Meet the single most important “gear” I own that I simply will not workout without: my log book.
Since I’m half good at fractions, I like to describe my log book this way: It’s half dream board, half inspirational quotes, half food porn pictures, half goal-setting, and half “Holy crap! I completed a Navy Seal workout in 2008?! WHY?”
The Navy Seal Upper Body Pyramid is a pretty cool workout. You should give it a shot. But, no kipping allowed!
I can’t stress the importance of writing workouts down. I like to know where I came from and I really like to know where I’m going… most of the time. Unless you’re some psycho genius (who isn’t, right?), you’ll never remember all the workouts you did, the amounts of weights you lifted, the number of miles that added up, and all the little-but-equally-important victories other than PR’s. Rippetoe put it best when he wrote, “All people who are serious about their training write down their workouts.”
Any notebook will do, really. But if you have time to kill during an episode of Weeds, here’s one way to make your log book a little more… custom. Materials needed:
1. Go through a stack of mags, ads, newspapers, etc and cut out pics and quotes that inspire or motivate.
2. Glue the quotes and images onto the covers of your book. This is essentially like converting your log book into a Vision/Dream Board so anything goes.
3. Allow to dry.
4. Slap on a coat of Mod Podge. (Mod Podge is usually found in the craft sections of stores. It comes in a gloss, matte, even sparkles. Pick a flavor and have fun with it.)
And that’s it! Here’s what the back of my log book looks like. I’m kind of a crunchy outdoorsy girl so I included more than just workout related stuff.
I also printed out and glue’d into my book Rippetoe’s Strength Standards Chart as well as a few Percent RM Charts that allow me to estimate how much I should theoretically be able to lift based on how many reps are prescribed. Happy Lifting! (You do lift, right? Yes, even women benefit greatly from weight training. Just throwing that out there!)
