A Write-up on the Importance of Writing it Down.
I read somewhere that it was important to write things down because if you don’t write things down you won’t remember what you did and you won’t know what to do if you can’t remember what you did. Yes, that is a horrible run-on sentence, constructed for comedic effect. But really, thank goodness that person wrote that profound idea down!
Imagine going into your day, not just your workout, without a plan. It’s horribly reckless, really. A rookie move, to be sure. Personally, I’d be in a full blown panic if there were no notes about what had been done the day before. And to top it off, I’d feel like the work I did was kind of pointless and wasted because what would I be comparing it to?
Nothing. Nadda. Zilch and zero.
There are many reasons that you should keep a journal, and not just for exercise or hyperspace coordinates (the latter being of great importance). There are so many factors that tie into your success in any action-adventure saga that it would be impossible to keep them all in your head, so naturally you need to find a way to get them out of your brain and into the ether. So why not write it down?
Sometimes I’ll write things down because I know that I’m going to forget about them. Other times I write things down to see how silly they are when they’re not in my head so that I can simply choose to never share them with another living person.
When we focus this idea on the world of health and fitness, we typically see people preaching about keeping a workout journal and a nutrition journal. One of these things is a horrible task that I do not support. The other is a workout journal. Keep in mind this is not just jotting down the sets and reps and weights and numbers from chest day.
If you were foolish enough to find some interest in my workout journals you’d see, literally, years of notes about form, what worked and what didn’t, how I was feeling, and even a list of excuses on why I didn’t want to work out that day. All of it ties together and getting it on paper has never failed to help me get through the routine.
Recently I did a chest routine that has a bunch of notes on arm angle, cable height, where to stand in relation to the machine, whether Vader was really Luke’s father or was it actually only Anakin… <insert mind blown expression>. Along with all of that was how I felt that day and whether or not the next workout would be the same or if I should change the reps/weight/etc. It’s not just a log of what I did, but an action plan for what to do next.
I remember doing a pull-over type move and on the page next to the completed sets I wrote, “This move hurts my feelings and I’m not doing it next time.” So next time, I didn’t do it. If I didn’t write down that the move wasn’t kind and thinking of my feelings I would have made the mistake of doing it again and I would have been sad.
Writing things down is also the only way that I can keep ideas. In reality, my supreme level of attention and recall leaves me needing not for foolish notes. But for the purpose of this blog entry I’ll gladly play the part of the cautionary tale for all of you would-be superstars. The sheer number of legitimately earth-shatteringly good blog post ideas that are near and dear to my heart that I’ve completely lost over the years is staggering. When I think of it, it’s like that time Obi Wan felt all of Alderaan getting blow’d up by the Death Star.
“As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced…”
Yeah. Exactly like that.
So write things down. It’s good. But seriously, next time let’s talk about this Darth Vader or Anakin being the father thing……..
-v
