The Importance of Keeping a Journal

What’s this “journal” thing all about? You see people come to class, grab their journals, and immediately go to the whiteboard and start writing things down. Why? It’s important and helps you make progress!

Why do we require members keep a journal?

Keeping a journal accelerates the learning process. When you start a new workout program, it requires learning new skills, movements, meaning of words. By writing down your workouts, you are taking time to process what you have learned during that class.

Logging workouts helps you remember appropriate weights to  use on any given day.

Sometimes it can be hard to remember which kettlebell you used or what percentage you used on your lifts. You might be working out on your own and there’s nobody to ask, or maybe you wanted to do a little more than last time, but you’re not sure how much weight you had put on the barbell. Having a journal to double check can quickly give you an answer.

We as coaches can help you with your progress better if you are journaling.

If you have details of your workouts, it helps us in giving advice on how to progress because we know what you have been doing, instead of guessing. Maybe you’ve plateaued and you’re not sure why. If you have a journal we can sit and look through your workouts and try to pinpoint the problem. This is especially helpful if you are also logging details like sleep, water intake and nutrition. Logging isn’t just for workouts!

Logging helps with progress. Both mental and physical.

I’ve been doing crossfit and Olympic Lifting for 3 years and I have 3-4 journals. I write down EVERYTHING. My mood that day, if I’m tired, annoyed, happy… everything. I also write down how each lift felt. Cues from my coach on what I need to work on, how that wod felt, could I have gone faster? It truly helps. It’s important. It’s also great on the not so good days to look back at my journal and see how much progress I have made.

Benefits of keeping a journal:

  • Faster learning
  • Remembering weights
  • Having information to analyze
  • Tracking progress

Do it.

Jeff Edwards

- National Coach USA Weightlifting - Crossfit Coach of individual and team competitors - Outdoorsy nerd - Owner and Head Coach at BR Fit Club