In order to build muscle, maintain a healthy weight, and achieve your exercise goals, it's important to measure and routinely evaluate your progress or lack thereof.
Your body can help in that process. Research shows that each time you achieve a goal you've set, your brain rewards you with a release of happy hormones that cause you to feel good about your accomplishment - a release that often pushes you to repeat the behavior to reap the benefit anew. Chemical rewards can also be experienced when you exercise and even from observing that you look and feel better than you once did.
In the world of physical fitness, achieving smaller milestones along the way toward accomplishing greater goals is colloquially known as hitting one's PR.
Your PR, or personal record, is a reference to accomplishing something you haven't done before. PRs can be meaningful and motivating to each individual and a way to communicate progress to others. Saying something like "I just ran 2 miles without a break, that's a PR!," is a way of telling your friends that you've pushed yourself to achieve something new. In gym settings, PRs can be anything fitness related and range from the amount of weight one has been able to bench press to the length of time a specific distance has taken to run. "For some people, a personal record might be a few extra reps in their squat or deadlift and for others it can be getting up at a specific time to get to the gym," says Lauren Moen, a certified in-home personal trainer based in Seattle, Washington.
"Most of the personal records I keep for my clients and students are for reps and weight, but there are plenty of other records that we track and celebrate," echoes Sean Sewell, a certified personal trainer and founder of Colorado Personal Fitness in Denver. Some such examples include the number of consecutive days one has exercised or the distance one has gone on a hike, bike ride or ski run.
For Katelyn Bowen, a group fitness instructor based in Utah who frequently tracks her own progress related to physical fitness, PRs are stepping stones toward accomplishing a broader objective. "Each personal record isn't my end goal, but one way I hold myself accountable on how I'm doing on my way to something bigger," she says.
For her and others, PRs are also about measuring one's own efforts and results instead of comparing oneself to anyone else. "I always remind my clients not to compare themselves to others," offers Moen. "Comparison can be the thief of joy, so focusing on your own achievements instead of what anyone else is doing is so important."
Though there are plenty of advanced apps and digital tools available to help keep track of PRs, the experts say nothing fancy is needed. "I write on our mirror with a dry erase marker to keep track for my own personal records at home," says Sewell.
Other people keep track of their progress in stories or posts on social media, on a physical ledger or through their personal trainer.
Bowen says she just uses the notes app on her phone to keep track of her daily workout regimen and which weights and reps she was at the week before. "For leg day, chest day, arm day and everything else, I look at my record or results from the previous week to make sure I'm pushing past the amount of weight I used and my number of reps the following week," she explains.
Such details can be important for maintaining motivation and for improving your efforts. "If you can track it, you can improve on it," says Sewell, adding that he keeps track of not only his number of reps and amounts of weight, "but also mood, sleep, nutrition, and recovery." Doing so helps him stay on top of each of those areas as well. "Did you feel better after the last set of swings? Write it down. Did you notice a greater ability to hike or bike? Celebrate it! It’s not just about the numbers in the gym, but the quality of life you get to live," he explains.
Keeping track of PRs can also help you recognize that you've accomplished something, which can make rest days between workouts more satisfying and easier to justify. (As great as it feels to improve, fitness enthusiasts know that not allowing muscles and joints the time they need to recover can end up doing more harm than good.)
Another benefit of keeping track (and sharing) your personal records is that they can become benchmarks that friends and coaches can use to encourage you whenever your motivation ebbs or declines. "Progress is never linear, so having records to refer back to can help remind you of your goals on days where things feel tough," says Moen.
It's something Bowen has experienced time and again in her own fitness. "It validates my efforts and renews my resolve every time I'm able to measure how I've done," she says.
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