Organization as an Ergogenic Aid

“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.

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.

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

1. 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 ↩︎
2. 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. ↩︎
3. 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. ↩︎
4. 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 ↩︎
5. 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 ( ↩︎
6. The 2A is a number that comes between 2 and 3. The number that follows it is 2B ↩︎