One of the massive mistakes people make is not tracking their progress in the gym and piling on volume thinking it will get them results.
Usually, the thought of ‘tracking’ is met with a HUGE barrier – this is a mental barrier, in that it’s perceived as pretty obsessive and that it’ll remove enjoyment from working out.
> Fact is – there’s a DIRECT correlation between peeps that don’t track and those that fail to make any ACTUAL progress, floating about in the same position for years <
I know, because this was me for 7 long years – refusing to track anything, thinking it would zap my enjoyment from the gym and you know the most crazy thing? Part of me didn’t want to SEE that I wasn’t moving forwards (even though I knew deep down I wasn’t).
You know the next crazy thing? I actually started commanding myself to grow during each exercise – strange behaviour.
News to me at the time, but witchcraft doesn’t work and this approach turns you into a loon.
I also piled on volume to the workouts, thinking, surely if I just do MORE, my body will have no option but to grow and adapt. The result? Still nothing.
Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand that hard workouts are good for the mind and it’s genuinely a good feeling to leave the gym knowing you’ve left everything on the table – but this approach just doesn’t guarantee progression.
> Focusing on improving KEY lifts, tracking and adjusting properly however – DOES work <
If key lifts aren’t moving up week by week (due to strength gain). Then nutrition isn’t fuelling improvement – it’s literally that clear cut. This is the beauty of tracking – it unlocks concise reasons as to why you’re stuck, and gives you direction to correct it.
Once in the habit of tracking your lifts each workout, believe me – watching those numbers improve is very, very enjoyable.
So very simply – start tracking – myself and my clients will either be using ‘myfitnesspal’ or ‘strong’ for workouts and usually ‘mynetdiary’ for nutrition.
Give it a go!