My wife and I are joining our local gym and need to get in shape. How do we track our progress in the gym, and are training journals really useful, as we don’t see many people using them? Can’t we just follow our instincts? What else should we be tracking, with do’s and don’ts for the best results? Jim and Mo, Kent, UK.
Hi Jim, hi Mo.
You should use a training diary, yes.
I used to make them from small exercise books, but you can buy them today, or use your phone app, just be sure it’s on flight mode to spare yourselves (and other gym users), any undue EMF stress, while you cause even more physical stress working out!
And do try to avoid being a ‘selfie wanker’, since no one seriously gives a fuck that you went to the gym.
When you’ve built your perfect body, usually after up to 10 years of hard work, you needn’t keep a training diary anymore and can train willy-nilly, because maintaining a body is way less of a science than building one.
Or, after maybe 20 years or so of regular training, you may be able to ‘claim’ (as I do), to use ‘the instinctive training principle’.
In my case, after 40 years of toil, I can ‘listen’ as it were, to what my body needs, at any given workout.
If I planned a specific workout, or to hit a certain area or skill set, then after a thorough warmup, something will tell me; ‘go ahead Andy’ or ‘don’t do it’, and experience has taught me that when I ignore this sense, I invariably injure myself, or, over/under train.
It may be something to do with age, and an acute awareness of what the body needs, or doesn’t require at any given moment, but the ‘instinctive principle’ is very real, but usually only used effectively by older trainers, who have already built a body and mind worthy of note.
Anyone else who tells you their applying ‘The Instinctive Training Principle’ is a wanker!
Lazy, undisciplined people will have you believe that they can remember exactly how many sets they did 3 days ago, of say squats, exactly how much weight they used each set and the exact number of repetitions.
Even more remarkable, is how they can remember how they felt at the end of each set, ie, they planned for 12 reps but failed on 11, just got to 12, or cheated the 12th rep up (unlikely on squats, but rather they didn’t go ‘arse to grass’), or perhaps they completed the set, but felt ‘strong’, and thus suspected that maybe could have gone for 13 reps, or actually did go to failure on every set, or was assisted by a spotter, as is very common.
This is, of course, complete lazy bullshit.
How to spot an ‘Instinctive Training Bullshitter’
Watch this same person squatting or benching for example, and you’ll see them always using 20’s (kg plates), 15’s, 10’s and 5’s in play on the bar.
Why’s that significant?
If you watch a pro lifting, on the other hand, you’ll also see the use of 2.5’kgs, 1’kgs, or even extra collars either side of the bar, and in the best weightlifting gyms, you’ll even find 0.5-kilo plates!
Because when you train seriously, the increments by which you’ll improve workout to workout, or even week to week, will be tiny.
This type of serious dude will be using a training diary for sure, so will know exactly how much weight he used last time, and exactly how he/she felt on completion of the set.
If he’s building his body for example, then most athletes won’t want to go past 12 reps, and many will stick to the 8 to 10 rep range since this gives you the most size, the best pump, and decent strength gains.
So, assuming his maximum rep range was 10, and he did it last week with 100kg, just managing the 10th rep, then this session he won’t try for 11, because the correct thing for him to do will be to try for the same 10 reps, with the same ‘good form’, only with an extra kilo or two.
So, observing the guy only using 20’s, 15’s, 10’s and 5’s, is usually a dead giveaway that total ‘bro guesswork’ rather than any science, is being used.
Sadly, with the number of meatheads on drugs these days, some of these dickheads may still have reasonable physiques, though usually will be lacking somewhere (calves, neck, traps, lats, etc), but to a novice, they’ll look pretty well built.
If you’re going down the ‘natural’ route, then lift the way the pro’s do.
Whether on p.e.d’s (performance enhancing drugs) or not, is beside the point, as the pro may have their eyes on an Olympic medal, a sponsorship deal, or a world record, they always train with purpose, and never second guess anything.
Another common thing you’ll see in a gym from guys and girls who don’t keep a log is throwing a pin randomly into a weight stack on a machine, and banging out a couple of ‘suck it and see reps’.
If the weight was too heavy, it wouldn’t be so bad, because at least if they got 3 to 6 reps out, they’d be in the Power to Strength ballpark, but invariably the weights to light.
So they stop after 3 reps, then relocate the pin, do a few more, stop and relocate.
Or they just crack out a set but end up doing 15 to 20 reps.
Either way, if the goal was say, total failure between 8 to 10 reps, then they just wasted valuable energy (and time), fucking around with whatever they lifted.
People seem to think that whatever you lift in a gym, it must count for something!
And that may be true in your first few months or so of training, but once your body has made those initial gains in those early months, and gotten into its ‘groove’, then you simply can’t be fucking around anymore, and the ‘benefit’ from such bullshit is practically zero.
With a training journal/log/app, you know exactly where to place the pin in the stack, or how much to load the bar with, how many reps you’re after, and if you’ll need a spotter, ahead of time.
The log will also show that perhaps you took 1-minute breaks in between sets.
So, if a time comes and you’re stuck at a certain weight, and even after several sessions you can’t budge past it, you can try giving yourself an extra 30 – 60 seconds to recover more fully.
If you succeed with the extra rest time, then next session, try it again but shave 15 seconds off the rest, and so on, till your back to your 60 seconds, or whatever your rest period is (mine is 60 seconds, but if I was building my body, I’d go for 2 minutes, and if training for pure strength/power 3 minutes).
Presumably, you didn’t join a gym to become a ‘selfie wanker’, engage in social media, run your business, or chat to your beloved from the fucking gym floor, but you joined to improve your physique and general health.
I’d ban all phones from the gym, just for the simple fact of how lame people look using them, and from the point of view of not wanting to be in the middle of a bi-directional sea of microwave energy, that fucks with us all on a big-time cellular level.
What gets measured gets managed
Your training diary can also be used to record measurements, and whilst you may not notice a half inch here and there, the tape doesn’t lie, and may be a most valuable source of inspiration during sticking periods.
On the back inside cover of your journal, you can write your goals for that year, with all your ideal measurements, body fat, and lean muscle percentages, which might be the only things worth recording if you have a good set of scales.
For ladies, look for a really good set, that records fat, bone, muscle and water percentages, as the fat and water may fluctuate a bit, and might demoralize you if you don’t have the muscle and bone stats.
Your bones won’t get any thicker or longer (assuming your done growing), but they will become denser and thus heavier. Knowing where any extra weight has come from is crucial because it will again stop you from being down on yourself.
Many women haven’t exercised since they were 15, and now at 25 or 30, and after 3 months at the gym and better eating, they find they’ve ‘gained 3 to 5 lbs, yet one of the reasons for joining was to drop some weight.
No need for concern.
Muscle weighs more than fat for the space it takes up, so imagine a shoebox full of fat next to an identical box full of muscle, and the muscle box will weigh more.
Over time, that extra muscle you build will burn more energy for you, even while you sleep, than the same weight of fat, plus you’ll look way trimmer and the tape measure will confirm this, even though the scales may lead you to think otherwise.
Never, ever be concerned with your bones becoming denser and heavier, or fluctuations in your water, depending on the time of the month.
We know our ancestors, like the Neanderthals, were massively strong, how?
Because their bones were so thick and strong.
Nature wouldn’t give you great strength without first making sure your bone structure could handle it.
Many women I coach, after 15 years of no weight bearing exercise, are in the same boat as an astronaut who’s been working in zero gravity for a while.
Use it or lose it ladies, and if you lost some bone mass after 15 years of taking hot bubble baths, pulling the plug and fighting the current for daily exercise, then you should be delighted to have gained a little weight in the bone department.
As your bones get stronger, your body will follow suit, and that strength will lead to more muscle tone, less fat, and lower dress sizes.
And ladies, unless your some idiot, leather-skinned, gravelly voiced, steroid CrossFit, ManBearPig, you will never ever look masculine, or ‘big and muscly’, just athletic, lean and toned, so be cool if you see the muscle percentage going up, and report anyone offering you drugs of any kind.
And never ever weigh yourself on a set of conventional bathroom scales that only records weight, especially if you’re a woman.
Weight doesn’t mean shit, its body composition that you want to know about, which is why ‘weight watchers’ is such a joke.
So, guy or girl, as long as your muscle and bone density is on the way up, and fats on the way down, then your weight is bullshit and irrelevant.
Also, guys, check the wankers out in the gym with ridiculous calves and scrawny necks, but who have big arms and chests!
Sure, you might want those guns and pecs, but do you want to look a complete mongoloid like they do?
Your training journal and tape measure will also tell you where to put in the most effort in terms of symmetry.
As a rough guide, you are ‘symmetrical’ (looking good on the eye), when your neck, biceps and calves have the same measurements.
That’s for guys, by the way, forgive me for not knowing the answer for ladies.
That’s why these guys who train as they please often look so ridiculous, yes you want those 17-inch biceps, but you’ll look a right prick owning a set, but with 12-inch calves and a 15-inch neck.
These guys must have some form of body dysmorphia, a bit like anorexia, where they’re looking in a mirror and still wanting bigger arms, while they completely miss having the neck, calves, and cock, of a 12-yr. old schoolboy.
Sadly, the old ‘love muscle’ won’t grow along with the rest of you, and unless you have a decent sized piece at the outset, you might want to reconsider any dreams of being the size of ‘Arnie’ one day.
I’ve no idea what a 5 or 6-inch cock looks like on a huge man (honestly I don’t), but I’m guessing its fucking hilarious, so be careful what you wish for!
So you’ll look way better than a guy with 16-inch guns if yours were only 15 inches, but your neck and calves were the same sizes. That’s how symmetry works.
A normal man has a 6-inch difference between his waist and chest, which is how most men’s suits are made (40 chest/34 waist), but an athlete will have an 8 to 10-inch difference or way more for a bodybuilder.
On that note, unless you like shaving your body hair, slapping on fake tan, wearing skimpy underwear, and posing on a stage in front of an audience that’s 95% men, then don’t be a ‘bender’ or call yourself a bodybuilder, and instead train like an athlete, and call yourself as such.
You can tell people who ask you, that you do ‘weight training’, they’ll know what you mean.
So go for a functional, athletic, symmetrical look, before you jump into bodybuilding.
You’ll look way better in clothes, won’t walk like you’ve shit yourself, be way more functional for sports and sex, and probably live longer.
All these symmetry ideas, come from Greek statues and the like, and there are many good books that’ll explain how to work out your ideal proportions, given your height, ankle and wrist measurement, and I urge you to consult them now, and not when it’s too late and your way out of proportion, and wandering around the gym on chicken legs!
I remember once, my neck and biceps were both 16″, and I had a 10-inch waist to chest differential, decent shoulders and quads etc, but only 15-inch calves.
I dropped down to a maintenance level for the rest of my body and threw all my lifting energy into building 16 ½ inch calves.
It forced me to study the two calf muscles and the science behind building what can often be described as a very stubborn muscle group.
Not only did I get them to 16 ½, but by the time I’d finished, my neck was 17!
It’s as if some parts of the body aren’t willing to grow till something else grows first, and I’ve witnessed many guys getting into heavy squats that lead to significant growth in their arms and necks!
The point is, that without accurate records and measurements, and left to complete guesswork, bro science, or some meathead magazines idea of what you should be doing, you’ll be like a ship without a rudder, and they usually end up on the rocks.
For a lot of guy’s especially, that leads to frustration and desperation, and plays perfectly into the hands of your friendly gym drug pusher, which is why I want you to start off being serious about keeping good records.
‘What gets measured gets managed’, as we say in business.
Here’s another crucial reason for keeping a log;
Many times, I’d either have a shit training session, a good one, or even an outstanding one, and that’s when my log would come in most handy.
I’d write down how many hours sleep I got the night before, and exactly what I’d eaten and drunk leading up to the workout.
I’d note what supplements I’d taken, who I’d hung out with that day, or what I’d read or watched that may have inspired me, or negged me out.
If you’re going ‘freestyle’, then how the fuck will you ever learn how to duplicate your best efforts, as well as know what leads to a poor one?
The better you become at recreating your outstanding workouts by refining your formula, the faster the gains you’ll both make, the less time you’ll need to spend in the gym, and the more energy you’ll have to put into your careers or family.
Since a lot of your log will get filled in while your resting in-between sets, this exercise really won’t be that time consuming, it’s just a case of discipline and good sense.
However;
Over the past 40 years coaching, and as a former gym owner, I can honestly tell you I’ve also seen a thousand people get in great shape in 4 to 5 years, but who never used any kind of training log or journal, whatsoever!
But in my professional opinion, most if not all of them could have achieved those exact same results, or even better, in just 2/3 years, had they applied a bit of science to the mix, especially in regarding tracking progress.
So, investing a couple of hours a year keeping track of things, might be worth its weight in gold for you both.
Thanks for the question,
Blunt Coach Andy
