‘The palest ink is better than the clearest of memories’ – Tommy Kono, Weightlifting legend.

The best advice I can give to someone who’s stuck in a rut with their training is to keep a logbook. This can be in the form of a notebook (still my personal favourite!) or filling in your workout spreadsheet in real time.

A well-kept training journal will allow you to monitor your progress and help you evaluate your progress. It will also help set both short and long term goals in your lifting, which are essential in keeping motivation high. This is something that becomes especially important if your goals revolve around muscle building.

Remember, the number one factor in building muscle is progressive overload, so having a consistent method of tracking your lifts is critical.

In fact, my clients who achieve the best results are those who fill their spreadsheets, make detailed notes and consistently aim to apply the rules of progressive overload. This allows me to review their logs prior to writing their next phase, see what works and what doesn’t, and help set performance goals.

For fat loss, it becomes especially important as the diet gets tougher and the #VaghelaGrind is in full effect. The best way to preserve muscle on a diet is to maintain your strength, and a logbook keeps you accountable to this. If the logbook starts showing a consistent downward trend, something may not be right with your program and we may need to tweak something.

To use the logbook effectively, there are some rules you need to follow:

• Be as honest as possible. Don’t count half reps or reps done with poor form. You’ll only be kidding yourself.
• Make sure your training conditions are the same. If you’re feeling ill, or need to rush the workout in less time, these are different circumstances that are not comparable to your normal workout. Keep a note of this.
• Review it prior each workout. Use it as a written motivator. This is how I use it and why I rarely use pre workout products. To me, nothing fires me up in the gym more than the prospect of beating my previous performance.

Start tracking, and let me know how it impacts your workout quality, strength and overall physique development.