I’m sort of looking for ideas. The gym I’m joining is a local chain with several locations within a short drive of home and work. They offer classes, which I will try out on Wednesdays and Fridays (when I’m not at Jazzercise.)

Here’s what I would like to know.

Do you keep a notebook or log of your gym workouts, machines used, reps of resistance stuff? Do you write out what you will do first, and then tick it off, or do you write down what you did afterwards? Do you use any outside resources (books, web sites) to get ideas of how to organize your routine?

I figure if I’m not going classes, I’d like to do a warmup on a cardio machine, then some resistance work, then some long slow burn activity. I tend to get sloppy on doing resistance work if I don’t have a plan, I just do a random amount of reps before I get fatigued, and I don’t intend to fork out the big bucks for a personal trainer. There are probably excellent books or worksheets, or maybe even a web site, where I could pick from a menu of moves and/or machines.

I figure this is like looking up the restaurant menu before going out to eat, so I can plan my calorie intake instead of going in blind and having the 1200 calorie “lite” Cobb salad or something.

The nice thing about the Jazzercise classes is it’s all prescribed and choreographed to music. You don’t get a break till the song is over, and then, ideally, you ‘keep moving’ in the short interval. I’d eventually like to take my resistance schedule and time it out to songs on the iPod the same way. Does anyone do this?

Input on books, etc., would be appreciated. So many of you seem to know exactly what you want to achieve with your gym time, I’m eager to tap into that.

Hi Ann

I use a chart (excel spreadsheet) I created to keep me on track when I’m doing my weight lifting workouts. My trainer set up the routine and gave me a sheet with all the exercises listed in supersets and I then turned that into the chart so I would be able to track my progress. I’ve taken the liberty to change things up in the routines here and there, but generally I do the exercises my trainer prescribed. I made the charts so I would remember what weights to use for each exercise and now I know if it is time to up the weight if something is starting to get easy.  I carry a clipboard when I workout and even attached a pencil to it permanently so I would be constantly looking for it!!

My first program (6 weeks) only had one routine (full body) that I did 3x /week plus any cardio I could do. I am just finishing up my 2nd program that has two routines divided between “front” and “back” body which I do 2x per week (4 days a week of weights). Up till last week it was “any cardio you can do is good”, but as of last week my trainer said I have to do a minimum of 1/2 hour 5 times per week. It is definitely a bit more work, and I have to be sure to get my rest in so it takes some planning, but I am enjoying the process.

If you send my your email address by PM or by email I will attach my spreadsheet file so you can take a look at it and take any ideas you like and leave the rest

Good Luck!!

When I went to the gym regularly (it only lasted about 2 months, mind you) I kept a chart of what exercises I did, how many reps, and what weight.  I can only assume that if I’d done it long enough for it to become really routine, I’d stop keeping such detailed records and go with the flow.

Now that I do karate, I take out my notebook at the end of each class and write down: 1) how many people were there, and their belt levels, 2) what I did that class (roughly—this is rarely more than 5-6 words), and 3) whether anything I did was new (I mark those with an underline).  It seems simple, but it’s really nice to have those notes stretching back a year and a half.  It makes me realize how far I’ve come in such a short time.

Cheers,
Julie

I write it down or logged what I do on the computer. I love the book Body Sculpting Bible for Women. It has great details, a varied of exercises and plans, comes with a instructional CD, and logs for your progress.

Thanks! Catherine, I PM’ed you my Email address and look forward to seeing your Excel chart. Jenni, I will check out that book as well.

Julie, I really like your idea of having a track record to compare back, to see what skills you’ve acquired also.

This is my favourite workout log book.

http://www.suzanneschlosberg.com/ultimate_workout_log.html

The whole day is on one page with plenty of boxes and at the end of the week you take a look back and look to see if you met your weekly goals.  You also transfer you daily summaries to a chart in the back so you can see how you are doing week by week.

You can purchase this book at any major bookstore.

Thanks!

It’s funny, I have been more or less building a routine in my head, and then often writing it down later, which is not the way I thought I would do it. But it does allow for flexibility when machines are busy and benches are occupied. Just about every week I see a machine I didn’t notice before and mentally put it on my list for the next time. (Rowing is coming up Wednesday.) I was worried about wimping out and not being consistent, but it turns out I had to really force myself to stick to a “night off” last night, when struck with the reality of having NO dirty workout clothes for the first time in forever.

Ann, I like bodybuilding.com, they have great articles as well as an exercise database- http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exername.php

shawn - 13 May 2008 09:57 PM

Ann, I like bodybuilding.com, they have great articles as well as an exercise database- http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exername.php

Cool, Shawn. I looked at some of this site and it does have good info. Wow, they really push and plug the supplements, though.  I always associated bodybuilders with steroids, but not with fat-burning pills and stimulants.

I’m pleased with having added the rowing machine and the stair climber to my routine. The gym has various ab-crunch type machines, which are right in front of the treadmills and ellipticals (front-row view to fat girl trying to shrink her abs!) and I haven’t yet tried them. We do work abs in Jazzercise though I need to do more, probably daily, ab work. I may opt to try the resistance machines when the place is pretty empty (like later Friday night or Sunday).