I am a data freak. I love tracking my fitness, my nutrition, my accomplishments and my goals. I do this both for my clients and myself.
Back in the day when I first started bodybuilding, I just used a notebook. I jotted down my workouts and food but not much else. I really did not know if I was making progress in my strength. I did however know exactly what I was eating and how many calories I was consuming everyday. Keeping a food journal was a priority because I had to get as lean as possible for every show.
That was years ago and my goals have changed.
Since then I completed two half marathons. I printed out a running program I found online and stuck to that. I never logged my runs or anything else, I just followed the plan. I had days where my runs were horrible and I would end up walking a lot. I had days in which I felt I could run forever.
Had I kept a log and a food journal, I may have been able to see why; on certain days I felt like I was running through mud and why some days I felt like an Olympian. Maybe my nutrition, hydration and sleep had a big effect on my training. I would never know because I didn’t keep data.
Over the past few years my goals have changed. For several years I didn’t do much but train with kettlebells. I went from program to program and tried and stopped every one of them. I had workout dyslexia. I was always getting distracted by a shiny new program.
My personal training business pretty much followed the same fate. I either did not write down programs or I would throw something together before I headed to the gym to train my clients.
They did see results with weight loss and body composition which was fine because that is pretty much all they cared about. I never kept data on their actual progress in the gym. Many times I would have to ask how much weight we used on our last workout. Had I kept data, I would have been able to show them their progress.
Things changed for me when I began setting goals that had deadlines attached to them. Had I not kept data on my training, I doubt I would have accomplished much.
One of my goals, and still is to be the oldest woman to complete the Iron Maiden challenge. For those who may not know; I would need to do a pull-up, pistol squat and press the 24 kilo (53 pound) kettlebell.
First thing I did was to hire a coach. Second thing I did was to get a good log to journal my workouts and more importantly, my progress.
Over the years I have bought, downloaded and made my own workout logs. None of them had ALL of the features I wanted.
