Tracking your progress in the gym

[Arwenac]

So I just read the Strength Training 101 post and almost at the end it said you should take a notebook to the gym to track your progress. 
I have done a fitness training at the gym and tried to workout by myself a few times but I noticed I get bored easy when I don't track my progress. 
I already have a excel sheet with all my data but I can't remember what weights I used and how many reps I did. So I did try putting it in my phone but I couldn't get in there easily and clear.

But here is the problem. I already have a bottle of water and a towel with me and I don't like luring around that much stuff when I am working out. So I found didn't like the idea of taking a notebook (and I kind of feel like a dork with a notebook and pen jotting down stuff, not that it is bad I just felt watched  ).
So how do you track your progress while going to the gym?

[dauntless_fox]

Hey Arwenac - I have the same problem and ended up doing a combination of (I) taking a picture of the weight level and (ii) just remembering reps. Works for me since I need the phone for music.

 

In the past I tended to get the notebook all sweaty as well (not cool).

 

Looking forward to hearing any nice solutions

[alienjenn]

I use jefit... it's a program on my phone... and I can view graphs and stuff during the workout and then long term graphs afterwards

(sent by the phone. .. all mistakes are the phones fault)

[Knightwatch]

I dunno why a notebook is a big deal, you don't even notice it. Way easier to carry than a bottle and towel at least. Or just take a single piece of paper golden up and a golf pencil and transcribe it later.

[Kaylya]

On Android, I've been using the app Redy Gym Log

It comes with a few exercises built in, but you can easily add more. You build up routines with the exercises and then you've got a short list of whatever exercises you intend to do that day. Nice and simple tracking and then you can share it to Runkeeper and a few other sites if you want.

[Juni0r83]

There are tonnes of free workout tracking apps available for smart phones. Go through the App Store (or google play if you've got an android phone) and check some out. Make sure to read the reviews and check out the screen shots to make sure it does everything you want it too. Even if you just use it to track your workouts at the gym, and transpose the data into a spreadsheet when you get home.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jmmiller33]

I use a yearly planner. Right now I keep diet notes and workouts in it and when I start running that will go into it as well. I don't like the distraction of having my phone in my hand while i'm in the gym and if people wanna watch then oh well, they already watch me Squat so whats the big deal if they look at my notebook?

[Irishrages]

I use jefit... it's a program on my phone... 

 

I use this too, but to second Knightwatch's comment, good old pen and paper can be pretty nondescript. Personally, I'd leave out the towel before the paper. A notebook can get spilled on, dropped, sweated-up, and it still does it's job: tracking your progress like an s.o.b.!

[Estrix]

I just use a spreadsheet on my phone, I can't even be bothered with an app. I'll even save a draft message when needed. Failing that I use a piece of paper in my pocket. And failing that I just borrow a pen and write on my hand/arm depending how much I need to write. Got to remember what you do, it's the only way to stay motivated so I'd leave out other things before I left out progress tracking some how.

[Walkingtree]

https://imageshack.com/i/jjsai2j

 

This little puppy has been with my since I started getting serious in 2010. 

 

It's useful for:

-tracking progress

-looking at exercises you may have forgotten about years ago

-learning about your pacing, motivation, and programming

-looking back at the first few pages and seeing just how far you've come

 

Depending on what your programming is you can include between 1 - 8 workouts per page.

 

One tip: don't use a spiral bound, as those pages tend to fall out.

[I-Jo]

I use this too, but to second Knightwatch's comment, good old pen and paper can be pretty nondescript. Personally, I'd leave out the towel before the paper. A notebook can get spilled on, dropped, sweated-up, and it still does it's job: tracking your progress like an s.o.b.!

I don't like bringing my phone- it's almost gotten weight dropped on it more than once- but in  pinch I use it for the note pad ap to write workouts- I have a regular old notebook.

 

I don't use a towel- so water- book- phone- mp3 player thing- often times I warm up in a zip up and then upzip it- so I'm carrying that too.

 

Actually 50% of the people at my new gym- they take their bags with them- leave them near their station and do their workouts and come back to it when they move away.

 

That's not really that much stuff.  I'm getting ready to get a small duffle to carry my crap in and keep it. normally I have a bag and I leave it in the locker- but I might down size and carry with me.

 

I also make sure I plan my program around equipment so I only have to wipe it down once- and I don't have to go here- then go there- then go there- I do all of it one spot- then move to the next spot and do the next grouping of activities. Workouts that have me doing this- then doing that- then coming back to the "this" spot- nope. can't be bothered.  

 

It's useful for:

-tracking progress

-looking at exercises you may have forgotten about years ago

-learning about your pacing, motivation, and programming

-looking back at the first few pages and seeing just how far you've come

 

Depending on what your programming is you can include between 1 - 8 workouts per page.

 

pretty much all of this.  I love having my book- hate when I forget it. 

I've gone through 2 LA fitness workout journals at this point- well 1 and I'm coming to the end of 2.  I have 2 others that are hard bound somewhere. I love flipping through them. Spirals are definitely not good. 

 

Also helpful if to look back to last workout and where I left off- i get annoyed because i have to fuss with weights trying to figure out some of them- not a huge issue- but it's easier to flip two pages and pin the weight and move on- than realizing it's too light or to heavy.  

[RisenPhoenix]

I have a small, moleskine notebook.  Small, flexible, easy to write in.  I tend to keep mine for as a lab notebook, so it has notes on my form from previous workout sessions that I noticed and wanted to document (or things people told me here), and vague numbers that I want to use for my workout that day.  Then it gets filled with notes on how I felt things went, if I thought the weights used were heavy or not, etc etc.

 

I've seen a lot of people carry notebooks around, and no one gives a second look.  Actually, carrying a notebook around has been useful - the trainers who only teach people how to use the machines purposefully avoid my gaze.  I kid you not. (Not the most professional of behavior, but funny as hell.)

[Elder]

I use a small notebook.  I write my planned workout in it before going to the gym so I just have to write down the set x weight numbers.  I have my notebook, water bottle, phone, and my pull up band when I am doing pull ups.  I use paper towel from the dispensers as my towel.  I have bluetooth head phones so my phone doesn't need to be on my body.  I pile everything close to the area I am working out in.  No one stares, no one makes faces, no one has yelled at me.    There are actually a few other people in the gym who use notepads too. 

[Walkingtree]

I use a small notebook.  I write my planned workout in it before going to the gym so I just have to write down the set x weight numbers.  I have my notebook, water bottle, phone, and my pull up band when I am doing pull ups.  I use paper towel from the dispensers as my towel.  I have bluetooth head phones so my phone doesn't need to be on my body.  I pile everything close to the area I am working out in.  No one stares, no one makes faces, no one has yelled at me.    There are actually a few other people in the gym who use notepads too. 

 

I've got pretty much the same setup! I like to sit in the sauna for 3-5 mins before I hit the floor to see what I did last week and prep myself mentally for what I need to hit that day. Since I have everything already written out in pencil I can make changes on the fly, although I cross out instead of erase my changes so I can look back and see that I had to alter something.

 

Arwenac: As long as you aren't grunting on every rep, throwing the weights around, and head banging like a coked out chicken before every set most people will just ignore you! That is, of course, if you are not working out at Planet Fitness.

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

I usually write down my workout before hand with the # of sets, reps and amount of weight I plan to use and leave the notebook in the cubbies on the side of my gym with my water & towel (I work out in a small university weight room). Sometimes I end up changing parts of the workout in the middle, but then I just correct it in my notebook after I'm finished working out. Gives me incentive to try to reach my goals though because I don't like crossing things out to write smaller numbers.

 

For things like sets to failure on pushups I'll just leave a blank space and fill the number I get to in. This method works for me because while I like keeping track in a notebook, I don't always like carrying it around with me during circuits. And my memory isn't good enough to perfectly remember a long workout to just write down at the end.

[elinox]

So I found didn't like the idea of taking a notebook (and I kind of feel like a dork with a notebook and pen jotting down stuff, not that it is bad I just felt watched  ).

So how do you track your progress while going to the gym?

 

I've been using a printed out sheet of what exercises I do and what my weights were the week before. I then take the paper and input the info in a Google excel doc. While having a piece of paper at the gym can be annoying, I think its worth it so I can track my workout.