How to keep a training diary: template and examples

Self-control and constant striving for progress are two main components of a sports lifestyle. And it doesn’t matter what it is all about. About crossfit training or yoga, about athletics or an ordinary hobby that is based on the desire to look better than now. To achieve certain successes in all this, you just need self-control for progress. And in order to more effectively control work on yourself, see your results and do even better, you just need to know how to keep a training diary. It is very simple and effective. In this article you will learn about what a sports training diary is, why and who needs it, and, of course, how to properly compile and fill out your diary.

Sports diary - what is it?

One word "diary" recalls everything that was connected with the school. But this time, the trainer in the gym will not require your diary to put you “two” or call your parents for the next workout. An example of a training diary would be a regular exercise book in which you write down what you did today in the gym and how you did it. Unfortunately, not all people who go to the gym keep such records. Because of this, they often remain dissatisfied with their achievements or simply do not understand why they are not. First of all, it is needed to correctly distribute your load during the training week.

How to make a training diary

As mentioned earlier, your notebook may be a regular notebook or notebook. The most important thing is that in it each time you will have to write the dates of the training, the orientation of your classes on a given day, your physiological data (weight or centimeters). Sometimes it is necessary to note your well-being and be sure to make notes about any injuries, if any. The diary may be necessary for various workouts, and therefore sometimes the data in it may change. For example, in crossfit training it is important to note the number of repetitions of exercises, as well as the weight with which you work.

At the same time, in the yoga training diary, more emphasis needs to be placed on the amount of time that you have been in a particular asana. In addition, in your diary, all exercises should be displayed cyclically. For example, today you record your results for training your chest muscles. This means that in a week (after about one or two pages of your diary), you will have to repeat the training records for the same muscle group, but most likely, with new achievements and other figures. Thus, it will be much easier for you to track your results. Now we’ll talk more about how to keep a training diary. There are two ways to do this.

How to keep a training diary? First way

He seems the most logical. In this case, they start filling out their diary right in the gym. After the first approach, young people come to their notebooks and write something in them. But you must admit, this is not entirely convenient, and each time you will be distracted, focusing not on working well on yourself, but on recording all your actions in a diary. But this method is suitable for those people who have just started to practice in the gym and do not know their capabilities, can not predict in advance how many repetitions of the exercise they can perform.

The second way to keep a diary: for advanced athletes

For people who are engaged in the hall for more than a day, there is a second way to fill out a diary. Before you begin your workout, you will need to fill out this day in the diary by ninety percent. You fill in advance what day you are going to the gym, what exercises you will perform. For example, the first of your exercises is the bench press. In your diary you write down “Bench Press” (or even abbreviated “zhl”) and in the first line mark the weight you will work with today “50; 70; 80; 90; 100”, and in the line below write down the corresponding number of times of lifting rods with the weight with which you are likely to perform this exercise with a probability of up to one hundred percent. For example, "15, 12, 10, 8, x." X is a cell with a value of "100 kg", which you fill after training, because now you do not know how many lifts you will make on the fifth approach. This method saves your time, with it you will not need to be distracted from the training process. In addition, you are guaranteed to retain some motivation. After all, you have already completed your diary, which means that you definitely need to perform the number of repetitions with the weight that you indicated earlier in your notebook.

Personal Tokens

It is important to use personal markers and badges when filling out your diary. Decide how you can note that your training went pretty well or badly. This is necessary so that in the future you know when it’s difficult for you to work and at what stage you should stop. Or when the workout is too easy, where to add reps or increase weight. As mentioned earlier, you should note your well-being before and after training. Make notes about how you slept and whether you ate well enough on the day of any workout. Thus, you can justify any of your shortcomings and after training do not blame yourself in vain. You will also understand why you were not able to fulfill any exercise standard that you have planned for today.

Pros of keeping a diary

Maybe the diary is not so necessary for those people who go to the gym to somehow correct their body shape, those who do not have any specific goal related to raising a specific weight or achieving certain results. But for those athletes who need to track their results and in their forecasting, a training diary can help perfectly. Using it regularly, you can understand that you need to improve your sleep pattern or change your diet if your current indicators are getting worse than before.

Where to get a diary?

You can simply sketch out any of the notebooks purchased at the stationery store. Although no, you can’t even draw anything if it’s convenient for you. You can not write so that all letters are exactly in one cell or ticker. Above all, make as many abbreviations as possible in your letter writing. This will be much more convenient and reduce the time it takes to fill out the diary. Your diary should have more numbers and fewer letters.

In addition, you can find a training diary template below. But all these templates are nothing more than tables with already filled in column names "date, number of approaches, time spent" and so on.

This is what the athlete’s diary template looks like, although you can fill it out at your own discretion and not at all as shown in the example.

Phone apps

There is a sufficient number of telephone applications that operate on the principle of a training diary. At first glance, this recording method is quite convenient, but still not suitable for everyone. Now you will find out why.

Firstly, if you record on your phone, then most likely you will need it during your workout. But not every person has the willpower not to read the messages that come to the phone while in the gym and active training. After reading the messages, some may be distracted by what is happening on social networks. You can talk with a friend, delve into reading the news. And all this will negatively affect the process of your training.

Secondly, with the loss of the phone or due to its breakdown, you can easily lose all your results recorded in the gadget. Unfortunately, not all applications are connected to any social network. And also not always you can manage to backup your phone data.

Motivation

This is the main plus of keeping a diary and the most compelling reason to keep it. You can set goals, achieve them and record your results. Not every person at first is good at independently controlling himself. Therefore, if you do not yet have real results of your work, then try to create a training diary with which you will motivate yourself to conquer new heights. Perhaps this is just what you are missing at this stage of training.

So, now you know how to keep a training diary, why keep it and how it can affect the course of your work. This concludes our article. Good luck in your workout!