In any fitness journey, it’s essential to set goals and slowly move towards them. But too many people spend time on the planning aspect rather than execution. If you don’t track your workouts, you won’t have a realistic picture of your progress so far (which is a great motivator), and you won’t be able to set realistic goals. But by logging all your exercises and improvements, you’ll get a clear idea of where you stand in your fitness journey.
1. Strong (Android, iOS): Simple, Powerful, Free Workout Tracker
Strong is one of the simplest workout trackers to use while still offering plenty of features that make it one of the best exercise logs. Once you register, you can add any new workout by choosing from Strong’s recommended exercises or creating your own.
For each workout, you can select multiple exercises from Strong’s library, each with instructional videos and tips. Each exercise has different parameters you can count, like sets, reps, weight, time, and a combination of these. Fill the boxes as you complete your exercises, and Strong will save them for you. You can revisit your history of workouts to see your progress.
The free version of Strong also lets you track your weight, body fat percentage, and calorie intake and plots them all on a helpful chart. The paid version Strong Pro also records data of individual body parts and displays charts and analytics for your workouts too.
Download: Strong for Android | iOS (Free)
2. My Work In Progress (Web, Android, iOS): Detailed Workout Tracker With Free Charts
My Work In Progress (MWIP) is a detailed workout tracker that works through a browser and apps. The browser part is excellent for setting up your exercise routines first, while the phone app is what you’ll probably use to log your workouts.
The app gives a surprising amount of statistics and graphs once you’ve logged your fitness progress. For example, after a few months of tracking, you can quickly find stats like your average reps for a particular exercise, your personal best weights or volumes, and so on. Click any, and you’ll also see the entire workout for that day.
MWIP also displays detailed charts and graphs of your progress. Again, this can be for an individual exercise or overall improvement, and it’s customizable by time too. These are the kinds of features that most apps ask you to pay for, but MWIP makes it completely free.
The app also includes an integrated goal maker. In this, you can add specific goals for your fitness journey, like hitting certain sets, reps, or weights for any exercise and when you plan to reach that. And since it’s all part of the same workout tracker, you’ll know whether you are set to meet your goals or not.
Download: My Work In Progress for Android | iOS (Free)
3. Jefit (Web, Android, iOS): Workout Tracking Social Network
Jefit is one of the best workout apps to track your fitness journey and share it with friends. While the app has pre-made workout plans, exercise guides, and even paid coaching, the best part remains the workout tracker.
You can individually log each exercise and overall workouts and maintain those records for as long as you want in the free plan. Jefit also runs a few automatic calculations on your logs, giving you extra data like the total amount of weight you lifted in a workout over several exercises, sets, and reps. It also calculates workout time, rest time, and wasted time so that you can be more efficient in your fitness goals.
All this data is available on your profile page, which your Jefit friends can view. You can also share your workout logs on Facebook and look up historical reports and logs at any time. To view charts, you’ll need a premium membership.
Apart from tracking your workout, Jefit also tracks your body progress. You can log data like weight, BMI, and measurements of individual body parts. Jefit also encourages you to take progression pictures and store them in the app to see how your body evolves and get motivated.
Download: Jefit for Android | iOS (Free)
4. FitNotes (Android): Best Workout Tracking App for Android
FitNotes is one of the highest-rated workout tracker apps on the Play Store, and for a good reason. It has a straightforward interface, is free with no hidden costs, and doesn’t show ads.
You’ll see a pane to log today’s workout every time you open it. Swipe left and right to see yesterday’s routine or plan tomorrow’s workout. You can add exercises from the FitNotes library or input your custom routines. As you add more workout routines, you’ll be able to copy-paste past routines for easier input.
The exercises are divided into different muscle groups of your body, which all have color codes. So when you look at the calendar view, you’ll see lots of different colors under each date to remember what you did on that day. You can also filter the calendar by muscle groups.
The app also tracks your weight, height, BMI, and measurements of individual parts. You also get charts and graphs of your historical data to visualize your fitness progress quickly.
Download: FitNotes for Android (Free)
Note: FitNotes doesn’t have an official iPhone app, but it looks like some fan-made a replica called FitNotes 2. You can even import your existing Android FitNote data to the iPhone app. However, unlike the Android app, FitNotes 2 only saves up to 12 workouts, and you’ll have to pay for more.
5. James Clear’s Workout Tracker (Web): How to Log Exercises in a Book or Notepad App
Self-improvement and productivity guru James Clear shared his workout journaling method on his blog. You can use the method in a physical book or a notepad app with handwriting input.
Clear lays out a few ways that his system is superior to others. It’s quick and easy; it’s versatile to adapt to different styles of workouts; and it gives you the information at a glance. For each entry, you’ll write the date, your bodyweight, the exercise, the weights, and the sets and reps. Then while you do the workout, you can add tally marks to ensure you are on the right set or rep.
Blogger Mayo Oshin writes about a similar system, including a few additions. Oshin encourages you to add the rest time between exercises, your workout start and end time, and add additional details like doing reps where you keep going till you fail. A few commenters have also suggested adding a mood emoji to record how you felt after the workout.
To Get Fit, Track Non-Exercise Data
The apps and methods in this article make it easier than ever to track your workouts and exercise routines. However, you will also need to track other data on your fitness journey. For example, diet matters more than exercise if you’re trying to lose weight, so you must log your calorie intake. If you exercise outdoors, you might also want to log weather conditions and how they affected the workout. Log data as much as possible, and over time, you’ll find clear patterns to help you meet your fitness goals.
