The basics on the muscle building power of a training log. Essential for building muscle is a training log. A training log is a notebook of some sort in which you record your progress from one workout to the next. For instance if you did bench press on Monday you write down “bench” followed by the amount of weight your using, and then the number of repetitions you’ve completed. Then the following week when your bench workout would come up again, you would refer back to the previous week, look at your numbers, and then attempt to one-up yourself, that is try to perform an additional repetition, or else keep the repetitions the same and up the weight. Or both.

Then you would record your numbers for this workout. If you did 10 repetitions last time, perhaps you would up the weight and attempt 6-10 reps with a higher weight. Or if you did 6 reps with a particular weight last workout, then this workout you would attempt more than 6 reps, perhaps shooting for 8-10. If you progress in either manner, then you know you are getting stronger in the gym, and can continue on this muscle building progression fast track. If you try for heavier weight but only achieve 2 or 3 reps, you can go back to your original weight and work on performing more repetitions until your ready to advance to a higher muscle building weight.

In any event, you are on a steady, methodical path of progression., very aware of where your muscle building efforts are at.

The opposite of this of course, is blindly going from one workout to the next with no idea of how many reps you performed the last workout, and even unsure of the amount of weight. Many practice this form of wasted muscle building activity, and can easily fall into a vacuum of thought where one believes just showing up at the gym is enough, and going through the motions will be adequate to build muscle. When in fact what is occurring is all the efforts of their hard work will be decreased by an enormous percentage, not utilizing the simple powers of a training log.

A training log should be like a trainees bible. Always near his or her side, frequently looking at the numbers, focusing on improving the numbers.

Additional tools used in training logs, are that of notes; recording any other factors one might want to add to further evaluate their progress or lack thereof, for that particular workout. Notes on how one was feeling physically or mentally that particular day, changes in the gym–broken machines, switching machines, new machines. Or even lag time between excercises. Say you have to wait an additional amount of time for a bench to open up, or you were rushed along a bit quicker than usual for whatever reason… Also types of grips or techniques one finds beneficial should also be recorded. All these additional notes can greatly enhance a training log and hence greatly enhance your muscle building efforts.

Article Source