Monday 1.18.16

Wait, what weight did I use again? Why You Should be Journaling

By Grace Lin

Has the following scenario ever happened to you?  

You walk into the gym, drop off your bags, greet some members, and head to the white board.  The strength calls for deadlifts at 75% of your 3RM deadlift.  

You think to yourself, “But wait, what’s my 3RM deadlift again?” 

As the instructor leads the warmup and outlines the workout, you keep racking your brain for what that weight is, while only half paying attention to the workout explanation.  The class breaks off to start the strength portion, you still haven’t remembered your 3RM, and now you’re scrambling to decide what weight to use.  

Don’t let this happen to you.  It’s the start of a new year, and might as well start it off with a new habit!  If you want to get the most out of your workouts, you need to start logging them in a journal every time you step foot in the gym.  Here are some reasons to why you should log your workouts:

  • It helps the learning curve
    • This is especially helpful for newer athletes.  Just like with starting anything new, there is a learning curve associated – the same applies to working out.  We have a lot of terminology, jargon, skills, movements, etc. that new athletes need to learn.  Think back to the old school days… In order to learn and retain the information, did you just go to class, listen, and leave, hoping to retain the hour long of information thrown at you?  Or did you take notes while the professor was lecturing, so you could refer back to refresh your memory?  Hopefully, you did the latter because, unless you have a perfect photographic memory, the majority of us retain information better by writing it down.
    • This also applies to the non-novice athletes.  There are always new progressions/skills that are being developed in our community, and it is hard to keep track of all of them.  Journaling lets you write them down for your arsenal of tools to work on before/after class or during open gym to work on your gainz.
  • It helps with appropriate scaling
    • As you have discovered, our workouts change every day.  Therefore, it is extremely hard to keep track of every movement and the weights you did over the course of a week, a month, a year, etc.  You may have used 65# for thrusters one day, but used 85# another day because it was for fewer reps.  If the workouts are logged, then there isn’t a guessing game for what weight you used in a previous training session.
    • “Oh, but I have a workout buddy who does a great job of keeping track of his/her numbers, and I always base mine off of his/hers.”  Well, what happens if your workout buddy is not there that day? Having a log of your workouts can quickly give you the answer.
  • It can incorporate other aspects of your life (e.g., nutrition, sleep, hydration, stress levels)
    • Journaling doesn’t need to be limited to just logging workouts.  You can (and we encourage you to) log your nutrition, sleep, hydration, stress levels, etc. along with your workouts!  This also helps the coaches aid you in your progress by being able to factor in outside influences. 
  • It tracks your progress accurately
    • We are all here for a common goal: we want to be better than we were yesterday.  How can you determine if you are better than the past if you don’t have a record of what you did?  Logging workouts, benchmarks, strength numbers, etc. is vital to assessing your progress over time.  Sure, most people can remember their 1RM for the major lifts, but what about your 3RM?  What about your 5RM?  These “small” details (which may seem like nuances) all add up, and logging everything takes care of tracking them for you.
  • It gives you the bigger picture
    • Finally, we all have good days and bad days.  Good days are great, but bad days will come.  And when they do come, it’s nice to be able to look back on how far you’ve progressed to remind yourself of all the hard work that has paid off.  This journey is not going to look like a smooth exponential function; rather, it’s going to be a gradual upward trend with many peaks and valleys.  Remember, we’re working toward long term goals, not short term satisfaction.

So, what do you need to keep a journal log?

  • Get a decent notebook.  One that is pretty robust and will not fall apart on you.
  • Record the date and day of the week for each entry.
  • Write down ALL parts of the workout (warmup, strength, skill, conditioning).
  • Write down the results (scores, weights used, scaled movements).
  • And take additional notes! For example, how you were feeling, stress, sleep, nutrition, etc.  These details really help when you look back and analyze your progress.

FOUNDATIONS
A. 10 minutes to practice movements in the workout
B. 20 min AMRAP of:
10 DB thrusters
10 ring rows
10 burpees

GPP
A. 10 minutes to build to a heavy thruster
B. "Sage at 20"
20 min AMRAP:
20 thrusters (135/95#)
20 pull ups
20 burpees

COMPETITION
(Pre GPP)
3 sets of 3 reps:
Technique work: 5 second snatch pull to launch position (above knee) + high hang snatch + snatch balance
*start with an empty barbell and do not exceed 50% of 1RM. 
A. Every 2 minutes for 20 minutes (10 sets): Muscle snatch 1-1-1
B. Using 65-70% of todays heaviest set, 
3 sets, each for time, of 10 touch and go power snatches
Rest as needed between sets

 
CFCHCoachComment