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Kettlebell Training log/diary apps

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John Bye

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Hello,
Wondering what people use for tracking their training? I currently use polar beat/flow and am just trialling Training Peaks. These seem great where HR/GPS are the things you’re most interested in tracking, but less good for kettlebell training where all I do is enter session details in free text comments.
I’ve looked at apps such as heavyset and strong too, but these seem much more geared towards barbell work
Any suggestions much appreciated before I dust off excel :)
Thanks
 
I have to say, I prefer pen and paper (a diary to be exact).... Why? Won't get lost during an upgrade, don't have to worry about battery power, won't distract me whilst entering information, easier to look back over time to see where you are now compared to x weeks ago. Also, I quite like the full year planner at the front, I can mark important dates - SFG certification - and work out when I should start training certain blocks...
 
Inky said:
I have to say, I prefer pen and paper (a diary to be exact).... Why? Won't get lost during an upgrade, don't have to worry about battery power, won't distract me whilst entering information, easier to look back over time to see where you are now compared to x weeks ago. Also, I quite like the full year planner at the front, I can mark important dates - SFG certification - and work out when I should start training certain blocks...
Click to expand...

william bad butt said:
MS Excel
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For real time logging during a workout:

Pen and paper

For programming:

Spreadsheet.


Every app I've ever used takes more time than pen and paper.

More time fiddling with an app means less time training.

Plus I can scribble random notes on the paper.
 
watchnerd said:
For real time logging during a workout:

Pen and paper

For programming:

Spreadsheet.


Every app I've ever used takes more time than pen and paper.

More time fiddling with an app means less time training.

Plus I can scribble random notes on the paper.
Click to expand...
+1

Although, due to additional notes I find it hard to review this in a monthly or few week perspective. I think I will switch to separate log and separate notes pages.

A weekly summary also helped me track back weekly impressions on fatigue or similar stuff.
 
I've been using the same digital system for 7 years, and before that it was pretty similar (just different tools like Word).

On Friday afternoon, I enter my entire next week of training into an Evernote note. It's 100% freeform text (my own "syntax") because I have found any tool that tries to force my training into "form fields" to be a huge hassle. I just do it my own way and I sometimes update the way I do it. Then I pin this note on my phone, open it (sometimes print it out or write it on a whiteboard) and do it as written.

(For planning a 6-12 week program itself, I do sometimes start in Excel and then translate it over)

I haven't had a need to edit my session while I'm actually doing it, because all my work is planned ahead of time, and everything gets done exactly as planned. Sometimes this is a Plan Strong (or Built Strong) plan, sometimes it's Q&D or S&S or something like KB Strong... but unless I'm testing my 1RM, it's very rare that I don't complete what I had planned to do.

I also take freeform notes daily or weekly on how I'm feeling, what was challenging, what wasn't, any "aha moments", etc. And I can then search across many years of data for "back squat" or "Q&D" or "1RM" or more subjective things like "tired".

Example from today (my own syntax, so you may not get it! But the things in brackets are done in an alternating fashion / supersetted):

8/6/20: 7 AM Warmup: Stick: Shoulder Dislocates + Bow & Arrow, 3-Way Neck @20kg, Crossover Symmetry Reverse Flyes/External Rotation 10/10@Yellow, Prying Goblet Squats 3@20kg, Passive Hangs, Heavy: [Back Squat 3@175, 2@235, 1,2,3,1,2,3,1@270, Vertical Pull 1,2,3,1,2,3,1@20] (3m Rest), Medium: [Bridge Floor Press 2,3,5,2,3,5,2,3,3,3@170, Pendlay Row 2,3,5,2,3,5,2,3,3,3@170] (2m Rest), Light: [Sumo Deadlift 3,5,8,5@255, Press 3,5,8,5@24kg] (1m Rest), Cooldown: Couch Stretch, Traction, Recovery Breathing 5m
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"Strong" is actually pretty good for anything non-kettlebell related. I contacted them in the past with a request to add more kettlebell exercises, even provided a list, but they didn't care about it.
 
Thanks for all your replies, they’ve been very useful in helping me figure out what I’m trying to achieve, even if the question I asked wasn’t quite that.
I think a log (probably digital in my case) which helps direct my attention towards quality/practice first and quantitative information second is what I’ll do.
 
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