Want to know the key to making more progress in the gym?
It's simple. Take out a small notebook and pencil. Now you have the world's secret weight lifting tool that no one knows about.
It's true, keeping track of all your lifts is the single most important thing you can do in the gym.
Writing your weights down will make sure you're properly keeping track of progress, instead of just guessing how much you lifted last workout.
Always remember, what gets measured can be improved. But, if you're never recording what you're doing, and how much you're lifting... you'll never know what you've done. And if you don't know the weight you've lifted... how can you try and beat your previous best?
See, gains happen from always trying to increase the amount of weight you lift, or the number of reps you get.
Well, over time, it can be hard to keep that information stored in your head.
So, by recording all of your lifts, and writing down how much weight you lifted and how many reps you got, for each exercise and each workout is the single best way to keep track of your progress. Again, this alone will make it crystal clear in terms of what you actually lifted, instead of just guessing.
See, most people just guess what they did the last time they lifted. And most likely, they shortchange themselves and actually lift LESS or the same amount of weight.
So, since they don't go up in weight and lift more... there's no extra overload. No progressive overload means no need for your muscles to get stronger or bigger.
What is recorded and measured can be improved. It’s hard to remember what you did last work out, unless you constantly write it down. So keeping a small notebook with you at all times in the gym can help you make more gains than anything else you do. This is why it's a great secret weight-lifting tool.
It’s amazing how things become REAL when you write them down, as opposed to memory.
If you always keep a written journal of your lifts, your weights used for each exercise, and written documentation of all your workouts... you will make more gains in a few months than you have in years.
Writing down your lifts and the weight you use is the only way to keep track of what you're doing, so you can keep trying to progress. And it’s the only way you'll know when it’s time to go up in the amount of weight you lift.
Use a small notebook, record all your lifts and weights used... and you will progress faster than ever. Let’s say you didn’t use a notebook to record your lifts. Let's say you just keep going on memory.
So, each time you go to do an exercise, you may use the same weight over and over again.
If you did bench press last week and did 225 for 10 reps... and you don't write it down... the following week... you may forget what you did. So, you may put 220 on the bar. That means you actually went backwards instead of progressing.
Or, say you put 225 on, and did 12 reps. But again, you didn't write it down last week, so you decide to stay with 225, when you probably could go up to 230 or more, if you had written down that you got 12 reps last week.
Again, you can't keep track of your progress if you don't write it down. Going on memory alone is a surefire way to cheat yourself out of lifting more weight. And the only way to keep progressing in the gym, and gaining more muscle and strength, is by lifting more weight over time.
If you’re always wondering what you did for weight the last time you were in the gym, that's the fastest way to short change yourself, and just keep lifting the same amount of weight.
But, if you keep track of every single exercise and lift... if you record all your weights lifted, you can keep trying to progress each time in the gym. You can try to add 5 more pounds, or strive to get one more rep.
When that happens, you will keep progressing, and keep adding muscle and strength. But trying to go on memory alone will ensure that you often use the same weights, the wrong weight, or don't reach the same reps you did. This all means you're going backwards and not making progress.
When you're doing 30 to 40 different exercises each week, it's easy to lose track of what weight you're using, or how many reps you've done.
But if you forget, and you keep doing the same weight again when you should go up in weight, or if you keep hitting the same number of reps, when you should go up... you're not going to progress and make the kind of gains you want.
If you keep using the same weights or number of reps, you're doing stuff you're already capable of doing. And this means no new overload to the muscles.
Bottom line, when you keep that secret weight lifting tool, aka a written journal for weight training routine and you keep track of all exercises, the weight you used, and the number of reps you did... this measuring will help you to keep progressing each and every time. And this progress is how you're going to make more and more gains with your workouts.
