Bodybuilding Forums

I just wanted to bring up an important point especially for those muscle hackers that may be struggling to make those gains. I am by no means a 'professional' and I have only been working out seriously for about 5 months now but I have recently learned how important it is to write down every single rep you do. I have been doing this for the last 4 weeks and am amazed how I have improved and in only 4 weeks i am lifting the heaviest I ever have in all exercises...when I wasn't writing it all down I just seemed to hover around the same max weight not really getting stronger. I train with a mate who is more "experienced" but he always said "don't worry bout it we'll remember what we lifted last week" but we didn't and alot of sets were wasted he is now writing it all down aswell and is noticing the difference too. Who would have thought that my most important tool was a $2 clipboard from Kmart lol. my training sessions are now more intense and exciting each week I can't wait till the next and the challenge of lifting either a heavier weight or that extra 1 or 2 reps and now I am lifting to failure everytime because I know what my max is. I know alot of you know this already but it might help someone out who doesn't and hasn't realised how right Mark is it's not all BS and you WILL get stronger every week!!

A really good message for the newbies who are just starting.

Yep. I train mostly at home, but when I frequent a gym, I am the ONLY one writing down my reps and weight at each set.

Yeah, writing it down changed everything for me. That and the rep to failure, and stop watch to measure rests between sets.
With Mark's stuff there is hope. It's fun going to the gym. You don't stay as long and you get 10 times stronger than before being musclehacked.

Totally agree, I downloaded an app for my itouch called Office Plus, paid a small amount just to be able to update and save excel files. So I can access the THT spreadsheet, check my weights etc, and then use the timer on the Itouch for my rest time, whilst resting, update current progress.

totally agree - i am the only one i see at my gym writing anything down . . and i just wonder
how anyone else is making gains when they dont know what they lifted? - as the weight should be different
for each set there is no way anyone can remember this info for every exercise.

great tip for newbees.
I always keep a traininig diary. In fact it goes everywhere i go, i'm never without it, for fear of loosin it ha ha...
I record every lift weight and rep. That way you can quickly see if you are pushing as hard as you can.