You keep a workout log, right?!

Hang clean: 70% x 3 x 3
Rack jerk: 70% x 3 x 3
Back squat: 70% x 5 x 3

Top three men from Sunday's gym meet...

...and the ladies!

A new cycle, a new year: time to turn over a new leaf! If you've been in the strength or fitness game for a while, you may be used to the concept of keeping a workout log. I've always kept very detailed logs of my training. Being able to look back and see what worked, what didn't work, how I felt, etc is very useful for future planning. I spent a lot of time going over my notes on the previous cycle when planning this new one. Nonetheless, it never ceases to amaze me how many people don't keep training logs! I love being able to go back at my books and see that what I just did for an easy triple was a heavy single a year ago. Or that I was supposed to do x kg for a double, but only got a single but noted that I was sick the week before, and so forth. This is valuable information that you are missing out on if you don't keep a log!

Okay, it's okay, maybe you didn't know, so I'm passing on this advice and giving you the opportunity to turn over a new leaf and start a detailed log if you don't already have one. At the bare minimum, you should record your top weights for each exercise each day. Even better to records all of the warm-up sets, and note any missed or dodgey reps. Bonus points for recording how you felt for the day, level of fatigue, how much sleep you got the day before, food and water intake, bodyweight, etc. Yup, you can get as detailed as you want, and can benefit from ALL of that information!

Here's another good recommendation for keeping a workout log:

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Lifts/The_training_Log.html

Personally, I like the hard-bound, At-A-Glance "Standard Diary". It has all of the dates and days pre-written for me, and I just log the lifts and percentages, and then every load that I put on the bar and note any missed reps. I'll record how it went and what I was working on or focusing on fixing if anything. These diaries are somewhat expensive. You can also just get yourself a cheap spiral bound notebook...this will set you back probably two dollars but isn't as sexy. It doesn't matter though, just get yourself something and start recording!