Table of contents
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AI-generated summary
Numbers aren’t everything, but they let you keep an eye on how your performance is evolving so you can reach your goals.
If during this lockdown period you’ve finally taken up sport 🏋️♂️, I’d recommend creating your training log. It couldn’t be simpler — a paper notebook 📝 and a pen can be enough. For the more tech-inclined, a basic spreadsheet will let you track how your performance progresses over time.
I discovered Strong, an app on iOS and Android that makes tracking your performance much easier. I love the interface’s UX.
Creating your routines
Routines are a collection of exercises. You can create several session templates and group them into a routine. For example, you might have a bodyweight strength routine and a dumbbell strength routine 💪 (for when lockdown is over). The ability to switch easily between routines is perfect for these unusual times.
The app comes with several strength exercises already built in, but you can create your own if you feel like it. This freedom lets you adapt the app to your needs. For example, you can create routines that match the workouts from the Lafay method.
Exporting your data
You can export your data — which is a real plus as far as I’m concerned. When choosing an app, I favour ones that let me stay in control of my data. Strong is a perfect example: it will let you either do a deeper analysis in a spreadsheet or import your data into another system.
Strong is available on iOS and Android, but not on the web — a shame, but it’s already enough to be accessible to the majority of athletes.
Tracking your performance
The app lets you log pretty much all your measurements (well, almost 😂). You can add your weight, body fat percentage, etc. This data can be displayed on the app’s home screen as widgets, so at a glance you can visualise their progression.
In the same way you can of course also display the progression of your performance on your chosen exercises.
Polished UX
The UX is genuinely great, and it needs to be — it really matters when you’re struggling through a lifting session and don’t want to fight with the app just to log your reps. In Strong, no problem: one of my favourite features is that it pre-fills the number of reps from your last session! In that case, you just confirm if you’re not doing better, and it’s saved.
As I said above, it’s very easy to create your own exercises — and thankfully this feature is there, because it gives the app enormous depth.
You can set your rest time, so all you have to do is start the built-in timer before moving on to the next set. On that note, I love 😍 the feature that automatically starts the timer as soon as you log a set — no need to start it manually.
Conclusion
This is for me the best app I’ve ever tried for this. I’ve kept many training logs, whether on paper or in a spreadsheet, but Strong makes keeping it up to date genuinely enjoyable.
I can’t find any major flaws with Strong. The price? €35 per year — a bit steep, especially since data sync feels pointless to me… A competitor could launch without sync and release an app with no subscription 😖 (hint hint).
