When on a diet you will regularly step on the scales in the morning to check your weight and use this as an indicator of progress, to make sure that your diet is “working”. So why wouldn’t you do the same and track the progress of your workout regime?

Why Track?

Setting A Start Point.

Establishing a starting point is crucial when it comes to tracking fitness progress as it gives you the ability to refer back and see how far you have come at any point in your fitness journey. The beauty of this is when you feel like you have hit a plateau (which we all do at some point) you can look back to see the progression you have already made and if you continue to trust the process the continued progress you could make!

Progressive Overload.

The only way your body can continue to progress and get stronger is through progressive overload. Progressive overload is the gradual increase of weight, reps, and frequency in your strength sections of workouts. The benefits of this increasing demand of the musculoskeletal system are continued increase in muscle size, strength, and endurance.

Without tracking it is very hard if not impossible to keep on top of previous weights lifted and rep schemes, making planning your next session a stab in the dark with regards to progressive overload. The end result here being even though you feel like you are training intensely and pushing hard, chances are you may not be forcing the progressive overload your muscles require in order to get stronger.

Accountability.

The act of repeatedly tracking your workouts helps to build accountability towards your progress. Being able to say you have ticked all the boxes required with your training gives you a true representation of your workload in collation to progression.

Without having that accountability in your training it is very easy to tell yourself that you “need” a rest day or substitute movements for easier alternatives due to sore muscles groups. Having the discipline to go in and hit every session leaves no questions to be asked and makes you truly accountable for your own progress.

Assessing Weaknesses.

When tracking you will start to notice trends appearing in your training. Certain movements showing up in workouts that slow you down, lifts that are progressing slower than others, or gymnastic work you struggle with or are unable to perform.

Having these weaknesses highlighted is great for your time management as it allows you to dedicate training time to your lagging areas to contribute to making you a more well-rounded and versatile athlete.

Assessing A Failing Programme.

There may be times when you have stayed accountable, ticked all your boxes, never misses a session, and are still not seeing the progress you expected or would have liked. This could be the indicator of a failing programme. Fitness is very subjective and certain stuff that works incredibly well for some individuals may not be as beneficial for others. Seeing the progress in black and white gives you the luxury of assessing the success of your programme and if needs be the option to switch it up rather than continue to invest time into it.

How To Track.

There are many different ways to track your progress but ultimately it all comes down to what your fitness goal is.

If your goal was to run a marathon you’d be tracking times and distances.

If your goal was to compete in a weightlifting meet you’d be tracking weight and reps.

The beauty of CrossFit/Functional Fitness is that it is a hybrid of multiple fitness activities combined into one. The downside of this is that it can be hard to track so many moving parts at once in a notebook or in the notes of your phone. . . so that’s where we come in.

BoxMate is an all-in-one platform that has the ability to track every step of your fitness journey from weights lifted to workouts completed, sets and reps to rounds and reps. Build up a library of data and we will alert and congratulate you when you PR!

With graphs and breakdowns or your progress, you take care of the training and we will take care of the rest!

Follow the link or send it to one of your coaches to sign up for our free 30-day trial today! –  https://www.boxmateapp.co.uk/Trial