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by Jim Coughlin A sure-fire way to be productive and move closer to your strength training goals is to 'Keep Score' or in other words write down, document and keep a journal of your progress. Not doing so will set you up for failure! When I first began my career as a personal trainer, I learned early on that ONLY the successful trainers wrote down and kept track of their client's workouts. I of course modeled myself after them and have been successful ever since. Today, although I know a lot more about strength training and how the body works, I still use the same fundamental methods when I first started out. I STILL record each and every workout for my clients. I know for a fact that every time I write the certain number of sets, reps or weight for a client's exercise I am 100% confident that I am moving them closer towards their goals. How do I know? I know because every single one of my clients achieves results. And not just mediocre, lose a couple inches, get by, results. No, I'm talking about life changing results! I am not saying this to brag, boast or toot my own horn. I'm saying this because documenting your strength training WORKS and is critical to your success. I can't state this clearly enough. If you don't keep a journal of your workouts, you will not achieve results...or not the killer kinda results I'm talkin about anyway. Every time you do a certain number of repetitions and weight of a particular exercise your body is monitoring it like a hawk. Whether you realize it or not, your body KNOWS the difference between pushing yourself to do 5 more reps or 5 more pounds as opposed to doing the same as before. It's kinda like boxing. A boxer throws a jab here, jab here, hook there, jab there, upper cut here, jab here...and while he's doing this, he's keeping track of his punches or at least his coach is. If all he threw was just a jab, just a hook or just an uppercut, the chances of him knocking out his opponent would be pretty slim or better yet he'd have no chance at all. The same goes for writing down your workouts. If you did a chest press with 15 pounds for 12 reps and 3 sets, 3x a week for 2 months straight...Nothing would happen.
Many people who work out by themselves do not write down sets, reps and weight because they believe it to be a royal pain in the arse and they think it's not necessary. Well, they aren't achieving the best results either, but to them, the fact that they're working out is good enough. The last thing they want to do is scribble numbers on a notepad while sweating. But what really infuriates me, and I find to be reprehensible, is when I see TRAINERS not tracking their client's workouts! This pisses me off to no end! A client is not paying for someone to tell them to "Push it" or "Your form is incorrect". Although, this is of course necessary, it's entirely incomplete. A client is paying for RESULTS! In other words, a client should absolutely, 100% trust that every second that they spend with a trainer is being productive. Every exercise, rep, set and weight should be tracked to the T. No exceptions. In my opinion, the clowns who get way with this should be banished from personal training all together. I know that may be harsh, but it's the truth. How the h*ll is a client supposed to know if their trainer should be writing down their workouts? It's the trainer's responsibility! Not the client's! Another thing that I find inexcusable is when trainers claim to 'remember everything'. Let's say a trainer has 10 clients and meets with each 2 or 3x a week. How can he or she remember 10 different work outs without writing them all down? They can't. And if they say they can, their lying! So for all you solo exercisers out there, start keeping a journal of your workouts. For those of you who already do...GREAT JOB...keep it up! And to all you trainers who act like you are holier than thou and are too good to write things down, don't even think about calling my company looking for a job because the answer is: Hell Friggin No! Jim Coughlin is a personal trainer and the owner of Coughlin Fitness & Results, a nationwide personal training company. He is also the author of The In-Home Personal Trainer, a helpful guide to successful in-home personal training in addition to other products and many other popular fitness articles. Jim is very passionate at motivating people to empower themselves to live a healthy lifestyle through consistent exercise and proper nutrition. He has free weekly success tips which you are welcome to subscribe to on his website http://www.fitnessandresults.com
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