Yesterday I wrote about tracking for people who would rather not track. Those of us who love the process of making lists and graphs and color-coded systems are the target audience today.
I don’t have to convince those of us who love this stuff to do it, so I’m just going to talk about some good practices.
First, let’s talk about what we want to track, besides everything.
We want to have some baseline data about our bodies, so we can start by weighing and measuring. We need to step on the scale (sorry!) and write down the result. Please keep in mind that we are way more important than any number and that we are valuable humans, no matter how much or how little we weigh. Then we need to spend some quality time with the tape measure. I suggest measuring the chest (at the nipple line, so we always measure the same place), the waist (at the belly button, for the same reason), the hips at the widest point, the thigh halfway between the spot where the hipbone juts out in front and the top of the kneecap, the calf at the widest point, and the upper arm halfway between the shoulder and elbow. It can be easier to make these measurements (especially that last one) with help, but it isn’t essential. A couple of selfies can also be useful here.
There are a lot of ways to get baseline data for cardio fitness. In my studio, I give new clients a step test, which has handy charts that separate results into categories based on a huge chunk of data from tons of people doing it. A simpler and more individual approach would be to pick a specific route, walk or run it, and note down how long it took, how hard it felt, and the heart rate at the end. If we have Wristy Overlords, we can start noting down our HRV numbers daily. Averaging a week of numbers will give us our baseline.
For strength, our baseline is best obtained through doing a one-rep max workout. For this one, it is best to have a friend to spot us for safety. After a warm-up, we go through our repertoire of strength exercises with heavier and heavier weights until we can only complete one (good form) rep. We write that number down next to each exercise and we have our benchmark.
With all this data in hand, we’re ready to start tracking our daily work.
For cardio, we want to record what kind and how long. Depending on what we’re doing, we might also record distance, speed, max heart rate, elevation gain, and route. We might want to include some qualitative data, too, like how close to death we felt on those hills.
In our weight workouts, we want to note down the exercises we chose, the number of reps and sets, and the weights we used. We might want to say something about tempo or about specific modifications we made. Again, qualitative data can be helpful.
If we’re working on flexibility and balance, again we need to write down what we did, how we felt, and any milestones we managed to pass.
Tracking data from classes can be more challenging. It’s hard to stop to write down what we’re doing and still keep up with what’s happening, so it might be best to summarize, writing down something along the lines of “boot camp class, weights up to ten pounds, hard, but manageable” or “yoga class, flow, struggled with tree, fell asleep in savasana.”
Every month or so, we get to review the data. We can look for patterns, like it’s really hard to get a workout in on Thursdays, or my measurements really changed once I switched to free weights, or that hill route is actually fun now.
As we think of more things we want to keep an eye on, we can refine our systems. We may notice that we could use some accountability around food, and add meal tracking and planning to our routine. We may recognize that sleep has a major impact on the quality of our workouts and decide to track how many hours a night we manage.
We can get as fancy as we like. But I do suggest getting a clipboard and/or a binder because we need a place to corral all that paper.
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