What should a workout log include?

Five fields: the date, the exercise, the weight, the reps you actually completed, and one note about effort — an RPE number or a word like solid or grinder. That is enough to answer the only question a log has to answer while you are loading the bar: what did I do last time, and how hard was it? Tempo, rest length, and bar speed are real variables, but adding them from day one is how people quit logging in week three.

Is a notes app good enough for tracking workouts?

For logging, yes. A notes app is free, always in your pocket, and fast enough to fill between sets, and a plain-text log with a consistent convention beats an app you stop opening. What it cannot do is anything with the data afterwards: no automatic PRs, no estimated 1RM trend, no charts, and no reliable way to search a year of sessions.

How do I switch from notes to an app without losing history?

Import it rather than retyping it. Gript’s AI import takes pasted text in whatever shorthand you already use, or photos of a paper notebook, or a spreadsheet file, and rebuilds the sessions as structured history. Exercise names are matched to real exercises, you review everything it found before anything is saved, and duplicates are skipped. It is free, and a couple of years of notes takes a few minutes.

Should I use a spreadsheet or a notes app for my workout log?

A notes app if you log between sets on your phone, a spreadsheet if you like the numbers and enter them after training. The spreadsheet gives you formulas, charts, and total control of the layout; the notes app gives you one line per exercise and no friction. Both hold the same five fields, so you can start with notes and move to a sheet later without losing anything.

Do I need to track RPE in a workout log?

Not with a number, but you do need some record of effort. Without it, a log of 80 kg for 5 reps does not tell you whether to add weight next week or repeat it. One word — easy, solid, grinder — does the job. RPE and reps-in-reserve are just a more precise version of the same field, useful once you want to run percentage or autoregulated programming.

How long should I keep my workout log?

Indefinitely, because the value compounds. A month of logs tells you what you lifted; two years tells you which programs worked for you, how fast you actually add weight, and what your lifts do in a cut. That is the strongest argument for a log that is backed up somewhere rather than living in one notes app on one phone.

The Workout Log Template You Will Keep Using

A workout log needs five fields: date, exercise, weight, reps, and one note about effort. That is the whole template. Everything below is how to hold those five fields in a notes app, a spreadsheet, or on paper — including a plain-text block you can copy into Apple Notes in the next ten seconds.

The five fields, and why nothing else is required#

Date. Without it you cannot tell a stall from a busy fortnight. It also tells you your real training frequency, which is usually lower than you think.
Exercise. Written the same way every time. “Incline DB Press” one week and “Incline Dumbbell” the next makes your own history unsearchable.
Weight. Per set, in one unit. Pick kg or lb and never mix them.
Reps. Per set, and honest. A cut-short set of 8 recorded as 10 is worse than no log at all, because next week you will try to beat a number you never hit.
Effort. An RPE number, reps in reserve, or one word: easy, solid, grinder. This is the field that tells you whether to add weight next session.

That is enough because there is only one question a log has to answer while you are standing over the bar: what did I do last time, and how hard was it? Sets to failure, tempo, rest length, and bar speed are all real variables, but tracking them from day one is how people quit logging in week three. Add a column when you have a question it answers.

Pick your format first#

The best format is the one you will still be using in six months, and that is mostly decided by where you already write things down.

Format	Best for	The honest trade-off
Notes app	Logging fast with one thumb, mid-set	Free, always in your pocket, zero setup — but no charts, no PRs, and no way to search a year of sessions
Spreadsheet	People who want to see the numbers themselves	Total control and real formulas, but slow to fill on a phone between sets
Paper	Training without a screen in your hand	Nothing beats it for focus, and nothing is easier to lose

Each of the last two has its own page with a real file: the workout spreadsheet template is a CSV with the 1RM and volume formulas already written, and the printable workout log is a blank sheet you can print or save as a PDF. The notes-app version is below.

The copy-paste workout log template#

Paste this into Apple Notes, Google Keep, Obsidian, or the notes app you already use. The first session is filled in so the convention is obvious; the second is the empty one you overwrite each time you train.

=== 2026-01-06 · Push A ===
BW 78.4

Bench Press 80kg 5,5,4
Overhead Press 45kg 8,8,7
Incline DB Press 24kg 10,10,9
Cable Fly 15kg 12,12,12
Triceps Pushdown 30kg 12,11,10

Notes: last set of bench was a grinder. 82.5kg once I get 5,5,5.

=== 2026-01-08 · Pull A ===
BW

Deadlift
Pull-up
Barbell Row
Seated Row
Hammer Curl

Notes:

Plain text — no signup, works in any notes app.

The convention, in four rules#

One line per exercise, not per set. Bench Press 80kg 5,5,4 is three sets at 80 kg for 5, 5, and 4 reps. It reads in a glance and it types in five seconds.
Weight before reps, always. The moment you write 5x80 on one line and 80x5 on another, your own log starts lying to you.
Drop the sets that changed weight onto their own line. A back-off set is Bench Press 70kg 8 on the next line, not a note.
Put the decision in Notes. Not how you felt — what you will do next time. 82.5kg once I get 5,5,5 is a plan. “Tired today” is a diary.

The BW line is optional and takes two seconds. Bodyweight next to your lifts is what turns “my bench is stuck” into “my bench is stuck and I have lost 3 kg,” which is a different problem with a different fix.

How to log so the numbers actually go up#

A template is a container. What makes it worth keeping is that every session is written against the last one:

Read the previous entry before your first working set. Beating last time is a decision you make while loading the bar, not a thing you notice afterwards. This is the whole mechanism behind progressive overload.
Use one rule for adding weight. Fill the top of your rep range on every set, then add the smallest increment and start again.
Compare unlike sets with an estimate. Is 100 kg × 5 better than 95 kg × 7? Put both through the one-rep max calculator and you have an answer instead of an opinion.
Check weekly sets per muscle once a month. Count them with the training volume calculator. Most stalls are 6 sets a week pretending to be 15.

What a template cannot do#

This is the honest part. A text file or a spreadsheet stores your training. It does not do anything with it, and four or five of these will eventually annoy you enough to matter:

What you want	What the template gives you
Did I just set a PR?	You scroll back and compare by eye
Is my estimated 1RM climbing?	You do the arithmetic yourself, or you do not
A chart of the last six months	Nothing, unless you maintain one
A rest timer between sets	Your phone clock, and a lost place in the log
What plates go on the bar for 87.5 kg?	Mental maths at the rack
How do I spell this exercise again?	Whatever you typed last time
Is this backed up?	Whatever your notes app or drive does

None of that is a reason to abandon a log that works. It is the list of things an app does for free while you keep logging the same five fields — automatic PRs and estimated 1RMs, charts that build themselves, a rest timer in the session, a plate calculator, a named exercise library, and a copy of your history that survives a lost phone.

Bring the log you already have#

The reason to mention this here rather than at the top: switching is usually the thing that stops people, and it no longer costs you anything. You do not start an app at zero and lose two years of notes.

Gript's AI import takes your log in whatever shape it is actually in. Paste the text — the format above, or your own shorthand, or a wall of unpunctuated notes. Upload photos of a paper notebook, including handwriting. Upload the spreadsheet. It reads the sessions, matches the exercise names to real exercises, shows you everything it found before saving a single workout, and rebuilds your history in a few minutes. It is free, and nothing is written until you confirm it.

Then the five fields stay exactly the same. You just stop being the one who has to remember what you did last Tuesday.