Exercise Journals: The Key to Over 40 Bodybuilding
Competitive bodybuilders and other fitness experts know that keeping an exercise journal is an important part of their success. An exercise journal allows you to analyze and track your progress. If you are able to analyze how you achieve both forward progress and set backs, you will know how to adjust your training to make yourself stronger, healthier, and better.
Your exercise journal should be a detailed record of the muscle group trained, specific exercises, and how many reps you performed. As an example, you might train your biceps using arm extensions and dips. A typical journal entry would look like this: Triceps- Dips (6 reps), Arm Extensions (12 reps). Also, you should record the time of your total workout and each movement.
The more detail you can provide, the better you will be able to understand your progress. When you begin working toward fitness over 40, you cannot over-document your progress. As you learn more about how your body responds to strength training, you will learn which information is the most helpful and can modify your journal accordingly.
If you keep a detailed training record, you will also be able to quickly identify when you have overworked a muscle group and change. Often, if you are overworking in the beginning of a session you will notice that you are not able to do as many reps later in the session. If you notice unusual soreness or that you need longer rest, you will be able to identify which parts of your training caused the injury. When you can prevent repeating the injury you can prevent more critical damage.
Make sure you include your warm-up stretches, cardio, and weights in your journal. If you are not getting your desired muscle gain or if you feel pain afterwards, this could be from a lack of adequate warm up. You will be able to compare the warm up of periods when you saw positive results to the warm up of periods when you made no progress. Analysis of these two periods should help you adapt your workout accordingly.
Expert bodybuilders also chronicle their nutrition, such as their daily intake of proteins, carbs, and fat. If you are bodybuilding over 40 then you will need to pay special attention to your nutritional intake because of your changing metabolism. You will also track the number of calories you consume and when. If you are having difficulty building muscle, you may not be consuming enough calories to counteract your training. If you are putting on unwanted weight, you may have to consume fewer calories or do more cardio.
There is also other helpful information you should include in your journal. For example, set up a numbered rating system to describe your energy level and mental outlook. In the morning or sometime throughout the day, record your number. If you track how you feel the day after a workout you will be able to analyze which training methods give you the most energy and motivation and change those methods which exhaust you too much. For example, if you added too many sets or rearranged your cycle to be more intense, you may feel overly sore the next day and need to back off a bit.
No matter how much they have researched, no one ever starts with a perfect program for bodybuilding over 40. Champion bodybuilders know that they have to track their progress and adjust their training in order to get maximum results. Exercise journals are one of the best tools you can use to create a winning fitness plan tailored to your body, your lifestyle, and your fitness goals. - 17274
Your exercise journal should be a detailed record of the muscle group trained, specific exercises, and how many reps you performed. As an example, you might train your biceps using arm extensions and dips. A typical journal entry would look like this: Triceps- Dips (6 reps), Arm Extensions (12 reps). Also, you should record the time of your total workout and each movement.
The more detail you can provide, the better you will be able to understand your progress. When you begin working toward fitness over 40, you cannot over-document your progress. As you learn more about how your body responds to strength training, you will learn which information is the most helpful and can modify your journal accordingly.
If you keep a detailed training record, you will also be able to quickly identify when you have overworked a muscle group and change. Often, if you are overworking in the beginning of a session you will notice that you are not able to do as many reps later in the session. If you notice unusual soreness or that you need longer rest, you will be able to identify which parts of your training caused the injury. When you can prevent repeating the injury you can prevent more critical damage.
Make sure you include your warm-up stretches, cardio, and weights in your journal. If you are not getting your desired muscle gain or if you feel pain afterwards, this could be from a lack of adequate warm up. You will be able to compare the warm up of periods when you saw positive results to the warm up of periods when you made no progress. Analysis of these two periods should help you adapt your workout accordingly.
Expert bodybuilders also chronicle their nutrition, such as their daily intake of proteins, carbs, and fat. If you are bodybuilding over 40 then you will need to pay special attention to your nutritional intake because of your changing metabolism. You will also track the number of calories you consume and when. If you are having difficulty building muscle, you may not be consuming enough calories to counteract your training. If you are putting on unwanted weight, you may have to consume fewer calories or do more cardio.
There is also other helpful information you should include in your journal. For example, set up a numbered rating system to describe your energy level and mental outlook. In the morning or sometime throughout the day, record your number. If you track how you feel the day after a workout you will be able to analyze which training methods give you the most energy and motivation and change those methods which exhaust you too much. For example, if you added too many sets or rearranged your cycle to be more intense, you may feel overly sore the next day and need to back off a bit.
No matter how much they have researched, no one ever starts with a perfect program for bodybuilding over 40. Champion bodybuilders know that they have to track their progress and adjust their training in order to get maximum results. Exercise journals are one of the best tools you can use to create a winning fitness plan tailored to your body, your lifestyle, and your fitness goals. - 17274
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To discover more about weight training over 40, visit Scott Fishers authoritative website. Youll find a variety of articles related to over 40 fitness.
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