.
Oh - You mean like Dan John? Yeah, he’s a little guy…
I keep a log. Every session I do, I know exactly how many reps I’ve done before. So I only need to do 1 more and I’ve improved.
Impossible without a log.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
Oh - You mean like Dan John? Yeah, he’s a little guy…[/quote]
He’s also not a bodybuilder by any means.
I think when the weights and the poundages are more important than the looks, then some type of log will be helpful. If your goal is strictly looks, then I think you can get by just fine without a log, as long as you have something to measure progress with.
When I start new routine, I print it out with Excel or Word so that there’s room to mark the used weights. Then just write down the weights (or rest times, or reps, or sets whatever is progressing). You really can’t stay away of making more work each time this way.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Professor Chaos wrote:
Everyone.
It’s stupid not to do so.
How else are you supposed to know if you’re progressing from week to week?
Very few advanced guys use training logs. It’s almost always the little guys who have them and pour over their data. [/quote]
Are you sure about this? Maybe for BBers, maybe not.
But I think most people who compete or at least train PL/OL/Strongman are very interested in breaking PR’s and use logs to see what worked and what didn’t.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Professor Chaos wrote:
Everyone.
It’s stupid not to do so.
How else are you supposed to know if you’re progressing from week to week?
Very few advanced guys use training logs. It’s almost always the little guys who have them and pour over their data. [/quote]
If you are a genetic freak, on the sauce, and above 250 lbs you probably don’t need a lot of help. For most others, it is a great learning tool. For me, since my log is public, it is also an added motivation to not just lift big but lift smart.
This is a subject I rarely address because there’s some solid thinking behind at least keeping some records, but I haven’t in a long time.
I usually remember what I’m doing and have done to a detailed enough degree for my purposes. Having said that there are times when I do think it would be useful to have a visual record in front of me, but not enough to motivate me to do it =] I hate writing.
Aside from what body parts and a general mental outline, I usually don’t make up my mind what precisely I’m going to do until I’m setting up and even then it often changes on the fly based on how I feel that day or what I feel needs emphasis.
I don’t know how “advanced” that makes me, but that’s how I train and it works for me.
Competitive lifters couldn’t do this I wouldn’t think.
[quote]jackreape wrote:
CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Professor Chaos wrote:
Everyone.
It’s stupid not to do so.
How else are you supposed to know if you’re progressing from week to week?
Very few advanced guys use training logs. It’s almost always the little guys who have them and pour over their data.
If you are a genetic freak, on the sauce, and above 250 lbs you probably don’t need a lot of help. For most others, it is a great learning tool. For me, since my log is public, it is also an added motivation to not just lift big but lift smart.
[/quote]
I think what CaliforniaLaw is getting at and what Prof x has said in different words is,
“newbs need to lift heavy and eat alot also newbs dont know what works for them yet so keeping a log will help give them a better idea and they need to constantly progress in lifting and body weight so a log would be a good idea for newbs”
however some one who is big already knows what works for them and as prof X puts it has already put in the time to get big now they want to maintain thier muscle or keep building muscle with reduced risk of injury “they dont need to keep adding weight to thier bench squat and deadlift”
Case and point they dont need a log, steroids or no steroids. they just do what they feel is working for them the best at that time
n3wb
[quote]n3wb wrote:
I think what CaliforniaLaw is getting at and what Prof x has said in different words is,
“newbs need to lift heavy and eat alot also newbs dont know what works for them yet so keeping a log will help give them a better idea and they need to constantly progress in lifting and body weight so a log would be a good idea for newbs”
however some one who is big already knows what works for them and as prof X puts it has already put in the time to get big now they want to maintain thier muscle or keep building muscle with reduced risk of injury “they dont need to keep adding weight to thier bench squat and deadlift”
Case and point they dont need a log, steroids or no steroids. they just do what they feel is working for them the best at that time
n3wb[/quote]
That’s fine if that’s what you believe, but don’t overlook the value of keeping a training log simply because someone more advanced than you said it was not necessary.
Some people are motivated by improving their lifts, and keeping a log allows them to see constant progress. Others are more concerned only with their physique, in which case they may not need to keep a log.
But don’t fall into the trap (sorry Professor X, CalLaw, Tirib, etc) that because one person is able to make progress without a log, that keeping one is somehow pointless. It is a tool that some people choose to utilize, and others don’t. Make your own decision on this topic. Choose to keep one or not based on whether it benefits you, not based on what others are doing.
[quote]Modi wrote:
<<< But don’t fall into the trap (sorry Professor X, CalLaw, Tirib, etc) that because one person is able to make progress without a log, that keeping one is somehow pointless. >>>[/quote]
I couldn’t agree more. I also tend to get obsessive about stuff like this and would likely allow it to become a distraction. Like I said above, there are some very good arguments to made in favor of the practice, it just doesn’t work real well for me. The first few weeks after I started back up I kept a record of sets/reps and weights, but after I got rolling it just sort of naturally fell away.
I keep a log as a memory aid, not for analyzing. If I didn’t write weights/sets/reps down I’d have no clue what they were the next time I do the exercise. I do over 25 different exercises a week and my numbers are pretty much all going up, it would take more work than I’d like to do right now to keep track of all those numbers in my head without making errors.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Modi wrote:
<<< But don’t fall into the trap (sorry Professor X, CalLaw, Tirib, etc) that because one person is able to make progress without a log, that keeping one is somehow pointless. >>>
I couldn’t agree more. I also tend to get obsessive about stuff like this and would likely allow it to become a distraction. Like I said above, there are some very good arguments to made in favor of the practice, it just doesn’t work real well for me. The first few weeks after I started back up I kept a record of sets/reps and weights, but after I got rolling it just sort of naturally fell away.[/quote]
Ahh, an educated consumer. Tirib, you tried it, and realized that it was more of a distraction than an aid, and therefore discontinued it’s use. This is why I respect your approach.
I keep a log. It’s rather primitive, w/pen and paper, it’s been that way since I first started training as a kid. My granduncle ( actually he was old enough to be my great granduncle ) told me it would help as a rank newcomer to iron.
It did help me, and it still helps. One of the things about my training logs is that they are more like one piece of the pie, of my year long training schedules. It’s a kind of system my granduncle gave to me, and I added to myself.
These don’t work for everyone of course. My granduncle actually, went with the more intuitive approach pretty early on, and never looked back.
One day I might ditch logs all together…like him, we’ll see.