Workout tonnage — what it is and why to track it
The sum of weight × reps over all working sets: how many kilograms you lifted in a workout.
Three sets of 8 with 80 kg is 1920 kg of tonnage. A workout adds up to anything from a few hundred kilograms to tens of tonnes — it depends on the exercises and your experience.
Tonnage shows how much work you did, not how strong you are. It's handy for comparing similar workouts in one program: if it goes up and your technique holds, you're doing more. Comparing tonnage across exercises makes no sense — a leg press always beats a curl.
In the diary I work out every workout's tonnage and put it in the summary — with a playful comparison like "that's about 3 grand pianos". For bodyweight exercises I count a share of your bodyweight: nearly all of it in pull-ups, about two thirds in push-ups. To work out tonnage without the diary, use the tonnage calculator.
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In the diary I work out all of these numbers myself — you just log the set.