How to keep a workout log
A log isn't there for reporting. It's there for one question before every set: what did I do last time, and what am I doing today? Without an answer, progress turns into a lottery.
Why write it down at all
Muscle and strength grow when the load goes up over time. That can be weight, reps or sets — but "more" only means something relative to what came before. Without a record you remember last workout roughly, and "roughly" in the gym means taking the same weight and the same reps for weeks because it feels familiar.
A log removes the guessing. Before you bench you see: last time 80 kg for 8, 8 and 7. So today the goal is 8, 8 and 8, and once every set reaches the top of the range, +2.5 kg. That's progressive overload, and in the Plotkin et al. (2022) study adding reps and adding weight produced similar muscle growth — both work, as long as there is some.
The second thing a log gives you is honesty. Feeling stuck or feeling strong often doesn't match the numbers. Your entries show what actually happened over a month, not over your last bad workout.
What to write down
The minimum without which an entry is useless — four things:
- Date — to see frequency and gaps.
- Exercise — by the same name every time. "Bench" and "barbell bench" in two entries are two different exercises for any spreadsheet and for you in six months.
- Weight — in one unit. Switching from kilograms to pounds? Convert the whole history, not half of it.
- Reps in every set separately: 8, 8, 7 tells you more than "3×8".
Useful, but optional:
- RPE or reps in reserve — how hard it was. 80 kg for 8 at RPE 7 and at RPE 10 are different days. The RPE scale tied to reps in reserve is the one Zourdos et al. (2016) described: 10 is failure, 9 means one rep left, 8 means two.
- A note — one line on what matters: "shoulder ached", "new shoes", "slept 5 hours". A month later it's the notes that explain the dips on the chart.
No need to log warm-up sets — they skew your average weight and tonnage and say nothing about progress. I don't put them in the diary at all.
How not to quit after a week
Most logs don't die from laziness — they die from friction. If logging a set means opening an app, finding the exercise, filling three fields and confirming, by week three you'll be thinking "I'll log it later" — and you won't.
So there's one rule: logging a set should take seconds. In a paper notebook it's a line, "80 × 8". In my bot it's a line too: type 80 8 and the set is logged; I'll sort out the weight and reps. Hands busy? Say "eighty for eight" in a voice message.
Two more tricks:
- Log right after the set, while you rest, not at the end of the workout. By the end you won't remember whether the second set was 8 or 7.
- Train on a program. When the day's exercises are known in advance, the log tells you what's next and logging is easier. Ready-made programs are in the programs section.
If you're used to a spreadsheet, keep it — but with columns you can move later: that's what the workout log template is for.
How to read your log
A single workout says little: today you slept badly, last week you were flying. Look at trends — and at the right numbers.
- Estimated max (e1RM) — the main measure of strength on a lift. It turns sets of different reps into one number: 100 kg for 5 and 90 kg for 8 give almost the same e1RM. If it grows month after month, you're stronger. What it is and how it's calculated is in the glossary.
- Workout tonnage — how much work you did. Useful for comparing identical program days, useless across different exercises.
- Sets per muscle per week — how much work each muscle gets. If your chest gets 18 sets and your back 6, the imbalance is obvious.
Spend five minutes once a week: which lifts went up, which are stuck, how many workouts you did. That's enough to spot a plateau in time, not three months later.
Common mistakes
- Logging only the good days. A log with no dips shows growth that isn't there. A bad workout is data too.
- Changing names. "Squat", "barbell squats", "back squat classic" — three charts instead of one. Pick a name once and stick to it; in my diary the catalog name stays attached to the exercise.
- Changing technique silently. Switched your grip or depth? Note it, or the jump in numbers won't make sense.
- Chasing a number on every set. A log isn't a reason to add weight at any cost. If your form fell apart for one extra rep, that rep doesn't count.
- Never looking at the entries. The most common one: logging carefully and never opening the history before a set.
How I do it
I'm built around exactly these rules. A set is one line, 100 8, or a voice message. Before a set you see last time and today's target: within your rep range I suggest one more rep, and at the top of it, one weight step. I work out estimated max, tonnage and records after every workout, and show weekly volume per muscle group on the main screen.
When the weight on a lift hasn't moved for three workouts in a row at 12+ reps, I remind you it's time to add. When your estimated max has barely grown in eight weeks, the coach breaks down why. And history from Hevy, Strong or a spreadsheet can be moved in as a file — it becomes part of the same diary.
Start your log right now — in the bot a set is one line.