What data should you be recording?
Most coaches will ask for quite a bit of information from you before being able to write an appropriate programme that works on your strengths and weaknesses. As the lifter, there are things that you should have an idea of and hopefully be keeping a track of in your training journal. If you don’t already keep one, I suggest you start today and here are the things you should be taking note of:
All your current records. As much detail as you can remember and as you set new ones will really help a coach write a programme but will also serve as motivation and a tool for learning yourself.
Note down your training sessions in a fair bit of detail; day, time, how much sleep you had the night before, whether anything is ‘niggly’ already or after something in that session and obviously the exercises and what you lifted for how many sets and reps.
I ask lifters for notes on an exercise if;
it went particularly well for some reason or it was a PB
it went particularly badly for some reason
something felt off but you couldn’t tell what or why (I follow this up with video analysis if possible)
RPE (rate of perceived exertion) or how hard something was can be useful if you have experience doing those lifts. With snatch and clean and jerk it’s not always relevant but for squats and pulls it can be really helpful for seeing when a lifter is reaching a peak or getting very tired.
Rep maxes. I like to record my own rep maxes for most of the common lifts and accessory exercises. Below is the table I use for myself and my lifters. Its good to know if your 2-5 rep maxes are increasing as it usually means you’re 1RM is also going up without having to test it.
An example of my rep maxes page for lifters programming. Note that as a general start point targets are based on a 4% increase.
It’s much easier to write everything down that to try and remember it. You can use this template or create your own but the important thing is to measure whatever you can. This isn’t just to stroke your ego or keep you motivated but also helps paint a picture of each lifter.
Taking the above example you can see that there is a disparity between upper (worse) and lower (better) body strength as well as between pulling (better) and pressing (worse). I can also immediately see if a lifter is ‘efficient’ as i wrote about here. This allows a coach to direct a programme to what is most needed more easily.
Do you think I missed anything? What would you add to this list?