5 Tips For An Effective Progress Journal

As you begin your workout program, one thing that you want to ensure you’re doing is keeping tabs of the progress that you’re making. Too many people simply put their workout into place and forget to really monitor just how well they’re progressing.

This causes two main issues to occur.

First, they can become demotivated. When you aren’t tracking your progress, it’s easy to lose sight of the results you are seeing. Then, on a day when you’re feeling especially discouraged, you may decide to toss in the towel altogether because you just have nothing to reflect back on to illustrate that you are, in fact, moving forward wonderfully.

Second, not tracking your progress means you have no record of how the given workout and nutrition plan you’re using is working. When you track progress, you see what works, what doesn’t, what needs to be changed, and you help provide important information you can use going forward in the future.

Having this reference is exceptionally important as it can save you much wasted time down the road.

All of this said, you do need to make sure that any progress journal you’re using is laid out effectively. Let’s look at six tips that you can put into action so yours benefits you optimally.

Get Specific

First, make sure that you are as specific as possible while jotting down what you’re doing. Don’t just write down that you did 5 set of the bench press, you want to know how much weight you lifted, how many reps you did each set, and how much rest was taken.

All of these factors play a key role in determining the results that you see, so you can’t take them for granted. The more specific you are, the better indication this journal will be of what works best for your body.

List ALL The Details

In addition to being specific about the details of your workout and nutrition plan, you also want to list as many details as you can about other factors that may be influencing the results that you see.

For example, did you only sleep 5 hours the night before? Write that down. It can have a profound influence on your energy level and strength output. Then when you look back and notice that workout was not nearly as good as others have been, you now know why.

Likewise, you’ll want to include your mood state. While you may not think that your mood influences your workout performance, don’t be fooled. It does – often more than you realize.

If you are frustrated, upset, angry, excited, feeling complacent, or otherwise, write that down. Especially if you are feeling that way for a while, it can help you see trends in your performance and could show you where you need to be mentally in order to see best results.

If you are training with a partner, also write that down. Some people perform better when working with others do best when solo. By looking back across time, you can find out for yourself where you really shine.

Including as many of these outside details as possible will help give you the full picture of what’s going on and allow you to make smarter adjustments to your approach going forward.

Include Pictures

The one thing every great progress journal needs is progress pictures. While having the written numbers and stats is great, nothing really showcases results like pictures.

And, do keep in mind that when you look at yourself every day in the mirror, it’s very hard to see change occurring. But, if you look at a picture of yourself from a month ago and then look again at a picture of you now, you may be able to see the bigger changes at work.

When taking pictures for your progress journal, you’ll want to include pictures that showcase your physique as best as possible, from all angles. This means wearing minimal clothing, using good lighting, and taking the pictures at the same time each day (preferably first thing in the morning after using the washroom) to keep things consistent.

Place this picture right near the entries for that time period and when you look back, you’ll see exactly where you stood.

Make Note Of The Date

It’s also vital that you jot down the date. Don’t forget to add this small yet important detail in. It’s not enough to just know that entry A came before entry B. You want to know when each entry happened so you can get the big picture.

Make sure when planning your journal, you find as large of a journal as possible so that you can keep track of many entries all in one book. The less scattered your entries are, the easier it will be to look back over time and find the information that you need.

Remember Progress Isn’t Always Linear

Finally, as you make this effective progress journal, keep in mind that progress isn’t always linear. There will be days where you aren’t always moving forward as you had hoped you would.

Perhaps an injured happened or you’re just going through something in life that’s preventing you from giving your all.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be tracking it down. Write it down just as you would those times when you feel like you are seeing great success.

And, don’t get too down on yourself. Keep in mind that everyone has set-backs and times of slow progression. It’s how you deal with those – how you sustain motivation and keep pushing through that will determine where you stand at the end of time.

Don’t put the expectation on yourself of having to be perfect or you’re going to find you become less and less motivated as time goes on.

So there you have the key points to know and remember regarding your progress journal. Is yours up to par?

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