We’re all on a fitness journey in one way or another. With life’s hectic schedule, it’s easy to lose track of where you are and where you want to be regarding your fitness and how this fits into your wider lifestyle goals. No matter whether you are trying to lose weight, gain strength, or maintain where you are, tracking fitness progress is an essential piece of your ongoing success. But it often gets overlooked…
While some people track every single workout, all gains, and all food consumed in their fitness journal, others just want to get it done and go by how they feel. But with the constant change in technology, specifically in the fitness industry, tracking progress becomes easier and easier; and in fact, it can add some benefits to your training.
Why should I track my exercise progress?
Tracking your progress can be a useful way to keep you motivated when you start an exercise program. You can use a notepad, notes app on your phone or even dedicated workout apps designed for logging workouts and for something you can do whilst resting between sets, the benefits are numerous!
Challenge yourself to squeeze in more activity, whether spending an extra five minutes on the elliptical or taking more steps every day. When you reach a goal, treat yourself to a non-food reward, such as buying some new workout clothes.
What are the benefits of tracking my fitness progress?
- Makes it more likely to reach and surpass your goals If you can see how you’re progressing
- Allows you to be more efficient with your time and more productive with your workouts
- Helps you to make modifications more easily and shows when and where changes need to be made
- It can be highly motivating, reinforcing and reminding you why you are doing what you’re doing
- Helps you to drive the focus and direction of your programming
Being able to look back at your previous workout and seeing your numbers logged gives you a great sense of purpose for the workout ahead – an empowering mindset that we instil in all our clients.
When you see what you need to improve for the workout ahead you will be more focused going into the workout and more likely to achieve the small milestones each workout that will add up to greater progress over time.
Putting it simply, to see and evaluate progress, you need to track and log workouts to see where you currently are, and what you need to do moving forward in order to reach your goals.
