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My highest goal with strength training is to maintain a life long good health. So, in the end, I don’t lift weight to get bigger muscle or lose fat.

But, at a lower level, I still want to know what’s going on under the skin…

The body composition, or as I call it, the “Body Key Indicators” or BKI, is/are an important element to follow. Excess of bodyfat is related to many health problems and the loss of muscle mass may lead to mobility problems (my favorite fear). With a quick observation of the general population, we can see a natural tendency to gain fat and lose muscle. The mobility problems are then multiplied: too much weight to carry around by an always weaker frame.

As with any aspect of my training, I have tools to measure progress. For example, I log every workout in my training Logbook. For my BKI, I work with the BodyKtor spreadsheet (you can download it for free by clicking the link).

The BodyKtor tool is an Excel spreadsheet containing 2 sheets: the Data sheet and the Chart sheet.

The Data sheet has 6 columns:

1. Wk#
2. Date
3. BW (Body Weight)
4. Fat % (I use my fat caliper and/or personal scale for this)
5. FM (Fat Mass=BW * Fat %)
6. LM (Lean Mass=BW – FM)

The Data sheet has currently 16 rows (filled with sample data) for readings. You can easily add rows, as with any spreadsheet. But if you want to see the added readings in the graph, you will have to modify the Data Range in the Source Data menu item of the graph contextual menu (right click on the graph).

The Chart sheet displays a 2-line graph with dates on the X Axis and weights on the Y Axis. The graph shows the evolution of 2 indicators, Body Weight and Lean Mass, over time.

I invite you to use this spreadsheet on a weekly basis. Feel free to modify it to suit your needs. You can also send me suggestions for improvements, I will post new versions in the future. Thanks.

I wish you all happy Holidays and a wonderful year 2010.

Until next post, Lift Consciously

When my brother and I decided to begin strength training, one of the first thing I did, after lifting some weight, was to start a logbook or training log.

In the beginning, I was using blanks of a one pager document I did with a text editor. These blanks were kept in a 3-ring binder. It worked well for a while. But I eventually drop them. Probably because this approach was too restrictive.

So, before long, I switched to regular notebook (I prefer coil 9-1/2″ x 6″). It allows me to log my training, and any comment I feel like, the way I best see fit.

Currently, given the cycle I’m in, the way I write my entries looks like this:

TBDL: 200 x 15r x 2

The above means “Trapbar Deadlift, 2 work sets of 15 reps with 200 lbs each”.

Or:

Dip: 160 x 12n, 10n

Again, the above means “Dips, 1 warm-up set of 12 negs (negative or eccentric motion), followed by 1 warm-up set of 10 negs with 160 lbs body weight”.

Of course, I also log the date and the day.

Keeping an accurate record is important for me. This is a very easy way to monitor what is going on. The goal being having some sort of progression.

Until next post, Lift Consciously