Little by little becomes a lot. — Anonymous
Start taking progress photos
Taking these photos serves two purposes: to track your body’s changes over time and to provide additional motivation.
While on this program, you will see noticeable differences in your physique every week, with your progress being really highlighted when comparing differences month to month.
You’ll only need to take pictures once a week and it takes just a few seconds. Here’s how:
- Any day that you aren't working out, stand in front of a mirror
- Take out your phone and get camera-ready
- Take the first picture while you’re not flexing
- Then take a second picture while flexing your entire body
- Add both pictures to a new album called “Progress”
- After taking progress photos every week, add them to the same album called “Progress”
Step 5: Get your workout equipment
Note that none of the equipment listed below is needed! These are to be purchased as needed. As always, all of the items below have been tested for quality, effectiveness, and price-to-performance ratio by the beta-testers.
Like before, the recommended products below are Amazon associate links that help fund this website. If you don't have an Amazon account to purchase these items, look up the product name in your web browser to locate it.
Step 6: Decide where to track your workouts
Before heading to the gym, you need to choose how you’d like to keep track of your workouts. The most common ways to track workouts are either through an app or on paper [can't find research on this but it sounds right].
For this guide, it’s recommended that you keep track of your workouts through the app called “Strong”. Like the previously recommended apps, this guide is not associated with Strong. It just worked the best after a few thousand hours of testing:
An important note is that as of @June 12, 2020, Strong has a 2-week trial for its pro features but then costs either $5 a month or $30 a year to keep them. Fortunately, Strong's free version has all the bells and whistles you need in order to use this entire guide!
Try it for the trial period and see if you think the pro version is worth the price before purchasing. If money is an issue, there are plenty of free workout apps on both the App and Play Store. After you have Strong or your workout app of choice installed, set it up:
If you're using your phone in the gym:
- Open up Strong or your app of choice
- Set up your account
If you would like to use pen and paper:
- Purchase a small journal like this one (paid link)
You’ll get the exercise programs in the “Training” section soon—you're already more than halfway through the guide—but for now, we have a more important topic: Nutrition.