There are many different tools out there to track all sorts of progress. Dunk tanks for body fat percentages, electronic speed timers, or even just weight on the scale.
They all have their own positives and negatives but may not be a great fit for everyone.
I have never had an advanced aged client come to me and say they want to improve their 10-yard sprint with electronic time. Most elderly clients don’t care about getting to single digit body fat either. They care more about good blood test results and reducing pain.
Then again, I may have a high school football player who wants to make it to the next level. So for them their electronic 10 yard sprint and body composition are great tools to use for tracking progress.
I had a client come to me who wanted to be healthier, feel better, and get better at golf.
I told him off the bat that I can help him with 2/3 goals.
No golfer is ever satisfied with how they play; it can be a cruel game.
His goals were all subjective making them hard to get accurate measurements of improvement. Now if he came in and wanted to be more mobile and lose 10 lbs then yes of course we can track that and see how close we are to achieving that.
Creating his program with his goals in mind, our focus was to increase his ranges of motion in most exercises by adding in mobility work on a daily basis.
This was to increase his ability to rotate, and recruit muscles during his swing as well as make him feel better overall.
Along with this, we added in some strength and power training to increase his force production while on the course (and for overall health).
If done in the correct manner, strength training WILL make you feel so damn good!
Feeling more stable, stronger, empowered, energized, and ready to take on each and every day.
For his overall health, the exercise and mobility alone did wonders for him but we also discussed his nutrition habits and worked out a good plan that he was able to stick with for the long term.
Now we hit his goals moving forward but it wasn’t easy. It took a lot of communication on a day-to-day basis and staying on top of every aspect that effects how he feels.
In doing so I know for a fact that some days I wasn’t getting all the information I could be getting out of him. Or maybe he misses a day at the gym and is busy at work. So now that particular day I don’t get any feedback from him.
I know all coaches have different ways of tracking progress with clients and I needed to find a much more efficient way of doing so.
Moving back to Massachusetts this past year I was able to get a coaching position at OPEX South Shore. The owner Bobby has a creative and effective way of tracking progress, which I now use as well.
He has key indicator questions that he asks his clients on a weekly basis through his program tool. They are answered on a scale of 1-10 and done week by week.
This concept is much more suitable for just about all clients. One: it easy for them to go on their program and answer 5 easy questions. Two: I don’t have to text them and ask how their stool was this week after changing their eating habits.
It’s a win-win!
Questions can vary from mood/energy to strength/enjoyment of the programs.
Being able to see how people are feeling as an effect from their programs outside of the gym is something I find very valuable. There may be a week where someone is feeling very run down due to a stressful situation. Something I may not have realized if it wasn’t for these weekly questions.
The next method is from Jim Smith at Diesel SC. He talks about having key indicator exercises that will show improvements in different areas within your program.
Having some indicator exercises such as single leg squats or deadlifts are good to see overall strength. Then having exercises like pushups or chin-ups are great to see relative strength. Exercises like med ball throws or sled pushes are great to see speed/power. I also like to target things of aerobic ability as well.
Using these indicators is a great way to see true overall progress, and not just target one particular area.
So if I gain 20lbs and my deadlift goes up but I can’t do 50% of my pull-up max anymore then my strength DID NOT increase. I just have more body mass, reasons why there are different categories for each indicator exercise.
The same goes for the opposite, my aerobic tests may be improving but my strength test may be taking a hit.
So now we tie both of these indicator measures together and we are able to accumulate so much information that is able to direct our program to improve our client’s results.
Being able to look at certain lifestyle questions as in mood, energy, sleep and putting those together with increases or decreases in the gym is just another piece to the puzzle.
I would say that for my clients, the more information I can get, the better.
The questions we ask are very personal, and for good reason. We ask questions that will give us the feedback we need to improve every aspect of your life, not just your gym goals.
Weight on the bar does not always correlate to progress. If we are aiming for well rounded fitness and health goals then many other factors will come into play to track our progress.
I would encourage everyone to use these measures whether it’s for yourself or your clients.
Making sure that you are progressing in every way you can, will create great outcomes in many aspects of your life.
Work hard, keep yourself honest, and crush your goals!
