How to track your progress for better results

Keeping track of progress, bodyweight and your lifts in the gym is one of the most important aspects of the iron game

Doing it the way I prescribe here can reduce stress, saves time and also gives any future coach an easier way to adjust your diet and training.

Tracking your bodyweight

Actually a lot of the people I talk to have a problem with being consistent or do not even track their bodyweight at all.

Tracking is pretty easy and I will show you an easy way to do it, that has worked for me and my clients!

Get an adjustable scale

If you are living in europe and you are using the metric system, you should definately get an adjustable scale that has the option to weigh in LBS.

Weighing yourself in LBS is way more accurate, especially if your weekly fatloss goals are under 0,5kg it can be pretty difficult to see progress.

 

Get an extra set of batteries

You do not want to be out of batteries for your food or bodyweight scale,

because it is just annoying to not be able to do something you wanted to do!

This is especially annoying for the “B tracking candidates”, who only track their bodyweight once a week!

 

Get a smartphone app for excel/google sheets, or use a computer

You don`t want to write your weight down on a piece of paper all the time.

The extra functions you can use with a sheet, like diagrams, formulas and many others are just to useful to neglect.

Go with the time and use an app or a computer.

 

Create an excel or google sheet

You should have a sheet to track your progress

It can be used to keep track of your expenses, investments, bodyweight, lifts, measurements and much more!

 

I created a tracking sheet for you! Just download a copy and adjust it the way you want to!

Click here for the sample sheet 

 

Develop a routine and make it a habit

There are multiple ways to weigh yourself…

If you weigh yourself in the evening after a big meal or you weigh yourself in the morning… the weight will fluctuate a lot!

Do it under the same circumstances every time you do it! This makes the data more precise and useful.

The best time of the day to weigh yourself, is in the morning before you eat.

If you keep repeating the process several times, it will become second nature to you. It will become a habit!

 

Two examples:

A: Weighing yourself every morning

Wake up

Do your morning routine

Go on the scale and weigh yourself

Remember the weight for later or enter it directly into your sheet

 

If you weigh yourself everyday, you can determine your weekly average and keep track of your weekly weight loss as exact as possible.

 

It will not be a problem, if you miss some days. We want data to be able to measure and keep track of our progress!

 

B: Weigh yourself on a specific day of the week

You can weigh yourself after a low carb day, if you have one every week, or on any given day you want.

The circumstances need to be the same every time you do it. Do not weigh yourself after a refeed in one week and after a low carb day the other week for example.

I used to weigh myself every Monday morning after two very low carb and calorie days, because of that I always had my lowest weigh in on that day.

If you do your weigh ins only once a week, you have to keep track of the weekly progress and it is a bit less accurate.
How you do it is completely up to you and your preferences.

 

Tracking your lifts

One of the essentials to do in the gym is to keep track of your lifts and progress!

Without progress, there are no gains!

It can be really stressful to write down every set, every rep, every time you finish a lift.

There is an easier way though! Called “Milestone Checkpoint”
What is a “Milestone Checkpoint”

It can be a specific day of the year, like Christmas, your birthday, thanksgiving and so on.

It can also be in a specific time frame each month.

On this day or during this time frame, you write down your current best lifts!

 

How to test your “Milestone”

Use your favourite lifts or key lifts. It makes no sense to write down a lift you only did twice and you won`t incorporate into your workout routine.

You can either test them with an “AMRAP” (As many reps as possible) set to determine your current best, or write down your last PR (Personal record).

An AMRAP set has you perform one set of a specific lift, for as many reps as you can do till failure.

You should leave one rep in the “tank” and not go completely to failure, which can increase the likelihood of injury.

 

An example “Milestone Checkpoint”

My checkpoints are once a month.

During this period of several days, I will perform all my key lifts and write them down in my tracking sheet.

The milestones are also included in this sample sheet!

Using these kind of checkpoints is a great thing to see progress over a long time.

With your current bodyweight and lifts you can easily see, if what you are doing is going in the right direction!

 

What can you learn from these milestone checkpoints?

If bodyweight goes up and you get weaker while training -> something is wrong and you need to make some changes

(Sleep? Not enough protein? Stress / Injuries? Volume/frequency/intensity? )

 

If bodyweight goes up slightly and your lifts get stronger -> you are building muscle, while not gaining a tremendous amount of fat

(Small caloric surplus, volume/frequency/intensity adjusted to your recovery, diet on point)

 

If bodyweight goes down and your lifts stay the same -> you are losing fat, while keeping your muscle mass

(Primary goal for every fat loss diet, caloric deficit, volume/frequency/intensity adjusted to your goals and recovery)

 

If bodyweight goes down and your lifts go up -> you could be gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time

(Maybe getting better at the performed lift (Some lifts are a skill), being new to lifting / Newbie gains, coming back to lifting after a break / Muscle memory…)

 

 

With the collected data, you or a coach can make adjustments, to keep you progressing.

Writing down your macronutrients and calories is totally optional,

but can be very useful to make the necessary changes, if something is not going the way you want it to!