Notebook, Excel or App: What is the best way to track workouts?

It's the golden rule of bodybuilding: what is not measured cannot be improved. If you go to the gym and work out "by feel," you will spin your wheels for years. But once you understand the importance of tracking, a new dilemma arises: which tool should you use?

The Classic: The Paper Notebook

For decades, the little spiral notebook was the king of gyms.
Pros: It is indestructible, requires no battery, and keeps you away from distractions (like scrolling social media) between sets.
Cons: You have to do math in your head to calculate plates and overload. Worse still, it is impossible to easily view your progress graph or find your performance from 6 months ago on a specific exercise without flipping through 40 pages.

The Engineer's Tool: Excel Spreadsheets

Many intermediate lifters eventually move to Excel (or Google Sheets).
Pros: It offers ultimate customization. You can create complex formulas to calculate your volume and generate graphs.
Cons: The user experience on a mobile phone is a nightmare. Zooming in, zooming out, clicking on a tiny cell with sweaty fingers in the middle of a crowded gym... It's anything but practical.

The Modern Solution: Loaden's Visual Builder

Loaden was designed to combine the best of both worlds. We wanted the analytical power of an Excel file, coupled with the speed of a notebook.

• A fluid interface: You log a set and its weight in two taps. No tiny cells to aim for.
• 100% customizable: The app doesn't lock you in. Is a bench taken? Swap the exercise on the fly. Want to do set 1 at 12 reps and set 2 at 8 reps? The visual builder allows total flexibility.
• Automatic calculations: Loaden does the math for you (progressive overload, total volume, progress graphs).
• Offline mode: Just like a notebook, the app works perfectly even if your gym is in a basement with no internet connection.