Why You Need to Track Your Weights To See Better Results

 

If you have ever walked into a workout and thought, “Wait… what weight did I use last time?” this episode is for you.

Because here is the thing. A lot of women think better results come from finding a harder workout, adding more exercises, or switching up the plan again. But sometimes the thing holding you back is way more simple.

You are guessing.

In this bonus episode of Embrace Your Real, we are talking about why tracking your weights matters if you want to actually see progress from the workouts you are already doing. It may not feel exciting, but knowing what you lifted last time is what helps you know what to reach for next time. And that is how you stop going through the motions and start training with intention.

What’s Discussed:

  • Why working hard does not always mean you are progressing

  • Why changing workouts is not always the answer

  • What progressive overload looks like in a real workout

  • Why you need to track both weight and reps

  • How to know when it is time to go heavier

  • Why your numbers can show progress before your body looks different

  • How tracking helps you stop guessing and start showing up with a plan

The Movement With Julie app makes this so much easier because you can log your weights and reps right inside the app. So instead of trying to remember what you used last week, you can look back, know where to start, and keep building from there. Head to movementwithjulie.com to get started.

If you loved this episode, you’ll also loveEpisode 566: What Women Get Wrong About Progressive Overload. It is the perfect next listen if you want to understand how to keep challenging your body without overcomplicating your workouts.

If you want more from me, be sure to check out…

Transcript

(0:00) Hey, hey beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, (0:06) but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Reel with me, Julie Ledbetter.

(0:13) I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. (0:19) Stay tuned if you're ready to Embrace Your Reel. Let's get it, let's go.

(0:32) Hello and welcome back to another bonus episode on the Embrace Your Reel podcast. Today (0:36) I want to talk about something that most women are not doing in their workouts, (0:40) and it's truly one of the simplest habits that you can build that will completely change the results that you see from every single session (0:47) that you show up for, and that thing is tracking your weights. I know it sounds super simple.

(0:52) It might even sound a little tedious or like overwhelming, but stay with me because by the time that we're done, (0:58) I hope that you understand exactly why this one small habit is the difference between spinning your wheels in your workouts and actually making (1:04) consistent, meaningful progress time after time after time. Before we dive in though, I want to share this review. It came from Andrea (1:13) Barreguera.

She gave a five-star review and said, only podcast that I can't stop listening. I love, love, love this podcast. (1:19) It has helped me so much for my fitness and my self-love journey.

It's also very entertaining and real. Oh, I love it. (1:25) Thank you so much.

Super simple, straight to the point. I appreciate every single one of your guys's reviews. (1:29) They truly do mean the world to me and our team.

Just kind of know how the podcast is helping you, maybe a specific episode (1:35) or just in general, we would love to hear it. (1:37) So you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and leave a rating interview. That would mean the absolute world to me and our team.

(1:43) Okay. First, let's talk about why you need to track your weights. (1:47) It really all comes down to progressive overload.

(1:49) If you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you've likely heard me talk about this before, but let me break it down. (1:55) It's super simple because it's that important. (1:58) So progressive overload is the principle of gradually increasing the demand you place on your muscles over time.

(2:04) Your body is incredibly smart. (2:06) It's incredibly adaptable. (2:08) And when you do the same thing over and over again at the same weight with the same reps week after week, (2:12) your body is likely going to get used to it, right? (2:15) It no longer sees it as a challenge.

And when your body is not challenged, it has no reason to change. (2:20) No reason to build more muscle, no reason to get stronger, no reason to keep progressing. (2:25) So in order to keep making progress, you have to keep giving your body (2:29) a reason to adapt, like a little bit more weight or a little bit more reps, a little more challenging than last time.

(2:36) And that's progressive overload. And it's really the engine behind every single result that you're working towards. (2:41) But here's the thing.

(2:42) You cannot progressively overload if you don't know where you started. (2:46) And you cannot do one more than last time if you don't remember what last time looked like. (2:51) And that's exactly why tracking your weights matters so much.

(2:54) It gives you the data that you need to keep moving forward intentionally and also just keep showing up without guessing. (3:03) Here's another thing about tracking is that I found it personally extremely motivating because when you look back at your notes from (3:09) let's say three months ago or four months ago (3:11) and you see that you were doing reverse lunges with 12 pounds or 15 pounds (3:15) and now you're doing them with 20 pounds or 25 pounds, (3:18) that is tangible proof that you are getting stronger. That is evidence that your work is paying off.

(3:23) And on the days when you feel like you're just not making progress, (3:26) that data is what is going to remind you that you absolutely are. (3:30) Because progress in your workouts is not always visible in the mirror right away, right? (3:34) But it's always visible in your numbers if you are tracking them. (3:38) And seeing those numbers go up over time is truly one of the most powerful motivators that there is for staying consistent.

(3:45) All right, now here is how you actually do it very simply. (3:49) I don't want you to overcomplicate this. You don't need a fancy system.

(3:51) You don't need a spreadsheet. You just need to do and track two things for every exercise. The weight that you used and the reps that you did.

(3:58) That's it. Here's why both of those things matter. (4:00) The weight is going to tell you how heavy you went and the reps tell you how hard you worked at that weight.

(4:06) And you need both of those pieces of information together to know where you go next because the weight without reps means nothing. (4:12) If I tell you I did bicep curls with 15 pounds last week, that's not going to tell me that much, right? (4:18) But if I tell you, okay, I did three sets of 12 reps with 15 pounds and every set felt strong and controlled, (4:24) I could have done even a couple more. Now I know something.

Now I know that I'm ready to go up in weight. (4:30) So how do you know when it's time to go up in weight? Here's a simple rule (4:33) I want you to follow. When you can complete all of your sets and all of your reps with good form (4:38) and the last two reps of your last set feel still very manageable, it's time to go up.

(4:44) That's a signal. You should always feel challenged by the last couple of reps in your last set. Not dying, not breaking form, (4:52) but genuinely working.

If you finish your last set and you feel like, man, (4:57) I had, you know, probably five or six more reps in the tank, that is your sign to go heavier next time. (5:02) So for example, let's say last week you did a reverse lunges, three sets of 12 reps with 20 pounds. (5:07) You write that down.

This week you come back to your leg workout. (5:10) Maybe it's Bulgarian split squats instead of reverse lunges, a different variation of a lunge (5:15) so you can kind of look back at your notes and think, okay, last week I did three sets of 12 (5:19) reps with 20 pounds on my reverse lunges and it felt good today on my Bulgarian split squats. (5:25) I'm going to start with maybe 25 pounds and aim for three sets of 12 reps.

(5:30) Maybe I'm only able to do 25 pounds for the first set and then I just need to drop back down to 20 pounds. (5:35) That's okay. It's still progress.

You still lifted more than you did before, (5:39) but let's give you a different scenario. Let's say last week you did three sets of 10 reps with 20 (5:43) pounds on your reverse lunges. Your workout said to do 12 reps, but you could only get 10 reps.

(5:48) This week, when you go to do your Bulgarian split squats, I recommend picking up those same (5:52) 20 pound dumbbells and aim to get 11 reps on each set as your goal, as you're not completely (5:58) ready to move up in weight. If you weren't tracking what weight you were using, you could (6:02) have picked up those 15 pound dumbbells thinking that's what you used last week, (6:07) but you actually already progressed past that. Now you did an entire workout out of weight that (6:12) was really not challenging enough to create any real change.

That happens more than you think. (6:16) It's one of the most common reasons why women feel like they're working hard, (6:19) but they're just not seeing results. They're unknowingly repeating the same weights over (6:24) and over and over again without realizing it.

This is so important even when you are doing (6:28) different variations of exercises week to week. Having that record of what you did before gives (6:33) you a reference point. It tells you where to start.

It tells you what you're working towards. (6:38) It keeps you intentional instead of grabbing whatever weight feels okay in the moment and (6:42) hoping for the best because here's the bottom line. When you are intentional, you see better (6:46) results.

Women who track their weight show up to their workouts differently. They're not just (6:51) going through the motions. They have a target.

They have something to work towards and that's (6:55) intentionality, that sense of purpose at every single set. That's what's actually going to (7:00) change over time. And when you just show up and grab whatever weight feels right in the moment (7:05) and do however many reps feel like enough, you are leaving so much progress on the table.

But when (7:10) you show up knowing exactly what you did last time and exactly what you're going to push for (7:15) today, that is when things start to shift in your workouts. And that is when the workouts stop (7:20) feeling like something that you're just getting through and they really start feeling like (7:24) something you're actually building with. Inside my move with Julie app, it's very, (7:29) very simple because the app makes it super simple to log your weights and your reps for (7:34) every single week.

So you're never guessing. You always know exactly where you are, exactly (7:39) what you're working towards. So if you're on a specific movement, you can go to the history (7:43) tab, which is the second icon on the bottom of each movement.

It kind of looks like a clock. (7:48) It looks like a clock with an arrow. You'll be able to click that and see what you logged (7:52) most recently.

And then you'll also be able to see your entire history of whenever you logged (7:56) that specific movement. So again, it's super simple and it lets you show up and execute with (8:02) intention. If you want to learn more about that program, you can go to sale, S-A-L-E.movewithjulie.com. (8:09) Again, that's sale, S-A-L-E.movementwithjulie.com. Here's what I want you to do after this episode.

(8:15) Next time you work out, I want you to bring something to track with. It could just be your (8:19) phone's notes app. It could be a little notebook, or if you are working inside the (8:25) logging those weights, write down the exercise, the weight that you use, the reps you completed, (8:30) and do that for every single workout in a week.

And then watch what happens to your results over (8:36) the next few months when you continue that and when you start showing up with intention (8:41) every single time. It's such a small habit, but the impact that it has in your progress (8:45) is truly anything but small. If you want to go even deeper on this topic, I know you're (8:50) also going to love episode 566, what most women get wrong about progressive overload, (8:56) because once you understand it, everything we talked about today is really going to click even more.

(9:00) I will link that in the show notes for you below. If this episode was helpful for you, (9:04) would you just share it with a friend maybe who's been working hard in her workouts, (9:07) but just not seeing the results that she expected? Or maybe you guys had a conversation similar to (9:12) this and you're like, man, I think that this information would really help her. This might be (9:16) exactly the missing piece that she needs.

And also if you have not already left a review, (9:21) it would mean so much to me and our team. Just kind of know how the podcast or an episode (9:25) is helping you so you can scooch over and do that. Thank you so much for taking time (9:30) out of your day to tune in.

I love you so much. I mean it, and I'll talk to you in the next one. (9:43) All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do.

(9:50) First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A. (9:54) Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, (9:59) healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.

(10:04) The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so (10:10) much for joining me. It means the absolute world.

And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. (10:16) The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident (10:21) and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than (10:28) the surface.

So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.

 
Julie Ledbetterembrace your real, q and a, workouts, scheduleComment