Today I’m going to share how I track my workouts using a workout tracking application on my smartphone. The application referenced in this article is only available on Apple iOS devices at the time this post was published. Before I dive into how I track workouts, let’s discuss why you might want to track your workouts.
Tracking your workouts, in my opinion, will help you stay on track and show your progress. When determining how you will track your workouts you need to consider a few things.
- Use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid), you don’t want tracking your workout to distract you from your workout.
- However, you decide to track your workouts make sure what your tracking is useful for you to see your progress. For me the valuable information is:
- Exercise (Bench Press)
- Weight (120 lbs)
- Sets (3)
- Reps (12)
- When determining the tool, you will use make sure it is flexible. You don’t want to have to look for a new app or come up with another way to track a different type of workout.
Now that we know why we want to track our workouts, I will share my workout routine and how I track them.
TX Foodie’s Workout Tracking System
I love technology, so for me tracking my workouts with my Apple Watch is a no brainer and added additional benefit because some workout-tracking applications integrate directly with the Apple Watch.
Push-Pull-Legs Split routines is what I use for my workouts I also incorporate cardio with each. Let me break this down in its simplest meaning.
- Push – Trains the upper body muscles that are used with pushing exercises. (Chest, Shoulder, and Triceps)
- Pull – Trains all the upper body muscles that are used with pulling exercises. (Back and Biceps)
- Legs – Trains the entire lower body. (Quads, Hamstrings, and Calves) You can also include abs here.
There are many ways and applications available to track this type of workout routine and I have tried my share of smartphone applications. My favorite app when writing this article allows me to easily track distraction-free my workouts. It is called SmartGym. This app lets me set up my routine as I described above and assign specific days to them. It also integrates nicely with the Apple Watch so I don’t have to have my phone on me working, the app on the watch also tracks heart rate and calories burned during the workout out and updates the Apple Health app with all that data.
Here are the key features in addition to the three items mentioned above that I look for in an app to track my workouts.
- Types of exercises it tracks & allows for exercises to be added
- Apple Watch Integration
- Rest Timer
- Data Import/Export (I use this if I switch apps or want to chart my own graphs)
- Body Measurement Tracking
Feel free to share your workout routines and tracking methods you use as it might be useful for someone reading this article.
