Anyone successful with not tracking workouts?

jiggyj9
jiggyj9 Posts: 90 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
Hi all,

I am an intermediate-advanced bodybuilder (just for myself, don't compete) and have been tracking my workouts and food for years. While I enjoy food tracking in a weird way, I feel like tracking my workouts takes the joy and natural flow out of it, having to turn back the pages to find last week's reps/sets, etc. I recently started going into the gym with a few planned movements, but not tracking my reps/sets and instead just doing what I feel, heavy or not, whatever rep range, etc. Does anyone do this and feel like it's been successful/good for them?

Thanks for the input!
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Replies

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,489 Member
    Not tracking would work for a beginner, but I doubt that would work for intermediate-advanced. If you want to maintain, sure, but to progress, I doubt it.
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    At some point, if you're looking to increase lean mass, you need some type of objective measurement to know that you're progressively increasing the difficulty of your workout. I suppose if you're doing the same workout week to week, and are completely honest and self aware, you can just use RPE and not worry about reps, but for me it's too easy on "hard" days to go easy on myself, "Oh, that's hard enough FFS" then I look at my log and I'm doing 10% less than I was previously. That can be due to legitimate physical reasons of course, but a lot of times it's just mental, and the logs don't lie.

    But then again, I'm an engineer. I need numbers. And I use an app to log so it's pretty darn easy.
  • jiggyj9
    jiggyj9 Posts: 90 Member
    GaryRuns wrote: »
    At some point, if you're looking to increase lean mass, you need some type of objective measurement to know that you're progressively increasing the difficulty of your workout. I suppose if you're doing the same workout week to week, and are completely honest and self aware, you can just use RPE and not worry about reps, but for me it's too easy on "hard" days to go easy on myself, "Oh, that's hard enough FFS" then I look at my log and I'm doing 10% less than I was previously. That can be due to legitimate physical reasons of course, but a lot of times it's just mental, and the logs don't lie.

    But then again, I'm an engineer. I need numbers. And I use an app to log so it's pretty darn easy.

    Thanks for your insights! Which app do you use?

  • Happyness4me2
    Happyness4me2 Posts: 37 Member
    The fitnotes app is very customizable. I've used it for years and makes tracking workouts super easy.
  • EliseTK1
    EliseTK1 Posts: 479 Member
    Happyness4me2 wrote: »
    The fitnotes app is very customizable. I've used it for years and makes tracking workouts super easy.

    I’ll have to look into that one. I use the free version of the Strong app, and it works well enough.
  • pandoragreen21
    pandoragreen21 Posts: 8 Member
    I think maybe for a short time just to fall in love with the process again “winging it” might work to take the “stress” out of it . If you want to progress though…it’s inevitable to return to tracking. I use fitlist and that way I can quickly save my workouts and ensure I’m applying progressive overload. I’ve wasted too much time in the gym (I don’t compete either) by “winging it”…tracking has got me to where I am today and after five years of lifting I finally feel like my body reflects that work.
  • slade51
    slade51 Posts: 180 Member
    I track my workouts, but it’s more for having a plan going in than noting what I’ve done each workout. I do it all on a free app, so it’s easy to track during each workout or adjust workouts ahead of time.
  • smith667metal
    smith667metal Posts: 29 Member
    Oh ya! I’ve had great success not wasting time tracking my workouts the 12 years I’ve been doing it! With diet Ive kept track of calories and macros in the past but I always did that for so long and then eventually quite doing it. As of now i don’t track what so ever and can still achieve any goal I set out for.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,595 Member
    50 years of training and I never tracked a workout. If you remember your weight and reps and sets you’re ok. Plus some days your stronger and some days you’re weaker so you need to learn to be flexible with your training.
  • smith667metal
    smith667metal Posts: 29 Member
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    50 years of training and I never tracked a workout. If you remember your weight and reps and sets you’re ok. Plus some days your stronger and some days you’re weaker so you need to learn to be flexible with your training.

    Ya exactly buddy here is right!

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,872 Member
    edited April 2023
    Depends on your goals and timeline. You don't ever have to track your workouts unless your looking for a sustainable logical path to a specific goal, otherwise just lift weights and don't worry about it, imo. Cheers
  • dhutch87
    dhutch87 Posts: 1 Member
    Setgraph tells you the latest weight you did with each exercise. Very useful
  • I_AM_ISRAEL
    I_AM_ISRAEL Posts: 160 Member
    Keeping track is a must, especially for intermediate lifters as you claim to be. Part of the beginner process is finding an easy way to keep track of weekly progress.
    Hey I’m gonna rebuild the engine today, ain’t really keel track of what I’m doing, just gonna wing it and work on the parts that I FEEL needs to be done. Next week, now where did I leave off again? Oh well I’ll just start on a different area of the engine that FEELS right.
    Catch my drift? You have to give your body a response to recover from. But if you’re happy with your physique and simply want to maintain. Have at it, as the other 90% of gym bros do
  • I_AM_ISRAEL
    I_AM_ISRAEL Posts: 160 Member
    Btw what you’re experiencing is a want of auto regulation. Which is great, but you still have to keep track of the parts you are working on any given day.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,595 Member
    I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »
    Keeping track is a must, especially for intermediate lifters as you claim to be. Part of the beginner process is finding an easy way to keep track of weekly progress.
    Hey I’m gonna rebuild the engine today, ain’t really keel track of what I’m doing, just gonna wing it and work on the parts that I FEEL needs to be done. Next week, now where did I leave off again? Oh well I’ll just start on a different area of the engine that FEELS right.
    Catch my drift? You have to give your body a response to recover from. But if you’re happy with your physique and simply want to maintain. Have at it, as the other 90% of gym bros do
    its personal preference whether to log or not. You can progress fine without it. People that are in there lifting and are purposely being conscious of their sets, reps, and weights generally will remember from session to session without logging and if there is progress over time.

  • I_AM_ISRAEL
    I_AM_ISRAEL Posts: 160 Member
    @tomcustombuilder
    You must not people watch at the gym as much as I do. Most in the gym have no idea what’s going on 😂
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,595 Member
    I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »
    @tomcustombuilder
    You must not people watch at the gym as much as I do. Most in the gym have no idea what’s going on 😂
    I don’t really watch others at the gym, we’ll there is this one woman…..

    Seriously though what other people do or don’t do doesn’t interest me.

  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,578 Member
    I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »
    @tomcustombuilder
    You must not people watch at the gym as much as I do. Most in the gym have no idea what’s going on 😂

    They could easily be thinking the same thing about you. Most people just aren't rude enough to say it. That being said, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Just because some people work out *differently* from you doesn't mean they're wrong. I've seen more than one post on here from people who bulk and cut who post saying "I've been bulking now for 2 years, trying to cut but just can't stop bulking... I've gained 45 pounds. Help! What do I do!!!!!". This is a big part of the reason there is now pushback against the bulk/cut style. Bulking is fun. Cutting sucks. So a number of people just never quite get to the cutting part. Full disclosure: I don't bulk and cut.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,872 Member
    Right now I'm purposely trying to build muscle @ 70 yrs old so for me it's important that I have a plan, it helps me use the energy I have over the course more targeted, and I get a better bang for the buck at the end of the day. I do go through periods of not recording lifts and I have to admit it's probably those times where I was just maintaining a routine in the general sense, but anytime I wanted more, it always came time to be more clinical and record my nutrition and weight routine so I could measure progress. cheers.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,595 Member
    sollyn23l2 wrote: »
    I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »
    @tomcustombuilder
    You must not people watch at the gym as much as I do. Most in the gym have no idea what’s going on 😂

    They could easily be thinking the same thing about you. Most people just aren't rude enough to say it. That being said, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Just because some people work out *differently* from you doesn't mean they're wrong. I've seen more than one post on here from people who bulk and cut who post saying "I've been bulking now for 2 years, trying to cut but just can't stop bulking... I've gained 45 pounds. Help! What do I do!!!!!". This is a big part of the reason there is now pushback against the bulk/cut style. Bulking is fun. Cutting sucks. So a number of people just never quite get to the cutting part. Full disclosure: I don't bulk and cut.
    the bulk/cut process can be misleading as most people have the idea that you have to pack on a bunch of weight then spend months cutting the fat when in reality when it’s done correctly there is a very small surplus and if the waist grows more than an inch or so, a short dieting down period takes place and then the surplus resumes. The tighter you get your diet down, the longer you go before you have to diet down.

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