Myth #8 Recording your progress is a useless waste of time

By Michela Fiorido [Sports Bureau Chief]

Not at all! How are you supposed to remember how many pounds you lifted and how many reps you did  last week for each exercise?

Let’s be honest, most students can’t even recall what they ate for breakfast. Recording your progress has a lot of benefits and takes on several forms.
For one, you can (and should) record what you eat every day. Not only does it make you more accountable for what you eat but it also lets you see if you are eating enough calories compared to the calories you are burning through exercise. It is very important to maintain a certain caloric intake if you want to reach your fitness goals.

You can also record such things as your weight, body fat percentage, BMI index, and certain body measurements. You would only have to record these at the beginning of a fitness program and at every 30-day mark. It is motivating and more fulfilling to see actual progress in the form of numbers. How will you ever know if you are meeting your fitness goals if you never recorded your starting points? You won’t know. That’s the point of recording your progress, it gives you valuable knowledge that you can use to fine-tune your workouts and to motivate you.

Furthermore, it is important to record the weights, reps, and sets that you do in the gym. By recording these numbers you are able to keep building on them week after week and you’ll also know when you’re slacking off or when you’ve hit a plateau and need to change things up. If you don’t, you’ll just slump down on the seated bench press, plug in 40 pounds and go “Oh I guess this feels alright for today.”

Alternatively, if you check your notebook (which you should bring to the gym) you will see that you have been pushing 40 pounds for the last week and a half and it’s time to add 5-10 pounds so that you keep moving forward in strength gains.

There are lots of templates on the internet for recording weights as well as a plethora of iPhone apps to choose from to assist you with recording progress. It is also easy to make your own charts with excel or word.  I’ve been recording my weights and reps for years and I find it immensely fulfilling to look back to my old notebooks and see how much I’ve progressed since my first year at Kwantlen.

Before starting any fitness routine, consult a qualified fitness professional.