What do you use to track your workouts?

[altagirl]

Generally - I haven't kept much of a log in the past. If I'm feeling inspired, I track what I'm eating and the general activity and calories burned on Fitday.com. Which is great for tracking calories, but their activity tracker is very generic. For example, you can just put in how much time you spent on weight training (or spin class, or whatever) and how many calories you think you burned.

I'm looking for something to actually keep track of how much weight I'm lifting for different exercises, how many reps of single leg squats I can do, etc. Preferably something that allows you to input comments somehow as well. Not just - I lifted weights for an hour on Tuesday.

My skating coach gave me a 1 page printout covering the exercises I'm doing that I can just make copies of and write it down, but a bunch of loose peices of paper don't seem like the best way to track anything. I'm sure I could come up with some sort of Excel spreadsheet, but I hate to re-invent the wheel if there is some (free, hopefully) good tracking system already available.

Anyone use anything they'd recommend?

 

[Robyn]

Right now I'm just using the massive spreadsheet that my coach did for me with my annual training plan. I am thinking about getting this set up going from Joel Friel who's Triathlete's Training Bible is a huge part of my training theory.

https://home.trainingpeaks.com/

 

[Severine]

Sparkpeople.com has great exercise trackers that will estimate calories burned, too.

I like mapmyrun.com if you've been doing outdoors stuff. I use it for running, MTBing, hiking, and walking. Easier if you have a GPS, though. Also can estimate calories burned. But I don't think it would help for strength training, sorry.

 

[Kimmyt]

I use www.beginnertriathlete.com

It's mainly geared towards the three tri disciplines but it has extensive drop down menus for other types of activities, so you can log hh:mm:ss for any activity from dog walking to yardwork.

There's also a section for strength, with a ton of different exercises you can add and you input your sets and number of reps for each exercise. Lots of fun graphs and things too.

I think if you do the paid version there are even more fun things like heart rate stuff but I don't use a hrm for most of my workouts so the free version works fine for me.

 

[Robyn]

A warning about sparkpeople.com. I was using it most of the summer and when I went back at the end to total up my hours of training the only thing it would total for me was calories. While they're important I don't think that's a great measure of total training and I won't use it again. Not for the kind of race specific training I'm doing now.

I'm over at beginner triathelete as well but I find the site clunky and get frustrated at times so I don't log there.

 

[Severine]

A warning about sparkpeople.com. I was using it most of the summer and when I went back at the end to total up my hours of training the only thing it would total for me was calories. While they're important I don't think that's a great measure of total training and I won't use it again. Not for the kind of race specific training I'm doing now.

I'm over at beginner triathelete as well but I find the site clunky and get frustrated at times so I don't log there.

It's always tracked total time for me... but you're right that sparkpeople doesn't track weight lifted, reps, stuff like that.

 

[Robyn]

But if you go back now and try to total up a season's worth you can't unless you go through day by day.

 

[Severine]

It totals for the year, you're right, not the season.

 

[powdergirl]

Maybe I'm old-school, but I put all my loose pieces of paper in a three-ring binder. Workout notes, exercise printouts from the PT, articles about correct form, my plans for the next few workouts, etc. My binder comes to the gym with me.

 

[dloveski]

For running, I use the Suunto T6 with a GPS footpod, and upload my runs to the software, Suunto Training Manager which graphs out and scores the run based on an algorithm I don't quite understand, but the comparisons of the runs do track how I'm doing (VO2, HR and effects of climbs/descents, etc). The Suunto system is pretty pricey (I won it at the Outdoor Retailers show a few years ago---the only thing I've ever won). There are cheaper systems I'm sure. But it's pretty cool to see your workout dissected minute by minute and over time.

For cross-training, I use my daytimer and make notes and tally my w/o's up each Saturday and set goals for the next Sun-Sat.

It's interesting to track, but the most important thing is to keep getting out there.

 

[altagirl]

I couldn't find anything that tracked it easily and had fields for all the info I wanted (unless it was so complicated it took all day to find the particular exercise and such), so I just ended up creating an excel spreadsheet. Oh well!

 

[Swamp Dog]

I use www.beginnertriathlete.com

It's mainly geared towards the three tri disciplines but it has extensive drop down menus for other types of activities, so you can log hh:mm:ss for any activity from dog walking to yardwork.

There's also a section for strength, with a ton of different exercises you can add and you input your sets and number of reps for each exercise. Lots of fun graphs and things too.

I think if you do the paid version there are even more fun things like heart rate stuff but I don't use a hrm for most of my workouts so the free version works fine for me.

I second Kimmyt's recommendation for BT. (www.beginnertriathlete.com)

The logging feature lets you log ANY activity, including "body surfing" if you know what I mean ;) Anyhow, you can log the activity and time spent doing it. The tracker keeps a running log of time and distance. You can graph the info as well.

From the home page click on the top button that says "training log."

 

[Marian]

Here are some training/crosstraining & fitness sites I like. Anyone else got more?

I also enjoy PILATES & YOGA to balance my inner self & to balance out the other workouts that are more muscle- & cardio-oriented.

Fitnessjournal.org (free trial period; modest fee to join); traineo.com and peertrainer.com are both FREE.

Fitnessjournal even stored my workout info, although I didn't renew for several months after my membership lapsed.

I can't recall all the functions offered @ active.com where I'm also registered.

(I FORGOT - Lance Armstrong's livestrong.com which is FREE and has a lot of members.)

For strength I really like gymamerica.com, though I'm not using it until my shoulder's totally better & I'm able to do upper-body work again.

I've also used jillianmichaels.com for the strength & cardio wkouts they prescribe. They charge a fee; right now I'm not registered.