One thing about any workout is keeping track. I use iFitness on my iPhone but ever since doing P90X, iFitness became obsolete. I couldn’t tell it how many pot stirres I did or the length of the squat leg raise I did. So it was back to the drawing board with just a paper and pen.
I find it annoying and at first I didn’t write it down because I told myself I will go hard every time I put in a DVD. Well I am reaching phase 2 in 2 days and I started writing things down because I needed to know if I am really improving. I physically see myself improving but at what rate. I don’t know because I don’t write it down.
The reason why Tony makes this important is because it is. You have to see where you are at strength wise as well as a mental reminder. This has to do with our perception and psychological thinking.
For example you did only 5 pushups your first week, but you didn’t write it down. So the next week you still did 5 or maybe 6 or maybe 4 – so how do you know how to better yourself. Your brain doesn’t keep this track record or motivates you to do more.
But…
If you do 5 and wrote it down and next week comes a long and you see you only did 5, you end up ‘wanting’ to do more. Reason is simple, you are doing P90X because you want to better yourself. Automatically your brain wants to do better because you are already in that mindset. This way you do maybe 10, which is a great goal set by you.
Writing things down is important, I wish there was an iPhone app that tracked this as it will be beneficial with graphs and stats. Writing things down is a goal for motivation, it sets a goal for you to do better than last time. It is a mind function and as humans we always want to do better, we want to be the best.
That drive makes us do more – but how can you do that if you do not have something in front of you telling you only did 5 last week. This is similar to someone calling you fat, that is motivation to do better. If not one told you are fat, then why do more. That is why when you write your pushups or reps down, it is a form of taunting. It gives you a goal to keep doing more.
Here is the document if you need a new sheet or if you lost yours.
Keep Up With Me