The Best Fitness Journals

Buying Guide for Fitness Journals

Why buy a fitness journal?

Writing in a physical journal has its advantages, for one thing. It serves as a visual reminder and challenges you to focus as you write and record your day. Many fitness journals have space for you to reflect, a valuable exercise for helping you self-evaluate. 

What should you look for in a fitness journal?

• Tracking Format: Journals come in various styles, including daily, weekly, and monthly overviews. Consider which format is most beneficial for your intended tracking. If you want a more detailed approach, you won’t have to look far. Many fitness journals include tracking for BMI, weight, and nutrition. If you’re a weightlifter, you’ll find journals with charts to organize and track the weight, sets, and reps for each exercise.
• Style: We’re no experts, but it seems clear that we’re more apt to use items that we like the looks of. Consider the pros and cons of a hardcover, softcover, or spiral-bound notebook. What ultimately matters is that you get a journal that works for you.

If you’re fairly successful using fitness apps, could adding a journal still help you?

Yes, absolutely. Again, the act of writing down the data you need to record to meet your fitness goals reinforces your commitment. It requires your attention and time and offers visual proof of your accomplishments. We also review a fitness journal that comes with a free app, so you still get the benefit of physically recording your work and having a digital record.

Our Picks for the Best Fitness Journals

Pros: A fitness journal worth buying stands up to some wear and tear. In that regard, the NewMe journal will not disappoint. With a quality spiral-bound design, plastic laminated cover, and thick pages, it holds up well for the four to six months you use it to track your daily workouts, fat composition, body measurements, and weight. The journal also includes a body diagram, with lines indicating main muscle groups and a list of exercises under each to guide you and add variety to your workouts.

Cons: There may not be enough space in the calendar squares and in the notes/nutrition sections for some people.

Bottom Line: This portable spiral-bound notebook makes a nice fitness journal. The online body fat calculator is helpful, paired with accurate home measuring instructions. It’s a decent buy if you want to progress and see what is and isn’t working, all at a reasonable price.

 

Pros: Our favorite aspect of this journal is the utilization of SMART goals, a method for attaining achievements also used in business and education settings. This section defines SMART goals and gives step-by-step instructions on how to create your own. Other areas include, for example, daily fitness pages, an overview calendar, and a 16-page color-illustrated fitness and nutrition resource section.

Cons: The daily tracking pages have many sections to fill out. It may be a bit stressful and time-consuming to fully complete one day’s worth of information. Also, there’s little room to record personal notes and thoughts.

Bottom Line: Our final verdict: the Global Printed fitness journal makes an appealing guide for those who dig the details. The journal’s design requires diligence to keep up with, an aspect that gets and keeps some people on task.

 

Pros: It’s better than a digital fitness journal! The FL is a regular fitness journal that comes with an app. You simply scan your logbook into a digital format using the straightforward, easy-to-use Fitness Logbook OU app. In addition to the scanning feature, the app syncs with Apple Health and offers suggestions for supplements and more. Back to the journal—it’s as minimalist as the app. There are 150 workout pages, body measurement and personal records tracking, and five blank pages for writing inspirational quotes, reminders, or doodles—whatever keeps you motivated!

Cons: You may find this product lacking if you want more from a fitness journal, like extra educational material and additional measure trackers.

Bottom Line: With thick paper, strong binding, and durable covers, this journal won’t give you trouble with ink bleeding or bent pages. There’s ample space to record your daily workouts and personal notes and the app is a nice extra.

 

Pros: This advanced tracking fitness journal provides a detailed tracking layout to help you reach your goals faster. It includes sections to record your current stats and fitness goals, 126 workout pages, and a progress tracker.  Each workout page is pre-formatted to record exercises, sets, calories burned, and more. The journal features high-quality, anti-bleed paper that will survive the wear and tear of use at home or in a gym.

Cons: The pre-formatted workout pages center mostly on weightlifting than cardio.

Bottom Line: The Clever Fox journal offers what most need to get going on their fitness journey and track their progress. Its flashy look will draw attention and remind you of your goals!

 

Pros: Finally, a durable wire-bound weightlifting log that holds up to the chaos of your gym’s weightlifting zone. It includes preformatted diagrams for up to 100 workouts, each with room to record 11 exercises and five sets, with weight and reps for each entry. Record any cardio you fit into your session and personal notes. The first section features a page designed for writing out up to six fitness goals and target dates. They’re also two pages dedicated to logging your weight and body fat percentage as well as the circumference of your chest, biceps, and more.

Cons: The recurring complaint was that it arrived damaged from shipping, so the cover may not be the sturdiest or highest quality.

Bottom Line: It’s clean, simple, and thorough for recording every detail of your weightlifting training sessions and body measurements. The design and durability of the workout log indicate that its designers know what gaining muscle is all about.

Final Thoughts

It takes a lot of effort to set a goal, identify the steps, and do the work. Get a fitness journal to practice the art of accountability and set yourself up for success.