Why guys should keep track of their fitness.
Keeping a fitness log book is an excellent way for guys to track their daily activy. A logbook is no different than a mirror, scale or fancy smart watch. It is another tool that guys that employ to help keep themselves motivated to stay in shape. Mirrors don’t lie and neither does a timeline with your routines and effort.
Tracking your fitness over a period of time will reveal patterns in your behavior.
Whatever your habits and patterns are in fitness, keeping a log will help you pinpoint where you can improve. Do you start out the week with huge gains and then taper off towards the end of the week? Maybe leg day is your arch nemesis. By tracking yourself you have record of what you did and when.
Once patterns have been identified, you can develop new ways to target those area that need improvement. For example, after eight weeks of keeping a fitness log you discover that you frequently skip cardio training. Don’t be hard yourself, everyone hates treadmills. Instead, look for new ways to overcome the activity you despise. Maybe doing your cardio outdoors, ie, trail running, is the switch you need to keep motivated. Perhaps the budget running shoes you bought from a big box store hurt your feet. Pony up and buy some decent running shoes. Adapt and overcome is popular slogan these days. Use it to interpret your results and track your improvements.
Keep it simple stupid.
Keeping a fitness logbook does not have to complex. There are some more advanced ways to track your fitness. We’ll discuss those below. A simple log doesn’t require anything more than a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Having the discipline to keep it up every day is on you. You either have it or you don’t. If you don’t have the discipline, now’s the day to start.
Get your paper and pencil. At the top of the page, make five columns. A ruler can help with this, but remember the K.I.S.S. method. Just draw four lines and be down with it. Now, add the dates, days of the week, what you did, your weight and any other metric you want to keep track of. Blood pressure or calories might be something that interests you.
That’s everything you need to keep a fitness journal. Write down daily what you did, how long you did it, and any other pertinent information. Maybe your mood was off, or your shoulder was in pain from lifting too much the day prior. These simple notes will give y9ou a glimpse into your mindset over time.
Using spreadsheets to keep a fitness log.
Spreadsheets are an excellent to make a more advanced fitness log. The good news about spreadsheets is they are free. Do you have a Gmail account? Yes, then you have access to free spreadsheets on Google Drive. Open Drive and create a new spreadsheet file.
Following the simple method above, do the same tasks on the computer. Create columns with dates, days of the week, activities, and any other trackable metrics. There are a few benefits to using spreadsheets over regular pen and paper.
- They live in the cloud and can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection.
- The can be easily copied and duplicated once entered.
- Much more information can be stored on one file.
Why keeping a record of your fitness activities is a good idea for guys.
Keeping a fitness log is good for guys because we forget things. We forget birthdays and anniversaries. Sometimes we forget which play the coach called before the whistle blows. There are times when we can’t remember if the bolts on our cars and trucks are SAE or metric. A wiseman said, “the weakest ink is stronger than the best memory.” By writing (or typing) our fitness activities it reinforces what we did in our memory. It gives a solid record of what and where we did it. Women might be crazy, but guys are dumb. We are forgetful. Deal with it and keep a fitness log.
It’s not uncommon now to see guys at the gym with a notepad or phone. Some narcissistic guys keep their phones only for taking duck-lipped selfies, but many have a phone to help them track their fitness. A simple notepad works just as well as a $1,000 Apple iPhone. For example, when you work a particular muscle group write it down. Include the number or reps, the amount of weight, and if you used a machine or free weights.
You will be surprised by what you discover. Some guys swear that dumbbells are the only way to build huge arms. Because of this, they unconsciously avoid machines that could help them with their form. Maybe there is a spin class of sexy girls that always meets at a given time at the gym. Because of this, beta males may avoid certain places where the girls could watch his scrawny ass struggling to lift. The process of discovery doesn’t take as long as you might think. Keeping a fitness log will quite rapidly expose the weaknesses and strengths of your routines.
Successful guys are always looking for ways to improve themselves. Recognizing we suck at remembering is good first step.
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