The most important exercise in weights: Lifting your notebook

There are a lot of different ways to approach building strength and gaining muscle: The internet is awash with various programs; some that are good ideas and others that are complete bullcrap that I can't believe anyone believes. I use a variety of programs and weight stacks to mix up my days at the gym to ensure that I have variety and also, I don't skip leg day.

However, there is one thing that you lift that is the most important exercise of all of them when it comes to making progress in muscle-building and that is remembering to pick up your notebook and bring it with you to the gym.

There are a lot of specialized notebooks out there that are "specific for the gym" and I just laugh at these products. They charge a premium for these things when they are essentially just notebooks. They claim they are sweat and waterproof but it's paper guys, that isn't possible. How about just not throwing it in the pool? That'll probably get the job done. For me, I prefer to find something as childish and silly as possible

I think the reason why you should have a notebook in the gym should be obvious but just in case there is some ambiguity here it is because you should really be making a log of what you lift each day you go to the gym. There are several reasons for this

• It lets you know where you left off and what you need to lift in order to progress
• It reminds you what exercises you actually do during a session

I'm a big believer that doing any exercise at all is better than doing nothing but I also am the type of person that would prefer to make my time as efficient as possible. For strength-building and bodybuilding alike, just heading the gym and "winging it" isn't going to give great results. It is much better to have a plan before you arrive and also to know where you actually were the last time you did a specific set.

How are you going to remember what it is that you did last week on each exercise if you don't write it down? How are you going to progress if you don't make gradual changes adding more weight over time? Some people might believe they are going to remember on their own but come on man, that isn't going to happen.

Years ago I finally beat my father's bench press record of 225 lbs for 6 reps, which honestly, really isn't a huge amount. But when I first started I could barely do 6 reps of 150. It took many weeks but by taking my stacks up just 2.5 to 5 lbs a week, I eventually became stronger and not only did I beat his record, but i surpassed it by a great deal. Had I just gone in there each week with no memory of what I had done the week prior, I would have never made it to that point or I would have hurt myself trying to do so.

So the moral of the story is simply that the most important thing in your gym bag is a simple notebook. If you work out with a plan you are going to see much better gains than if you just go in there and use all the machines with some sort of guesswork on where to put the pegs on the stacks. Virtually everyone uses this method and honestly, since notebooks cost just about nothing, there is no reason to not be doing this.