The latest big personal record I hit was a 260 kg deadlift.
It took a lot of hard work to get there, especially in the last few months leading up to it.
After a certain point, hitting a new personal best requires that you dig in deep and execute workout after workout with discipline for months on end.
But, being disciplined enough to do the workouts is only one-half of the challenge.
The other half is knowing what to actually do in your workouts.
Fortunately, in the training period leading up to the 260 kg lift, I didn’t have to worry about that.
Why is that?
Because I followed a training program from our workout tracker StrengthLog.
This meant I only had to focus on getting in the gym and doing what the app told me to do.
It gave me peace of mind and a process I could trust.
I am confident that I would not have been able to hit a PR in that particular period of my life, had I not had the app to lean on.
StrengthLog remains my most important training tool, beside a barbell and chalk.
In this article, I’ll list ten ways our workout tracker can help you reach your fitness goals.
(You’ll still have to lift the heavy weights, though.)
1. Track Workouts & See Your Progress Over Time
Are you getting better over time?
When you log your workouts, we track and analyze your progress and present you with relevant statistics.
For example, we calculate your estimated 1RM (one-rep max) for every exercise in every workout, giving you a nice indication of whether your strength is moving in the right direction.
If you’re not getting stronger: try changing something or following a training program.
If you are getting stronger: just stay the course!
2. Follow a Training Program Suited to Your Goal
We have close to a hundred training programs for different goals in our workout app.
- Want to increase your bench press? Check.
- Want to build bigger arms? Check.
- Want to build bigger legs and glutes? Check.
The benefits of following a training program cannot be overstated. You take all the guesswork out of your training, and can focus on just getting work done.
It’s like a personal trainer in your pocket, and the difference it makes to your training is incredible.
Our training programs are written by experienced coaches on our team, and we continuously add new workouts and programs to the library.
3. Create Your Own Workout Routine
Don’t want to follow our pre-made training programs?
You think you know better, huh?
Fine! Write your own workouts, then! Like we care!
You can create both stand-alone workouts, or write complete training programs.
Decide if you want to write your workout routines using:
- absolute weights,
- RPE/RIR,
- or a percentage of your 1RM.
4. See Exercise Demos, Instructions, and Muscles Worked
Encounter an exercise you’ve never heard about before?
Our workout tracker has video demonstrations, instructions, and muscles worked for over 300 of the most popular exercises, making it easy to find and learn new exercises.
You can also search exercises based on muscle groups and equipment.
Can’t find the exercise you’re looking for?
Create your own custom exercises, or send us an email requesting we add it. We add to the exercise library all the time.
5. Set and Track Goals
Setting goals for yourself can make your training more fun and motivating, which makes it easier for you to stay on track.
One of the goals I have set up for myself is a 240 kg squat.
What goals could you set for yourself to motivate you?
- Do you want to log one hundred workouts in a year?
- Lift 100 tons in the deadlift?
- Or bench press 225 lb?
6. Plan Your Workouts Ahead
Winging it in the gym might be liberating, but it seldom leads to the best training decisions.
Our workout log enables you to plan workouts ahead of time, meaning that you can decide on what exercises, sets, reps, and weights you should do beforehand.
I find that this often leads to better decisions in my training than when I improvise in the gym. If I wing it, I might do excessive work (and thus risk injury), or slack off and not train hard enough.
By planning my workout beforehand, I can make training decisions with a cool head, even if I only plan it in the locker room before my workout.
7. Keep Track of Your Personal Records
The workout log tracks all your personal records in every exercise, and for every repetition count.
That means we don’t only keep track of your heaviest single repetition (1RM), but also your best 2RM, 5RM, 10RM, 20RM, and so forth.
When you’re in an active workout, just tap the “…” next to the exercise name and then tap Records to bring up your PRs for that exercise.
If you can regularly beat your PRs (for any rep count), it means you’re getting stronger.
If you are more interested in changing your physique than hitting PRs, you can track your body measurements in the app as well.
9. Keep Your Rest between Sets on Point with a Rest Timer
How long you rest between sets is an important variable in your training.
Studies have found that short rest periods (<1 minute) between sets sharply decrease the number of reps you can do with a given weight.
Conversely, resting 3–5 minutes between sets leads to greater muscle growth and strength gains than resting one minute, given that you perform the same number of sets.
At the same time, you might not have unlimited time for your workout, and if short rest periods enable you to get more work done in total, then it’s probably better.
To help you be more intentional with your rests, we have a free, built-in timer in our workout app. You can set it to start as soon as you check a set, and you can have it count down for a specified time or count up indefinitely.
10. A Plate Calculator to Help You Load Correctly
Does the barbell math confuse you sometimes?
Or do you only have certain plates available in your gym?
StrengthLog has a free, automatic plate calculator to help you get the right load on the bar.
What’s Next?
We’re trying to make StrengthLog the best workout tracker app possible.
For you, for ourselves, and for anyone who wants to build muscle, get stronger, and feel better about their body.
We have a number of new features currently in development, a hundred more things in the queue, and a thousand new features coming in the future that we haven’t thought about yet.
Want to join in on the ride, and improve your training while you’re at it?
Download our free strength training app with the buttons below:
