Tracking my fitness

I always chuckle when I'm doing a P90X video and Tony says "write it down!".  It's funny because of the way that he says it, but also because he says it approximately 200 times per segment.  Even on videos where he doesn't say it, I yell it at him after each exercise and during each break. 

(Yea, I'm a gem to workout with.)

I hate to admit it, but he might have a point.  I think that I need to start tracking my workouts better.  I've never been one to really keep track of what I did or when.  Sure, I usually figure out which workout I want to do the night before, but it usually just depends on how I feel, what's not sore, and what I'm in the mood for.  When I get to the gym, I usually guess on which weights to use or what intensity to go at or how many reps of something to do.  

I'm guessing that if I started tracking some of my workouts, I'd be able to see that last time I did deadlifts, I used 40 pound dumbbells and last time I did shoulder presses, I could do 20 pounds for about 9 reps. 

But I really don't want to be one of those people that brings a notebook and pen with them to the gym and takes up all sorts of room spreading out on a weight bench to organize everything and write things down.  Mostly because it's just another thing to remember to bring with me to the gym in the morning, and I usually have a hard enough time remembering to bring my gloves if I'm going to be lifting anything heavier than 10 pounds.  

I also don't really want to take a ton of time out of my workout to track every single thing that I do. It just seems like it defeats the purpose and kills your flow. 

But, I do always have my phone with me at the gym.  It's what I use to remember how my workout is supposed to go (all done in the notes app that comes with the phone - I'm nothing if not super high tech).  It's also what I use to play music and as a timer/stopwatch. 

So, I'm going to try out a few different workout tracking apps and see which I like best.  I figure that the best one is one that I'll actually use.  And for that to happen, it needs to be pretty simple, but also include everything that I would want to track.  It needs to make it easy to go back and look up a specific exercise.  Say I did bicep curls as part of a workout two weeks ago, and am now including in a workout today.  I want to be able to see that I did 20 pound dumbbells last time, without having to remember when I did them and find that specific workout. 

I've done some research, and have decided to test out three different trackers: Reps & Sets, Easy Weights Log, and Gym Hero.

I plan to try out each for about a week or so and then see which one I'd like to use going forward.  Hopefully, I'll find one that works well for my purposes and doesn't annoy me too much. I'm also hoping that this serves as the reminder that I need to push myself a bit harder and try heavier weights or more reps to keep improving my fitness. 

I'll report back in a few weeks.  Wish me luck!