Is it important to track fitness results?

I talked about result tracking many times. I think it is an important thing. When we measure our fitness achievements it can help us gain more motivation. And of course it can help us reach the goals. Sometimes people say that it is boring to constantly monitor and evaluate oneself. For me it was the same but this is an important step which cannot be skipped. This step is also a part of the workouts.

What can be measured?

It depends on which workouts you are doing. For example, if you like jogging, you can count kilometres or miles. Every time when you finish your workout you can write in your tracking journal how many you did. I also recommend monitoring your emotions, mood and feelings. I think these are even more important than numbers. If you always write how you feel after a workout you can find out about yourself a lot. Which workouts really inspire you, which you like the most and from which you get the most benefit.

One day when you do not have any more motivation, you can read your thoughts on how you felt after exercising. For me, it works great because those thoughts inspire me to continue working out.

Tracking always helps to see if you have improved or not. I had some situations when I spent 3 months doing fitness program and I didn’t see any results. 3 months is a lot of time to do something with your body. Tracking alone helped me to see that I needed to change something because my program was not working. So that’s why I say that tracking of progress can help achieve results faster.

Below I list various units of measurement:

• Kilometres/miles
• Centimetres
• Hours/minutes
• Steps
• Rounds
• Exercises
• Photo (you can take a photo monthly and see the difference)
• Mood, feelings

This is not the final list. You can add anything you want and what is important to you. For me, photos and hours/minutes work best. I always track how many hours or minutes I spend exercising weekly. It helps to know if I am active or not and what I need to do to improve my level of activity.  I also like to track my water intake.

In general, you can track anything in your life what is important to you. It can help you create good habits and achieve results.

I created fitness planning tool to help organize workouts and track result. So you can download this document (just click on the banner below). I hope it will help you to keep your motivation, fulfill plans and you will reach your goals easier.