Track Your Fitness

I was never any good at keeping track of my fitness in a journal.

While I always found it intriguing to write down and archive my thoughts, feelings, and experiences, every attempt to put pen to paper and spill my guts would last for a mere one to two weeks. Distractions always prevented it from becoming a steady habit.

With that said, the importance of keeping track of accomplishments, shortcomings, misfires and areas that are in dire need of improvement cannot be denied. This is especially true when it comes to your health and fitness.

If you’re not keeping track of your workouts, nutrition, your mindset and body measurements then you’re only stumbling your way forward; you won’t really know what’s working and what’s not.

Are you eating more or less than you should?

How do you know you are getting stronger?

Are you on the right path or should you make adjustments?

Unless you keep track, you won't know what needs to change in order to make progress.

Luckily for you, doing so is not that difficult. And here are 5 ways that you can start today:

1) Tracking your workouts

You want to be better today than you were yesterday. So, unless you know what you did during your last workout, you won’t know what you need to do next. Keeping note of your reps, sets, and amount of weight used will help to move the needle forward. The methods you use are completely up to you. You can go old school and use pen and paper, you can use an online spreadsheet, word doc, or note-taker such as Evernote. I can personalise your workout for you through my Online Fitness Coaching, as it’s a convenient method and keeps you accountable.

2) Tracking what you eat

MyFitnessPal has become the go-to food tracking app, but, there are plenty others to choose from. As long as you can track your macros (protein, carbs, fat), and total calories, then you’ll be just fine.

3) Tracking body fat

There are many ways to measure your body fat. For precise and inexpensive measurements, you can use callipers. However, they do have a steep learning curve and might require you to have another person assist you. The easier and quicker approach is to use an electronic body fat monitor. While not as precise as more expensive methods, it does give you a starting baseline which you can use to continually measure progress. Read more on body and fitness trackers here

4) Tracking body measurements

While tricky to do it individually, or without a fitness professional that knows what they are doing, body measurements can provide a good view of overall body composition. To do so, get a plastic tape measure and measure the following locations every one to two weeks: chest, shoulders, arms, waist, hips and thighs.

5) Take a picture

Last but not least, take a front, back, and side picture of yourself at the end of each month. This is a great way to see if your body is transitioning in the right direction.

If you have any question about the above tracking methods or simply want to know how tracking can help you make progress, let Discipline Fitness know how to help you.