I made a huge mistake…
Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. I mean, what does — when we’re all going to end up worm food anyway? But I digress.
The big mistake? Taking notes.
Something we preach all the time is: take notes on your training. It’s a game changer — and I’ll explain why in a second. But here’s the thing: there’s no point taking notes if you never read them. And that’s where I f**ked up.
I’ve actually been taking solid notes lately. Sets, reps, how things felt. Gold dust. But I’ve just been... taking them. Not reading them. Not using them.
And yesterday it caught up with me.
I was dragging my body through a session. Clunky, sore, lethargic. Nothing moved well. It happens — not every session is going to feel good. But here’s what I realized after the fact: if I’d actually looked back at my notes beforehand, I would’ve seen two big red flags:
I’ve been doing too much the past couple of weeks (frequency).
My jumps in volume (reps) were way too aggressive.
Training works like this: apply a stimulus → recover → apply a slightly bigger stimulus → repeat. I skipped the “recover” bit this week and last week screwed up the “slightly” piece. More volume, more intensity — too soon. All this ended up in actually setting me back.
A good rule of thumb is: don’t increase more than 10% from your last session. Rather than just easily reading my notes I guessed it… and guessed wrong. Turned out I increased by 22%. No wonder I was knocked out and sore for a week.
In hindsight, it’s obvious.
So here’s the moral of the story:
Take notes — sets, reps, weights, and how it felt in your body. But then, crucially, read them before your next session. That’s how you make informed choices and smart progress.
And if in doubt, ask a coach.
Don’t be me. Be better.