It is decidedly low-tech to write down your workouts. I agree with that. Maybe you’ve tried outlining your workouts but found it tedious or too time-consuming. But if you persevere and keep your attention on what matters most to you and your training, you can really profit from this straightforward motivational strategy.

Some of the great things that occur when you start writing down your workouts before you go to the gym include the following:

1. You start to see the holes in your training and lifestyle

The total surprise at how important a role lifestyle plays in their workouts is one of the biggest surprises I encounter whenever I work with an athlete and they start utilising a workout log book for the first time. This seems so simple, yet until it is put in writing and placed in front of us, we will continue to deny its significance.

We only start to realise that our lifestyle has a measurable impact on how well our workouts go when we witness how inadequate sleep impacts our performance and how a poor diet undercuts our talents. Understanding something is also the first step to improving it.

2. You start working a little harder in the gym

You’re forced to be a little more honest with yourself at the gym, which is one of the odd impacts of logging your workouts. It aids in developing healthier exercising habits. You could certainly leave early and save time, but you would then need to record that in your training notebook later that evening.

Although having a coach watch your back to keep you on the programme and accountable is not the same, the effect is comparable. I can’t even remember how many workouts I forced myself to finish even when I wasn’t “feeling it” on that particular day, simply so I wouldn’t have to write out a subpar workout afterwards.

3. You get a constant drip of motivation

The word “motivating” is frequently used as the first adjective when people discuss their fitness journal. There are a few different explanations for this, but the one I value most is because it provides us with a venue for acknowledging our daily successes. It is challenging to fully understand and quantify the value of little victories when they are routinely achieved. After all, the major objective—”complete a half marathon” or “Lose ten pounds”—is simple to measure.

The training diary gives you a place to mark the small victories, like finishing a particularly challenging workout or increasing your maximum bench press by one rep. Those little jolts of inspiration and pride are what keep you going back for more.

4. You develop some serious self-awareness

If there is one skill that I wish more athletes (and people in general!) possessed, it’s self-awareness. When an athlete works their squats every day for a week and then is disappointed that they didn’t add 50 pounds to their squat jumps, that is a lack of self-awareness.

When a gym-goer goes to the gym three times in one month and then is surprised that they aren’t motivated to workout, that is a lack of self-awareness too. If we understood the way we progress and our motivation a little more deeply we would avoid a lot of the snags and hiccups that derail us.

The Takeaway

We all want to make the most of our time in the gym. The handful of minutes it takes to write out what you did and your related lifestyle habits can easily justify its time with better workouts, more self-awareness, and more motivation to show up again the next day and do it all over again. Sounds pretty cool to me.