New Ways to Track Your Progress in the Tonal App
The Tonal app now has even more ways to help you stay on track and achieve results from your training.
When you’re dialed-in to your fitness journey, it can be hard to see the big picture. You might let a small setback ruin your momentum or get discouraged that you’re not at your ultimate goal yet, even though you’ve already come so far from where you started.
Progress tracking is an essential tool for maintaining perspective and staying motivated. According to Tonal’s State of Strength report, members who viewed their stats on the mobile app in the last 30 days were around 20 percent more consistent in working out than those who did not. Furthermore, adults attempting to become less sedentary were more successful when they monitored their fitness behavior according to a 2019 study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
With our latest release, it’s easier than ever to set, track, and achieve your goals straight from the Tonal mobile app. We’ve introduced personalized weekly targets to the mobile home screen, so you can always monitor your progress across key metrics for each of your Training Goals. You can continue to dive deep into your other stats like Strength Score, total volume lifted, and total workouts completed – plus, check out your 1-Rep Max, Power PR, and Volume PR for any movement by selecting from your completed movements.
Personalized Weekly Targets
Log on to the Tonal mobile app to see how much you’re progressing toward your weekly targets for each of your Training Goals. Since your weekly targets for each goal are based on your previous eight weeks’ performance, this data will show you if you’ve been consistently challenging yourself over time and gradually taking on more training stress. Monitoring your progress toward your weekly targets can keep you honest in your training, and help you choose workouts that’ll get you closer to your goals by serving up the right training stimulus.
Plus, you can dive deeper into your historical performance with summary graphs for the last eight weeks and 12 months. The 12-month long-term view is helpful for understanding how far you’ve come over time and seeing how you’re moving the needle toward your goals.
What Does Progress Look Like?
If the key metrics for your Training Goals are trending upward as time goes on, that’s a good sign you’re on the right track. Gradually increasing the training stimulus for your goal (for example, accumulating more power reps if your goal is performance) improves the likelihood of achieving big results. It also means you’re becoming more resilient and can tolerate more training stress in a given week. As the principle of progressive overload states, increasing training stress at a sustainable pace leads to positive physical adaptations that get you closer to your goals.
Progress toward a goal is rarely linear—we all experience injuries, illnesses, and take time off to recover from hard training—so don’t expect to see a straight line that shoots up and never dips. Instead, realize that peaks and valleys are normal parts of training that ultimately help you achieve your goals in the long term.
If you’re starting to feel disengaged, burnt out, or excessively fatigued, it could be time to take a deload week, tap into Recovery Weights, or replace some of your workouts with mobility or yoga sessions. Even if your progress or weekly targets drop a bit in the short-term, you’ll likely return to training feeling restored, refreshed, and ready to take on higher workloads.
What If I’m Not Making Progress?
Ideally, we’d all be continuously improving and forever progressing toward our goals. The reality, however, is more of a bumpy road. Factors outside of your workouts, such as your sleep schedule, nutrition, and work or social obligations, can impact your results.
Here are some common roadblocks that might be tripping up your training and strategies to overcome them:
Struggling with consistency? Join a program. Tonal members who follow programs are 55 percent more consistent than those who do one-off workouts. Or, follow these science-backed strategies to make working out a habit.
Not sure you’re doing the right workouts? Choose workouts and programs that are tagged for your Training Goals. Filter for any Training Goal to narrow down your choices and assess how well workouts align with your goals at a glance by viewing workout details screen.
Losing motivation? Switch up your routine with different coaches or training modalities to keep your workouts feeling fresh. If you’re looking for a longer-term change, consider updating your goals. Periodization in training, or occasionally switching up your focus, can keep you motivated and making progress in the long run.
Dealing with excess fatigue? Look out for these signs of overtraining and read how to prevent it. Also, try to incorporate more active recovery in your training or take a deload week.
Not getting enough protein? Learn how much of this important macronutrient you need and how to increase your intake.
Always tired? Follow these tips to get more restful sleep and feel more awake in your workouts.
The Bottom Line
Tracking your goals provides you with insights that empower you to make smarter choices in your training journey. Stay curious about your body’s response to training and keep an eye on your progress to ultimately let every workout take you one step closer to crushing your goals.
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