Iobov -

“The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.”- Ancient Chinese Proverb

An unrecorded exercise is an exercise wasted. If a trainee does not have his¹ exercise recorded anywhere in any form, he contradicts the idea of discovering himself through physical culture.

A novice trainee lifts without having his sets, reps, and weight lifted recorded, like a child trying out various playground equipment, switching from one to another as he saw fit. A few years down the line, he would make a switch to notebooks to record lifts chronologically. Although this would work efficiently for main lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench press, OHP, etc., the rigid, non-sortable nature of notebooks would eventually make it challenging to record all the exercises performed, especially the accessory lifts performed with machines and dumbbells. This is because locating a specific exercise from the past becomes difficult in the long run, since they are scattered all over the book at different places with no proper order other than the chronological order they are organized in.

For instance, the trainee does dumbbell side raises for 3 sets of 13 reps with a pair of 15lbs dumbbells today, and notes down the same in his notebook under today’s date. He then skips doing side raises for the next few sessions either due to performing an alternative exercise, time constraints or doing a different program. When the time inevitably comes to do side raises, it would not be easy for him to recall what his previous record in side raises was. He could check it in his notebook, but that would mean rummaging the entire notes to find where the particular exercise was recorded. To overcome this, a system had to be devised.

In a departure from convention, the trainee does not write how many sets and reps he did for each individual exercise anymore. Instead, he records exercises based on the rep max (RM). Besides, the time has become ripe for him to ditch his notebook and invest in a ring binder.

The ring binders hold index cards. The trainee makes an index card for each exercise he performs and files these cards in the binder based on similarity (A sample is provided at the very end of this post).

Ring binders are the most underrated tool to up one’s physical game. They help sort notes by similarity as opposed to notebooks where each leaf is a deeply entrenched structure. The alpha-numeric code for each note (each exercise) makes it possible to file a new note (new exercise) between two exercises. With a binder, a trainee can even include the most trivial exercises he does at home with an ostentatiously insignificant and asymmetrical object like doing presses with a chair.

If the trainee manages to perform 15 reps of bicep curls with 25lbs dumbbells without compromising form, he would write “15RM=5KG(dd/mm/yy)” under the note titled “Dumbbell Standing Curls“. This acts a guide to help him with his dumbbell standing curls the next time he performs it. This way, in his next workout session, he has a definite idea about the mean weight he could do 15 reps with. Based on this clue, he could estimate the 12RM, 20RM, etc, and could either try a 5KG dumbbell for 16 reps or a 6KG one for 15 reps. It is suggested to note down only the number of reps performed with proper form. What amounts to proper form and when does it break down are left to the trainee’s discretion.

While the front side of the note captures the rep maxes, the back side records comments about the exercise.

Having a personal history of exercises to refer to means to not chase an unknown number of reps with a particular weight. Similarly, the possibility of lifting a weight that is either too light or too heavy is eliminated when there is past data with regard to that exercise and the weight.

Only the front side of the note holds information regarding rep maxes. The backside is meant for information regarding default form, illustrations of the exercise, and other comments. For example, the comments behind a note about deadlifts read: “All lifts are performed wearing flat shoes unless specified otherwise.” A trainee performing with a pair of shoes that are not flat has to specify it beside the recorded lift.

The binder based note-taking system for exercises is not restricted to conventional isotonic contractions like in the examples discussed above, but can be used for any form of training, including isometric exercises, cardiovascular training or even dynamic and static stretching (based on time max as opposed to rep max). A creative person can capitalize this method and apply it to anything in life that involves making a record against themselves.

The note for Incline Bench (2000.2A) was filed much later than the notes for DB Chest Press (2000.2.1) and Pull ups (2000.3); therefore it bears a number between 2 and 3, i.e., 2A.

Backside of a note about pinch-block holds. The comments about default form are displayed on top and an illustration below further disambiguates it.

A critic of this system would argue that it is too pedantic, and could impede the flow of training sessions by writing notes about ‘trivial’ exercises and wasting time as a result. Besides, carrying a binder to the gym could make one look like a clown, they could argue. Also, the binder method does not take into consideration the invisible limitations and leverages like sleep quality, diet, pre-workout, general mood, etc. despite being scrupulous about every physical limitation and leverage.

It is absurd to argue that this system would disrupt the flow of training sessions. On the contrary, it would streamline the sessions by acting as a guide to work one’s muscles within the zone specified in the notes. This way, the trainee can avoid wasting his time doing a set of exercise that is not challenging enough or is too taxing. The lifts are supposed to be recorded during the allotted rest time between sets or rest time between an exercise or a series of exercises, whichever one deems fit. Besides, the trainee does not have to record every set; only the sets that matter have to be recorded and the the sets that made no notable difference to his previous lifts can be simply discarded (For eg: If the previous session involved an exercise with a 15RM of 5KG, and today a set of 15 with 5KG this session was performed, the trainee does not have to record it unless some physical or intangible limitation was imposed on it). Rest periods are sacrosanct minutes one has to utilize to consult and have a conversation with one’s former self, and not for blabbering with fellow members.

The argument that carrying a fancy binder to the gym makes one the laughingstock of the gym is another ridiculous proposition. One’s personal growth and path to physical self discovery must not be sabotaged by the opinion of others.

As far as invisible limitations and leverages like sleep quality and stress are concerned, it is preferred to ignore them, but if the trainee is too bothered about them, it is suggested to write them down near the exercise. If a bad sleep or stress at work deteriorated his session significantly, he could write a short note beside the recorded lift (preferable with an abbreviation whose expansion must be provided in the abbreviations page in the binder or anywhere else). Similarly, if a good night’s sleep or a joyful day improved his lifts, he could note down the same.

An Index of my current exercises

1000 stands for lower body exercises, and 2000 stands for upper body exercises.

Abbreviations

1000.1 Deadlifts (conventional)²

1000.1.1 Sumo Deadlifts³

1000.1.5 Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts ⁴

1000.2 Back squats (High Bar)

1000.2.1 Front Squats

2000.1 Overhead Press

2000.2 Bench Press

2000.2.0 Bench Press with feet on the bench⁵

2000.2.1 Dumbbell Chest Press

2000.2A Incline Bench Press⁶

2000.3 Bodyweight Pull ups

2000.3.1 Weighted pull ups

2000.3.2 Lat Pulldowns

2000.4 Bentover Row

2000.4.1 Hoist Seated Rows

2000.4.2 Prone dumbbell rows

2000.5 Plate Shrugs

2000.5.1 HIITMIll Shrugs

2000.5A (left vacant for dumbbell side raises)

2000.5A.1 Machine Side Raises

2000.6 Lying Tricep Extensions

2000.6.2 Seated dumbbell overhead tricep extensions

2000.6.3 Standing dumbbell overhead tricep extension

2000.6.4 Cable kickbacks

2000.7 (left vacant for barbell curls)

2000.7.1 dumbbell curls standing

2000.7.1 Unilateral dumbbell curls standing

2000.7.2 Kettlebell curls standing

2000.7.3 Cable Curls

2000.8 dumbbell hammer curls

2000.8.0 kettlebell hammer curls

2000.8.1 Wrist extensions dumbbell

2000.8.2 Wrist flexions machine

2000.8.3 Pinch-block holds

The pronoun He is used in this post like all posts in this blog. This is for convenience and it does not mean the post is aimed exclusively at the male community. Consult the manual for more information ↩︎
The deadlift is treated a lower body exercise, but some people treat it as an upper body exercise and there is nothing wrong with it. It is up to the recorder to decide in such ambiguous cases. There is no hard and fast rule. ↩︎
The sumo deadlift is treated as a variant of conventional deadlift. In other words, in the tree of exercises, the conventional deadlift is a major branch, and the sumo deadlift is a small branch emerging out of that major branch. ↩︎
The reason why there is a jump from 1 to 5 is because the vacant space is to accommodate other barbell deadlifts like snatch grip deadlifts, clean deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, etc. This is not necessary as long as one sticks a letter right after the last number ↩︎
Notice how it says 2000.2.0? This is because this exercise looked more similar to Bench Press (2000.2) than dumbbell chest press (2000.2.1) is similar to the Bench Press and a 0 had to be added instead of 2 to get it closer to the Bench Press. Similarly, the addition of a more similar exercise to the Bench Press would bear the number 2000.2.-1 ( ↩︎
The 2A is a number that comes between 2 and 3. The number that follows it is 2B ↩︎

Wisdom is a paradox. The more one learns, the more confused one becomes. Learning eliminates apprehensions to a certain degree. However, it makes an individual more vigilant, and as a result, more apprehensive.

The education system has been, since time immemorial, contaminating the minds of youngsters (and adults) with arbitrary reward and punishment mechanisms that place no value for learning. This has made them clueless about acquiring and applying wisdom efficiently. Moreover, the art of taking notes has been mutilated by the system. Note-taking, a device originally designed for self-improvement, has now been transformed into a somniferous act.

The Three Pillars

A foundation becomes imperative to hone the craft of learning. Without a solid foundation, even the sturdiest of masterpieces crumble. In this regard, learning must rest on the bulwark of three devices: A database to store your notes, a slip box to gather your thoughts and make them mutate, and a spaced repetition software to review your notes.

Database

A strong and secure database to store the information you gather from any source becomes essential to organize such information and make them part of a greater whole. The acquisition of information in the form of notes creates a network of interconnected notes that could make a person see and think from a proper vantage point than from an obscure level. However, not all digital note-taking software offers the leeway to connect notes

The Personal Knowledge Management application Obsidian does a better job at interlinking notes better than any other apps. It uses the Markdown Language to store notes, and every note is stored as a text file. This means even if Obsidian were to discontinue their services, the learner could still have custody of his notes. Its most iconic feature is the Graph View, which lets the learner visualize the relationships between the notes in his vault¹ (vault is the obsidian term for folder).

My digital notes on Obsidian pertaining to Uranium. Notice how other notes are linked to this base note. This makes other notes within my reach when I am studying about Uranium or when I am teaching someone about the same.

In the case of a notebook dedicated towards a particular subject, the notes in it are perpetually put under solitary confinement. They do not offer the learner wider perspective as in the case with digital interlinked notes. Notes in a notebook related to physics overlap with notes in a book related to chemistry, but a learner who uses designated notebooks for each discipline often overlooks such overlaps due to his inability to connect the notes.

Creating a database in digital as opposed to analog has two benefits: Digital notes are easier and more convenient to be organized and viewed compared to analog notes which take up time and space. Secondly, to teach a person something from the learner’s notes or to share his notes with his student or a friend, digital fares better than analog provided they are properly organized and not set in a form that only the learner can interpret them.

If you are unsure about what type of a note-taker you are, you can always consult Tiago Forte’s classification of notetakers

Slip Box

The slip box is a box replete with index cards (or slips). This box is the chief communication partner of the learner. Its purpose is to make the learner jot down ideas that were brewed inside his head, along with interesting ideas from other sources with proper reference to the source. It is a thinking box and is not the same as the database as one might erroneously think. It moves the learner to write down ideas, think to make his ideas wider, combine similar ideas and come to various conclusions based on them and write such new ideas.

The slips I consulted before writing this article

The person most associated with the slip box is the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. Although slip boxes predate Luhmann, he is credited to have evolved the concept to a simple form. Luhmann called his slip box the Zettelkasten, and with its aid and his constant endeavor, he managed to write more than 50 books and over 400 articles on various subjects².

Luhmann’s Zettelkasten (German for box of slips) (*source: deutschlandfunkkultur.de)*

The Slip Box works like the branches of a tree. An idea is placed first, from there two ideas emerge, and from the two ideas, four ideas in total emerge, and it goes on. Similarly, this can work backwards as well. When the learner writes down an epiphany he had on a slip, he works backwards to figure out in which category does it belong to. If he cannot figure it out initially, he will figure it out later, when more slips are filed in the slip box. When ideas are closely packed, clusters are formed. These clusters will help the learner research more on a subject and make him write more on the subject. Numbers are used to distinguish notes and to know where they are located. The learner can always consult the database if he needs additional and esoteric information to add in to his slip box to connect with existing ideas.

My initial thought process started with three pillars of learning. Then I worked backwards to make a connection with learning as part of one’s self discovery. Also I managed to connect a slip named ‘self-discovery through physical culture’. I had to edit the unique number assigned for each note sometimes to make them fit better.

Slip boxes follow the bottom-up approach in managing information. This means the learner is not testing a hypothesis. He is merely writing down a thought and making branches grow out of such thought or sometimes making the initial thought a branch by making a note before it. Making thoughts evolve this way eliminates confirmation bias.

The notes are filed in the slip box in this manner

Encryption of handwritten text is required in situations where an interesting thought is deemed controversial, despicable, criminal or when the learner does not want anyone else to know what they wrote about. For this, he can resort to bad handwriting, an invented script or a personal naming convention.

As mentioned earlier, index cards function better than a notebook for their ease of mobility. If the learner thinks he missed an information after writing a card and filing it, he can file a new card behind it, which is not easy with a notebook. Similarly, if the learner wishes to discard a card, he can simply remove it.

Mortimer Adler with his slip boxes (*Source: zettelkasten.de*)

An analog slip box is preferred to a digital one, because the zen of writing thoughts down with a pen on a paper can never be mimicked with a computer. Sometimes, the learner has to forego digital connections for a while and allow his thinking to harvest. Besides, forming letters by hand leads to widespread brain connectivity³.

Spaced Repetition Software

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals to improve long term retention of such information.⁴ It is based on the Spacing Effect, which is a phenomenon associated with the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneer in the study of memory. This effect shows that information spaced over time is better remembered than information massed together⁵.

While actively recalling this card about Uranium Mining, if the learner fails to recall anything about Uranium Mining, he will have to press “Again” after reading the ‘back’ of the flashcard (back is the note with the diagram located just below the line). Pressing “Again” makes this flashcard show up more frequently in future. Similarly when the learner presses “Easy” after successfully recalling a substantial part of the Uranium Mining process, the flashcard will show up rarely in future.

The most convenient way to implement spaced repetition is through flashcards. Anki is considered the holy grail of spaced repetition softwares. It uses flashcards and allows the user to input information. Based on his performance, it schedules review intervals.

The rationale for using the Anki as the third pillar of learning is to not let the learner forget information that would otherwise be forgotten. This does not mean he has to cram a long essay on to the flashcards. They have to contain sufficient amount of information, but not too much that could overwhelm the learner.

A phone and its keyboard are sufficient to use Anki. However, this is suboptimal, because the fruits of this App can be gained optimally by using something to write down the notes by hand on the phone or tablet. A digital pen or its alternative facilitates this. For the iPad, the Apple Pencil does it. Writing notes with hand regardless of a pen or a digital pen is found to elevate mood, and this in turn increases the ability to learn⁶.

An Obsidian note, after it is done, is made into a flash card. The learner has to type what the note is about on the front face of the flashcard (Text on the front face must always be typed down for convenience while searching). Then he proceeds to the back of the card to write down the note by his hand. The Anki note must be shorter than the obsidian note, but not too short. Similarly, minute information from the slip notes can also be added to the flashcards.

Drawing a mnemonic on the back of the flashcard is the cherry on top. The absurdity and the goofiness of the drawing make the information stick better. Visually depicting notes could not only improve the learner’s ability to think and draw, but also could increase recalling the information in the flashcards more efficiently⁷

Flashcards work as an aid that lets the learner review what he learned. It is the core essence of the material on the back of the card that is to be learned and not what is written. Hence, what is written on the back of the card are not to be rote-learned.

Precautions

It becomes essential to make a backup for the Anki decks. They can be exported to a specific part of both your cloud storage plus local storage (having two backups is better than having one) once a week or whenever it is deemed fit.

With Obsidian, it saves files locally as opposed to apps like Notion or Evernote. Similarly Obsidian Sync (paid), and iCloud are used to save files to the cloud to enable the learner to use the files from different devices.

The slips (index cards) in a slip box are susceptible to water damage, and ink smudges. Keeping them in a dark and dry place can extend their life. An apothecary cabinet is the most preferred option to store index cards. A frugal option would be a shoebox.

TLDR for the Lazy

The synergy of a database, a spaced repetition software and a slip box can help anyone become a better learner.
For database, the software Obsidian is preferred for its versatility, ability to interlink notes, and local storage of notes.
For spaced repetition, the application Anki is used, which helps in making flashcards
A slip box must be analog and not digital. Its purpose is to facilitate thinking, making connections, and coming into conclusions based on them.
Take necessary precautions to extend the life of your precious notes.

https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Graph+view ↩︎
Åkerstrøm Andersen, N. (2003). “4: Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory”. In Discursive analytical strategies. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. Retrieved Aug 11, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.51952/9781447342205.ch004 ↩︎
Van der Weel FR and Van der Meer ALH (2024) Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom. Front. Psychol. 14:1219945. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945 ↩︎
“Spaced Repetition (Article) | Learn to Learn.” Khan Academy. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/learn-to-learn/x141050afa14cfed3:learn-to-learn/x141050afa14cfed3:spaced-repetition/a/l2l-spaced-repetition ↩︎
Sisti HM, Glass AL, Shors TJ. Neurogenesis and the spacing effect: learning over time enhances memory and the survival of new neurons. Learn Mem. 2007 May 10;14(5):368-75. doi: 10.1101/lm.488707. PMID: 17522028; PMCID: PMC1876761. ↩︎
Ihara AS, Nakajima K, Kake A, Ishimaru K, Osugi K, Naruse Y. Advantage of Handwriting Over Typing on Learning Words: Evidence From an N400 Event-Related Potential Index. Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Jun 10;15:679191. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.679191. PMID: 34177498; PMCID: PMC8222525. ↩︎
Udomon, Iboro et al. “Visual , Audio , and Kinesthetic Effects on Memory Retention and Recall.” (2013). ↩︎

Iobov

Organization as an Ergogenic Aid

An Index of my current exercises

On the Three Pillars of Learning

The Three Pillars

Database

Slip Box

Spaced Repetition Software

Precautions

TLDR for the Lazy

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