How to Rate Workout Progress
- 1). Determine the goals you want to attain and give yourself a time line. By creating some sort of accountability you are more likely to stick to an exercise program. Find someone to share your goals with and have them help motivate you to succeed.
- 2). Collect baseline data about your body composition and write it down in a notebook. Information like your body weight and circumference measurements of the hips, waist, thigh, chest, abdomen, biceps and neck can be easily tracked from month to month with minimal equipment. Have someone else take the measurements to make sure they are consistent and that the tape measure is in the proper place.
- 3). Select different cardiovascular tests and strength tests; such as a one mile timed run, push-up test and a one minute sit-up test. Record your initial results so that you can compare them in the future.
- 4). Begin your workout program, writing down everything you do. If you are strength training, begin a log of each session that contains the exercises, equipment used, weight lifted for each exercise, the amounts of sets and repetitions of each exercise, and the rest intervals between exercises. A log for cardiovascular exercise can be done in a similar fashion, including the mode of exercise, duration and the intensity of exercise. Tracking progress is important so that you know where to start for your next workout and how you can improve.
- 5). After training for four to eight weeks, revisit all the assessments taken and compare them to your initial results. Determine which goals you have reached in the designated period of time. If you do not see changes, reevaluate your exercise program, your nutritional intake and whether or not your goals are realistic. Make adjustments and follow up the assessments in another four to eight weeks.