Journaling means recording your workouts, lifts, and sometimes what you ate and how you slept in a journal each day. Some people just use old school composition books, others use a more personalised one of their choosing, and we will be selling from June awesome personalised ones here at CF Leicester. It is an important part of CrossFit for a couple reasons. The main reason is, knowing what you did in the past is important for knowing what to do on a given day. When we do the lifts for strength we rotate between different rep schemes for the same lift. Something like a 3 rep max means your maximum weight for a set of 3 reps for that given lift. If you know what your previous max is for a certain rep scheme it will help you decide what you want to start with and what you want to shoot for on a given day. Then you will be able to plan out your sets and hit a new PR, or at least go for one, each time. This not only makes your time spent in the gym more productive but also makes it more fun since you know what you are gunning for each time you come in.
Another reason journaling is important is because CrossFit is all about tracking your progress. Everything we do has comparable and measurable results. We measure fitness as your ability to do work in a certain amount of time. If you can do more work in a certain workout that you tried a few months before, either by more reps or weight or a lesser scale, then we consider that an improvement in your fitness level. Pure and simple. Journaling and tracking holds us accountable for our work in the past and what we are trying to do each time we are at the box. Keeping an accurate journal gives you a good feel for where you are making progress, again making better use of your time and making the whole process more fun.
Along with this, journaling and tracking keeps an accurate portrayal of where you are making progress and where you are not. Then you know where your weaknesses lie for when you want to get some extra work in during open gym or before or after class. It also helps for when you need to decide what to do for a scale in a workout.
All in all keeping a journal of each day makes your experience at CrossFit Leicester more enjoyable. Seeing your progress on the pages of the past makes all the hard work worth while, and if you are struggling with something it makes working on it much more manageable.
Ask any of the coaches where to buy a journal or for help setting yours up!