Introduction

For the people reading this, numerous goals could be at the forefront of your mind. This article is and will be intended for almost everyone in the gym.  Some people might have a weight loss goal. Others may have a strength or mobility related goal. Some may have very broad and subjective goals, like to be healthier. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Whichever the case, if you are chasing a goal or goals in the gym, you probably track some sort of progress metrics. It might be your body weight once a week. Or body fat percentage every so often. Some people may go off of looks alone in the mirror for their progress. The claims and points I'm going to be making in this article relate to why you should start tracking strength and focus on it.

Progress Metrics

Everyone needs to use metrics to track their health and progress in the gym. Most don't realize or know what to track and why you should track them. Obviously, this article is about tracking strength. But why aren't other metrics good? It's not that other metrics should be demonized in the gym. However, they usually don't reveal the whole puzzle and can be very misleading along the journey. For example, body weight. Yes, you should track your body weight. But it shouldn't be taken no more than twice a month. Body weight only tells you all the mass you have at a given point in time. It won't tell you how much muscle you have or water weight or fat mass. It only tells you overall weight. Another metric is progress pictures. Yes I believe you should take progress pictures. But the same rule apply's. No more than once or twice a month. It is a more subjective measurement and doesn't tell the whole story. Not to mention it can be very psychologically demanding. You could be on the right track, only to look at picture at one point in time and not like the way you look. Too then double your caloric output for no reason what so ever other than you didn't like how you looked at that one point in time.

What Strength will tell you

Now to the meat and potatoes of this article. Why strength should be your most important metric and why everyone should track it. First, strength is objective. You either got stronger or you didn't. No in between. The second reason behind why strength is a great metric, has to do with its mechanism on the body. Strength isn't something you can wake up with the next morning and have done nothing. It must be earned. Not only the 2 hours you may spend in the gym a week. But, every hour of the day. To give some examples, if you sleep poorly, it is almost guaranteed you won't get stronger. Or if you don't eat enough calories or protein, strength won't come. Too much stress at work and in the gym will suppress strength as well.

What I'm getting at, is this. If you do not aim high in all aspects of health and wellness, your strength will not improve. Equating to no muscle building, less muscle retention, less fat loss, etc. Strength is almost the best predictor of health that we have. The weaker you are the less healthier you usually are. Just think back to when you were sick and how strong you felt at that given time.

Conclusion

If you are bought into tracking strength now, here's how you can start tracking it. Either using a pen and paper or you phone. Write down how much weight you used and reps you did every set and every exercise of your workout. Then when you come to the gym next do it all over again and compare. Did I get stronger today? And strength doesn't mean using weights that are 10 pounds more than the previous time. Building strength can literally be doing one rep more with the same weight as last time. Then, when you are doing 5 or 6 more reps increase the weight you are using. Tracking weight is that simple.

Now, I didn't go into detail as to what you should do if you can't get stronger and haven't in over a month. Next weeks blog will be about what's preventing you from getting stronger. But in the meantime if you have questions about strength, don't hesitate to reach out through email. chasewenzl@uncivilized-wellness.com