Finding time and staying motivated are two of the biggest barriers people have to making exercise a regular habit. Using a workout log can help you to make the most of the time you have available for exercise, as well as helping you to reflect and plan better. The workout log PDF printables include a planning and tracking sheet – see the end of the post for how to download them.
How using a workout log helps
If you get into the habit of scheduling in all your exercise and lifestyle activities each week and then marking them off as done, this helps in several ways:
- It encourages you to think about what time you have available and when you can fit exercise in, even if it’s just a few minutes.
- A written schedule is something for you to hold yourself accountable to, rather than just thinking you’ll exercise if you have time.
- Tracking whether you do your planned activities allows you to look over the week and reflect on why you missed sessions and how you can plan better for the following week.
Finding the time to exercise
The recommended amount of exercise we should do each week for health benefits is 75 minutes. Ideally, this would be in sessions of at least 20 minutes, but if you can only fit in shorter periods, you’ll still benefit. Even if you only have a 5 minute slot, you can do some stretches or squats for example. Or you could try doing a daily fitness challenge.
Walking is another way to get more exercise. Most people can fit more walking into their day. If you walk fast enough to make you feel warm and slightly out of breath, then this counts as exercise.
Using the workout log
Use the planning sheets to schedule your exercise throughout the day. Then use the tracker sheets to plan whether you actually do your planned sessions. It’s very helpful to record reasons why you miss your exercise sessions, because this will help you to plan better next time.
Reflecting and improving
Once you’ve completed your fitness log for the week, look over it to check when you achieved your planned activities and when you didn’t manage to. For the activities you didn’t do, work out why this was and how you can do better next week. You might find that you were over-optimistic and unrealistic in your planning and need to start more slowly. On the other hand, if you’ve easily achieved all your planned exercise, make next week’s plan more challenging.
Get the the workout log PDF printables
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