Progress is made outside the gym just as much as it is made inside. Everyone knows that you need to eat right and sleep well, but most people overlook the benefits of mental organization. Here is how a personal fitness journal can help enhance your training regimen.
Recognizing Patterns
If you work out often, gym sessions may sometimes blur together. It can be hard to determine what effects particular exercises are having on your body. Tracking sets, reps, and recovery progress gives you organized insight into your gym routines. You may begin to recognize patterns. Maybe a good night's sleep results in better workouts. Or certain chest exercises make your shoulders hurt the next day. Taking a logical approach to working out will help you determine how you need to adapt in order to improve.
Setting & Improving Goals
It's easier to stay motivated when you can see your progress. You can use your fitness journal to set milestones and track statistics. Even if you're not seeing results in the mirror, your journal may show more subtle changes, such as increases in the number of reps or the amount of weight you're pushing. Keeping track of the little victories will keep you motivated and remind you that progress is progress, even if things are taking a little longer than you originally expected.
Seeing how fast or how slow you improve your fitness level provides you with the feedback necessary to set fitness goals that are achievable and will keep you from getting discouraged.
Keeping Yourself Accountable
While a fitness journal can help you identify areas of success in your training, conversely, it can also show you areas where you need work. If you start to slack on your workouts or are skipping the gym altogether, your journal will show that. It's a good way of keeping yourself accountable. Consistency can be one of the hardest parts of training. Your journal could be that last little push you need to get yourself up and moving.
Eliminating Routine & Optimizing Your Workout
Writing down your workouts, along with what you eat on certain days, sleep intervals and stress levels will allow you to find reasons for why you feel at your best on some days, while on other days your interest in your workout is running on fumes. All that data right at your fingertips can allow you to see where routine is hindering you so that you can maximize the days where you feel like you can conquer your fitness, and minimize the ones where you don't feel as able to meet your goals. A fitness journal is a bridge to success in your workout journey.
Getting Motivation
The best reason for logging your workouts is the ability to look over the past work you have done. You'll notice the results where you ran longer and quicker than you thought was possible for you, and when you kept going for 10 more sets. These milestones in your wellness past will give you satisfaction and remind you of what you can do when you are at your optimum. All the more important, it will give you the spark to get back at it.
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