Workout log: write down your sessions and track your progress
A workout log lets you track your performance concretely over time. Here's what to put in it, and how to stick with it without it becoming a chore.
Arestis in brief
Arestis is a workout log app available on iPhone and Android. It lets you log your sessions, track your weights and reps, look back at previous workouts and see your progress.
Join the beta →Why keep a workout log
Memory is short. You think you remember what you benched last week, but between two sessions and four exercises, the details fade. Without a history, it becomes harder to compare your sessions and know exactly what has changed.
Writing your sessions down serves three concrete purposes:
- Knowing what to do today. If you know you did 4 sets of 8 at 60 kg last time, you know what to aim for now.
- Applying progressive overload. It's the basic principle of strength training: to progress, you increase the weight, the reps or the volume. Without data, you're guessing.
- Spotting plateaus. An exercise that has stalled for two months is hard to notice from memory. In a history, it jumps out.
What to write in your log
The bare minimum
For each exercise, three pieces of information are enough to start:
- The exercise name
- The number of reps done in each set
- The weight used
The number of sets follows naturally: one line per set.
Incline press 22 kg × 10 / 22 kg × 9 / 20 kg × 10
Lateral raises 8 kg × 15 / 8 kg × 14 / 8 kg × 12
Dips bodyweight × 12 / 10 / 8
What makes the difference
Once the habit is in place, a few extra details make the log much more useful:
- Rest time between sets. Two identical sessions with 1 or 3 minutes of rest are not the same thing. Without this, you might think you regressed when you simply recovered less.
- Warm-up sets, kept separate from working sets. Otherwise your statistics get artificially inflated.
- A free note: "lower back tight", "bad night's sleep", "bar slipping". Three months later, it explains a poor performance that would otherwise seem inexplicable.
Beyond your sessions
Your training isn't only about what you lift. Two sets of data are worth tracking alongside:
- Your bodyweight, measured regularly and always under the same conditions. Getting stronger while gaining weight doesn't mean the same thing as getting stronger at a stable weight.
- Your measurements: arms, waist, thighs. They change slowly, but over six months they tell a story the scale doesn't.
Don't try to track everything from day one. A log that's too heavy to fill in gets abandoned after three weeks. Start with exercise, reps and weight, then add the rest once the habit is set.
Paper notebook or app?
Both work. What separates them is what you want to do with your data once it's written down.
| Criterion | Paper notebook | App |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Very fast, no lag | Fast if the app is well made |
| Reliability | No battery, no bugs | Depends on the phone |
| Finding a session | You have to flip through | Instant |
| Calculations and charts | Up to you | Automatic |
| Previous session | You have to look it up | Shown right away |
| Risk of loss | Notebook lost or damaged | Data synced |
| Cost | A few euros | Free to paid |
Paper has real strengths: nothing beats a notebook and a pen for simplicity, and nobody will send you a notification in the middle of a set. Plenty of serious lifters have never used anything else.
A spreadsheet is a misleading middle ground. It records well, but quickly becomes unmanageable: rows pile up, finding a past performance means scrolling, and charts have to be built by hand. It's often the step before looking for a real solution.
An app takes the lead as soon as you want to analyze, not just record. Training volume, personal records, progress per exercise: these are calculations nobody keeps doing by hand over the long run.
How to stick with it
The best log is the one you actually fill in. Three things help:
- Write during the session, not after. You have time between sets. Once you're home, you'll have forgotten half of it and you won't do it.
- Keep the same format. Switching methods every month breaks comparisons. An imperfect but consistent format beats a perfect one you abandon.
- Read it back. A log you never look at is useless. Before each session, check what you did last time.
Keeping your workout log with Arestis
Arestis is a workout log app. It follows everything described above: you log your exercises, sets, reps and weights during the session, and it takes care of the rest.
- Your previous session is shown while you fill in the current one, so you know what to aim for
- Warm-up sets are kept separate from working sets
- The rest timer rings even with the screen locked
- Your records and training volume are calculated automatically
- Your bodyweight and measurements are tracked in the same place
- Your data can be exported as JSON or CSV, whenever you want
Once your sessions are logged, the next question is what to do with them: the guide on tracking strength training progress covers which numbers to watch and how to read them.
If you're comparing several apps, the workout app comparison details what each one allows in its free version. And if you want to know who builds Arestis and why, it's on the about page.