Keeping track of your exercise routine using a workout log can be extremely beneficial. Noting down your cardiovascular routine, strength training regimen, nutritional info and body measurements on a timely basis can help you in gauging your fitness levels by planning your future workouts sensibly. Today, we have with us Wanitha Ashok, Body Transformation Expert and Group Activity Director at Vriddhi, Bangalore who will tell us how, why and what it takes to maintain a workout log. 

An achievement log is as good as experiencing a runner’s high. Studies have shown that a fitness journal helps us keep track of our day-to-day workouts to help motivate and stay accountable to our excuses. It encourages honesty and adherence to an exercise program and excuses will soon be history as the results keeps the motivation levels high. Workout logs are useful to keep track of muscular gain, strength, cardio and flexibility. Recording information about weekly progress will motivate you to offer your best. A workout log will specially help a beginner and people who need monitoring and constant motivation. It’s most suitable for people who have reached workout plateaus. Documenting workout sessions when tweaked with intensity, time, reps, sets and variation can help come out of the workout plateaus. Workout logs when clubbed with daily nutritional log can help shed oodles of weight.  

The workout log can be drawn on a weekly basis as follows

Week beginning. Goals, as many as you want to include and make sure that you include your week points and check when achieved. 

Weekly cardio log. Add the following points to your weekly cardio log:

• Type of cardio
• Duration
• Intensity
• How you felt after the workout (poor, good, excellent )
• Energy levels (poor, good, excellent )
• What de-motivated you and what motivated you

Weekly strength training notes. You can aim at targeting a couple of muscles a day: 

• Body part
• Exercise
• Weights used
• Reps 
• Sets
• Muscle soreness

Do note that the tables mentioned above can be modified according to your progression and requirements periodically. 

The nutritional log can be designed and customized according to your lifestyle, nature and habits. It should be documented on a daily basis. 

Step 1. If you happen to be someone who breaks rules or cannot stick to a diet then make a header – “ My goal for today “ . 

Step 2. Include columns below with the following components and add the following pointers:

• Number of meals ( 5-6 small meals) 
• Carb intake at every meal
• Protein intake at every meal
• Fats intake at every meal
• Water intake 
• Cups of coffee/teas
• Alcohol
• How many times you said NO to unhealthy food
• Nutritional rating for the day

Step 3. Likewise you can customize your workout logs to suit your lifestyle. The success of any body transformation is highly reliant on keeping track of workouts and recording both daily activities and weekly progress. Note down your body measurements and body fat percentage on day one. And update your journals once every two weeks. 

Step 4. Maintaining a log of pictures on monthly intervals is also an excellent way of staying motivated. It helps you see where you have made progress and where you need to make improvements. If you are doing your strength workouts religiously, then the needle on the weighing scale is bound to move to the right due to the muscle mass gain. This is called inch loss and lean mass will boost metabolism and encourage fat loss.

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