Log your lifts
One big game changer is logging your lifts. Going into the gym and doing what you think you might have done last week might work for you now but i can assure you what you “might” have done and what you actually did are not always as close as you might think. If you were training db chest presses and the goal is 8 before you increase and you did 120x7 one week and the next week you come in and go to do your set and you remember you did the 120s but you don’t remember if it was 7 or 8 reps. If you think 8 and you go to 125s your going to be drastically humbled, if you go 7 when you should have went to 125s then your only limiting yourself and all by something as simple as not writing something down. So it really depends on how serious you are about making progress. When it comes to actually logging your lifts you can do it anyway that is more convenient for you. Some like to write it down in a journal/log book, some like to use apps on their phone. Whichever way you find it easiest is fine but stop hindering your potential growth from not doing something as simple as taking a few seconds to record how many reps you just performed. If you plan on writing it down and not sure what it should look like as far as a template try this for a example:
Date:
Session:(Body part/parts involved)
Duration:
(Body part)
(exercise performed) (Working set weight) (Reps)
(exercise performed) (Working set weight) (Reps)
(exercise performed) (Working set weight) (Reps)
(exercise performed) (Working set weight) (Reps)
(Body Part)
(exercise performed) (Working set weight) (Reps)
(exercise performed) (Working set weight) (Reps)
(exercise performed) (Working set weight) (Reps)
Session Notes:
(An area where you can jot down different
things that you remember during the session. Maybe a
weight felt heavier than last week or you felt overfull
before training and it effaced your lifts. These
are all things that if recorded we can benefit from
knowing.)
Notice we are only recording the working set weight. If you would like to record your other sets as well you can but we are not concerned about progressive overloading with our warm up and feeler sets. Our goal is to use the least amount of energy possible in the warm up/feeler sets but at the same time appropriately prime the muscle we are trying to work so we are acclimated to the heavier weights but still have enough in the tank to give out full 100% potential in the working set.