How a training diary motivates us and helps us improve performance in sport

Many athletes keep a training diary. Why? It’s very simple: for self-monitoring. For very successful athletes, diaries are replaced by a whole staff of specialists who monitor the training process. And those who have not yet reached such a level have to use notes.

And it should be said that the level of your training does not play any role in this matter. Regardless of experience, it will be useful for any athlete to keep notes, in which he will take into account all the details of training.

Even a very experienced powerlifter can be difficult to keep in mind all the necessary information about the upcoming loads, and this problem is easily solved by a diary.

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A training diary is a sacred scripture for any athlete. Every training program has a final goal, and a training diary helps to achieve this goal. For example, today an athlete has a leg press, we open the diary, in the past two weeks he pressed six sets of 6-12 reps with weights from 80 to 140 kg. In the diary it is noted that the final weight is given freely, there is a reserve of strength, so today the athlete will try to increase the weight by 5-10 kg. In cyclic sports, the athlete’s distance, speed, time and heart rate are subject to control. This data helps to build a competent training and prepare for a marathon or triathlon.

Training Diary: What does it include?

If you want to do something well, you have to do everything in detail. Control, write down every detail, work out an algorithm that will lead you to success. It’s the same in sports.

The diary contains a training schedule for the week, a plan for a particular workout, working weights, duration of exercises, as well as the feeling of well-being after the performed approaches.

Some people will say: why do you need to write everything down in such detail? The fact is that notes help to organize yourself, your time and energy. You only need to write down all the aspects of training, which are listed above. Boring? Maybe, but it’s worth the gamble.

Getting organized: who does a workout diary help?

Self-organization is a tricky thing, everyone has it to some degree, but not everyone has enough of it. A training diary is a great solution to this problem.

It organizes all the necessary data about your workouts, helps you keep track of your progress, and by the way, it’s very motivating. After all, the diary shows even the smallest achievements.

Any athlete will be pleased to see their results. This will definitely add the desire to continue practicing and achieve success.

How to keep a training diary?

Here everything is individual: you can lead in an authentic way, that is, write everything in a notebook or notepad. But you will spend much more time on this than if you keep it on electronic devices.

Now there are many applications that allow you to carefully track the training process.

As for the frequency, it is better to make notes after each workout, otherwise the point of the diary is lost. And remember: the more detailed your entries, the easier it will be to track your progress and make your training even more effective.