How to Measure & Track Progress During Your Fitness Training Program
No matter if you’re just beginning an exercise program or an experienced athlete, measuring and tracking progress when exercising can help you reach your fitness objectives. Noting results and progress will give you insight into where you stand with regards to fitness level and keep you motivated to keep pushing forward.
1. Track Your Workouts: An effective way to monitor your progress is by writing down which exercises you perform each time you hit the gym. Doing this will give an accurate representation of how many sets, reps and weights can be done each day; thus giving a true indication of your current strength level and helping plan future workouts accordingly.
2. Keep Track of Your Food Consumption: While you don’t have to include every meal in your workout log, it is wise to at least keep track of what you eat each day and how many fats, carbs and calories are in each one. Doing this can help determine what’s working well in terms of nutrition for optimal results.
3. Measure Your Results: Weight loss is often the focus of fitness goals, but it’s also essential to assess how you feel physically. Is your body feeling stronger and more energized? Can you move faster or do more repetitions of a certain movement? These can all serve as indicators for how successful you’ve been with the program.
4. Use a Benchmark WOD: One of the best ways to assess your progress is through benchmark sessions. These aren’t specifically running-related, but they can be challenging and used as an indicator of overall strength level and endurance capacity.
5. Keep a Journal: Notebooks and pens are inexpensive and readily available, making it simple to track your fitness progress. Jot down which exercises you did, how many sets and reps were done, the weight used and how you felt afterward.
6. Measure Your Clothing: Measuring certain articles of clothing can be an excellent way to monitor your progress and demonstrate how far you’ve come. For instance, if you’ve lost a significant amount of weight and still enjoy wearing jeans, opt for a pair that is slightly too small or large and measure them each week to see how much larger or smaller you have become. This method works great if the size has decreased substantially over time as well.
7. Measure Your Heart Rate: If you’re working toward cardiovascular fitness, one way to monitor progress is by tracking your resting heart rate over time or with an electronic device that will assist in this endeavor. Doing this gives you insight into your heart rate levels so that you can adjust intensity or decrease it as needed for improved results.
8. Measure Your Fitness Progress: Once you become a CrossFitter, you can track your training with software like Beyond The Whiteboard – used by many Olympic athletes for recording workouts. Not only does this program log each session’s duration and intensity, but also how you felt before and after each set, as well as how much rest was necessary between sets.
