T-Bone Chews The Fat
 

I observe a lot of things both in myself and others when it comes to weight lifting, so I thought I'd create this thread to put these thoughts down. Feel free to comment, hi-jack, refute or support anything I might put out there (bearing in mind I'm no authority on the subject). :)

Subbed!

No. 1 - The Log

I don't understand the many guys (people) I see in the gym who don't keep a log of their workouts. For me it's the only way to guarantee and verify progress.

I keep a log and have all my old ones saved. The subject of progress was brought up today in my log, so I looked back and realized I had made great progress in just 7 months. That would have been impossible to determine without my log.

I laugh sometimes when I go way back and see how I struggled with weight that I now use as warm up. I can remember telling a workout buddy of mine that "No matter what I do, I just can't curl more than 45 pounds! I'm so frustrated!" Perseverance pays off because I'm way past that now, much like I am with other lifts.

I agree with logging, though I'm one of the first ones to forget to bring mine with to record the day. And I only recently went electronic with it. I bet if I had all of my actually logged workouts, it would be about 5-10% of the actual days I'd been training.

I'm a compulsive list maker / note taker so I feel lost without my log!:) COuld be some of these people I see take mental notes and log later...

Logs are my grounding point. I have always kept notes. I guess beating my last effort has always been the most enjoyable part of lifting for me.

Completely agree. If you're not measuring your performance now, you're obviously not serious about beating it next time.

Logs are one of the main differentiators between people who exercise; fartassing around doing whatever they feel like on a given day (chest and biceps anyone?) as opposed to people like us who train. We have specific and measurable goals which we work toward. I had a really hard time trying to exercise, it all seemed pointless. When I started to train, lifting became much more enjoyable.

LtL

I agree too Jim but I'm not one for taking a pen and paper into the gym. I have a good memory for figures and am happy to record whilst I sip my post WO shake. Many people compare their figures to other lifters, i'm only interested in comparing to last weeks workout. The only person I want to better is myself.

Out of everyone I see training in the gym, there are only a handfull that record their efforts (that I see). personally i either update on my phone between sets, or normally just after i finish... I had a pretty good memory for figures though so its not a problem, even if I have to log when i get to work a couple of hours later.

I love seeing the progress that i have made and i enjoy reading back through other peoples logs from time to time too and seeing their progress. It inspires me to push harder next time and make my self progress :)

Carl.

This is me as well. I look at what I did last time and then set out to beat it mentally. I have forgotten on occassion, but overall, I can remember what I need to do.