Nothing happens by accident when it comes to achieving goals.This is something my good and dear friend, Bill Hume, said to me, and taught me, when I was a kid, and he was starting his competitive bodybuilding career. That statement is so true. In the book The millionaire fast lane, the author, MJ DeMarco, also gives this piece of advice throughout his book. Whether you are developing a

business, or your body through weight training, and bodybuilding, you must have a plan and a way to chart your progress so that you can see if your plan is working. For this segment, I would like to give you my perspective on how to keep track of your muscle building efforts.

When starting a journey in developing your body, specifically for bodybuilding purposes, there are several things you must chart from the very beginning and they are:

1)Muscle measurements

2)Body fat percentage

3)Strength

4)The type of diet you will be using

5)Daily training program

You should have two separate composition note books. One will be for your weight training workouts and the other will be used to chart your daily food intake. Some people use the log books that are already design for this, where you put all of your information, both your eating, supplement plan, and your weight training program, into the same pre-programmed book. I personally do not really care for those pre-programmed log books. I like the classic composition note books because I get to design and outline my course of action, plus I also take meticulous and detailed notes.When you get you two composition note books begin by out lining your training log in this fashion. On the first page you will take your measurements. Set up your first page like this:

TALE OF THE TAPE MEASUREMENTS

1)Neck

2Arms

3)Chest

4)Waist

5)Thighs

6)Calves

7)Weight

8)Height

9)Wrists

10)Ankles

Next, You will take your measurements flexed and relaxed. I have included a picture chart so that you can see how the measurements are done correctly.

Now that you have charted you muscular measurements and your fat to muscle body composition, you will now chart your one rep max by using the chart below on the following lifts described below.

There you have it, a unique way to help you keep track of your progress. Outline your training log when training in this manner:

Date______________________

Start__________________________End____________________________

Muscle group to be trained

____________________________SET ________________________REPS______________________WEIGHT

As for your supplement and nutrition log outline it in this manner:

Date_____________________________

Meal # 1Calories __________________Fats_______________________Protein___________________________Carbs

As you eat your meals throughout the day, you will place it as meal # 2 and so on. At the end of the day, you will add all of your calories, fats, protein and carbohydrates. This will give you an idea of how much of each macro nutrient you are consuming. This will also help you to reduce carbs if you need to or fats if you need to reduce fats. Also, use pictures and the mirror to see how your conditioning is coming along.

Let me know how this works for you. There will be more on this in future blog posts.

You can download this article with the measurement sheets included for your purposes and to attach to your training log book.

How to keep careful track

Until then,

God Bless.

I.A.A.M.