One of the things I’ve seen debated numerous times by trainers, coaches, athletes, influencers, etc. in the health and fitness space is whether or not keeping track of things like calories, weights, reps, and anything else related to your health and fitness is necessary.
There are those who think it is absolutely vital to attaining your goals and those that think the opposite and actually even look down on those who choose to track everything.
I will say that if you have a definite health and fitness goal in mind, in my view, your chances of success in attaining that goal are greater. If you track everything, you’ll better be able to see your progress and have a target to aim for.
For example, when tracking your poundages in an exercise, if you’re not keeping track of the weight you use, in the bench press for example, how will you know what your personal best effort is and how will you ever be able to beat or work toward beating your personal best?
It seems like an elementary idea, but you’d be surprised how many people will say that this type of information doesn’t matter.
I heard a bodybuilder many years ago say that weight doesn’t matter and that when weight training you should go more on the feel and the “mind-muscle connection” and not worry about how much you’re lifting.
This advice is not wrong, but very situational and applies to a small niche of people who are engaged in weight training for exercise. That niche, bodybuilders who not only weight train and watch what they eat but also use steroids and other chemical compounds to achieve the results they desire.
That advice doesn’t apply to the guy or gal who is training to be healthier, stronger and just wants to look and feel better.
If you have a directive at work to make more sales than you did last month to get a promotion, how would you know how many sales you have to get if you were never keeping track? If you’re a commission based employee and you’re not keeping track of your sales, how do you know you’re being paid accurately for your work?
I know, I know, when it comes to money, of course, you’d keep track of everything. Then why not for the most important currency that there is? Your health.
For years, I never kept track of anything. I didn’t track my weights, my exercises, my food, calories, nothing. I just did whatever I “felt” was good on any given day.
The older I got, the more out of shape I got, the more I realized the importance of logging and tracking everything. The more things I tracked, the more detailed I got, the faster and more consistent my results were.
When you see what you did yesterday, you know to continue doing what works, what you need to change, and what needs to be eliminated or improved upon next time.
It’s really that easy.
How else are you going to track your progress? How is a trainer or coach going to assess your results if he or she has no data to go on? How are you going to know that what you’re doing is or isn’t working as well or as quickly as it should?
Yes, it’s time-consuming, but I argue that it’s better to spend that time now building and getting into the habit of tracking all of your data now so that you can be getting the most out of your training and nutrition plan rather than wasting precious weeks or months before realizing you’re making no noticeable progress.
Next month, I’ll be making available all of the factors I feel need to be monitored and tracked if you’re truly serious about getting into and staying in the best shape of your life.
I’ll be talking about:
- What I track
- How I track it
- The importance of each metric and what it says about what you’re doing
- How soon before I make a change to something in my plan
- How long it takes to actually see improvements when tracking data
- and much more
I’ll be making this information available to those who care enough to invest in themselves and get the most out of their health and fitness journeys by becoming a part of my stable of elite “Golden Ones” in the “Members Only” section of this website.
That’s not all you’ll get. You’ll also get exclusive video and audio content, articles, special reports and more.
Until next time…
Always Activate. Get Going.
