Free Workout Log Template (Paper, Sheets, or App) for 2026

The template is six columns — Date, Exercise, Set, Weight, Reps, Notes — with one row per set. That shape works on paper, in a spreadsheet and in an app, and it carries enough structure that volume, estimated one-rep max and personal records can be computed off it later. Copy it, print it, or paste it into a sheet.

Six is a deliberate number. Templates fail in two directions: ask for fifteen columns and the extra ones stop getting filled in by the second week, ask for three and six months later nothing in the log can answer "am I stronger than I was?" Six sits between the two failures.

The template

One row per set. Date and Exercise repeat on every row, which looks wasteful on paper but is what makes the log sortable and searchable later.

Here is one filled session so the shape is clear. Weight is in kilograms, but the template is unit-agnostic — pick one and never mix.

Ten rows, three lifts and a finisher, about ninety seconds of writing spread across a session. That is the cost of a log that can later tell you your squat moved 10 kg in a quarter.

What each column is for

Date goes in year-month-day order, 2026-09-11, on every row. It sorts correctly in any spreadsheet and never gets confused between day-first and month-first readers. This column is what turns a pile of sets into a history.

Exercise uses the same name every time. "Bench", "bench press" and "BP" are three different exercises to a spreadsheet, and a search for your best bench set will miss two of them. Decide the name once and keep it.

Set is a counter: 1, 2, 3. Its main job is showing whether the third set dropped a rep, which is the earliest sign a weight is heavy for you.

Weight is the load on the bar or the stack, in one unit, for the whole log. For bodyweight movements write 0 or the added weight. For timed holds, treat Reps as seconds and say so in Notes.

Reps are the ones you completed, not the ones you attempted. A missed rep is information; a rep rounded up is a lie the log will tell you back in a month.

Notes stay short, and they're optional. The useful ones are about the next session — "add 2.5", "felt heavy, repeat" — rather than a diary entry. Leaving the column blank is fine, and most rows should be.

Rest time, RPE, tempo and mood are all missing here. All are legitimate, and all are the columns that stop getting filled in first. Add one when you have a specific question only that column can answer.

The spreadsheet version

Paste the six headers into row 1 of a Google Sheet or an Excel workbook, with Date in column A, Exercise in B, Set in C, Weight in D, Reps in E and Notes in F. Then add two computed columns.

Column G is volume per set. In G2, type:

=D2*E2

That is weight times reps, the unit of training work. Fill it down. For the plank row above it will produce 0, which is correct: timed holds do not belong in a load-based volume number.

Column H is the estimated one-rep max. In H2, type:

=D2/(1.0278-0.0278*E2)

This is the Brzycki formula. For the 100 × 5 squat set it gives 112.5 kg; for the 80 × 8 bench set, 99.3 kg. It estimates the heaviest single you could probably lift from a set you actually did, and its job is to let a week of fives and a week of eights land on the same chart. It is reasonable up to about ten reps and drifts optimistic beyond that, so wrap it if you like: =IF(E2>10,"",D2/(1.0278-0.0278*E2)).

For session and weekly totals, put a date and a sum somewhere off to the side:

=SUMIF(A:A,"2026-09-11",G:G)

gives that day's volume. For a week, sum the days, or add a column I with =WEEKNUM(A2) and use =SUMIF(I:I,37,G:G) for week 37. The number you are watching is whether this week's total is up, level or down against last week's.

For your best estimated 1RM per exercise, with the exercise name in a cell, say K2:

=MAXIFS(H:H,B:B,K2)

returns your best estimated max for that lift across the whole log. Put five exercises in K2 to K6 and you have a records panel that updates every time you add a row.

That is the whole spreadsheet: six typed columns, two formulas per row, three summary formulas. Charts, conditional formatting and per-muscle splits are optional, and are where the hobby begins. The thing to be honest about is the capture step. Every row still means tapping into four cells on a phone keyboard between sets, and that is what decides whether the sheet has data in it in November.

The paper version

Print the six-column table with about thirty blank rows per page — enough for a full session with room to spare — and keep the pages in a folder or on a clipboard in your gym bag. Three details make it work better than a blank notebook:

• Pre-print the date column blank and leave the exercise names off. Programs change, and a page with your old exercises printed on it is a page you skip.
• Leave a wide Notes column and a narrow Set column. The natural instinct is the opposite, and it produces cramped notes beside a set column nobody uses.
• Write last session's numbers in pencil at the top of the page before you train. Paper cannot prefill anything, so you do it by hand. Knowing you did 100 × 5 × 3 last time is what makes the log useful during the session rather than only afterwards.

Paper's advantage is real: it is the fastest capture there is, and nobody has ever been distracted by a notification on a clipboard. The costs are equally real. No maths, no search, and one lost folder or wet gym bag deletes the history. If you use paper, photograph each finished page or transfer the rows into a sheet once a week.

Paper vs spreadsheet vs app

Three formats, four things that matter. "Survival past week 3" is the one that decides the rest, because a log with gaps cannot answer any question reliably.

Each format is strong exactly where the previous one is weak. Paper wins capture and loses everything after; the spreadsheet wins the maths and loses capture. An app is only worth the switch if it recovers the capture speed of paper while keeping the maths of the sheet, and that is the whole test to apply when choosing one.

How to fill the template in so it lasts

The template is the easy part. These habits are what keep it full.

1. Log between sets, while the bar is still loaded. Memory rounds weights up and forgets sets, and an evening entry is a guess dressed as data.
2. Every set, including the ones you don't enjoy. Volume needs all of them, and a log that only holds top sets understates your leg and back work.
3. Same name, same unit, forever. The log is only searchable if "bench press" is always "bench press" and kilograms never turn into pounds halfway through a page.
4. Read last session before you start. Public health guidance from the NHS and the CDC asks adults for strength work on at least two days a week; the log's job is to make each of those days measurably a little more than the last, which only happens if last session's numbers are in front of you.
5. Review once a week, briefly. Volume up or down against last week, and did any lift's estimated max move. That is the whole review. A longer one is a hobby.

When the template stops being enough

There is a moment, usually in the second month, when the template is working — the rows are there, the formulas are correct — and the problem is no longer the template. It is the typing per session, the PR you set on Tuesday and didn't notice until Sunday, or the sheet you stopped opening because the phone keyboard between sets was the worst part of training.

That is the point at which the same six columns are better held by an app. Strongbro is built around exactly this row shape, with the capture step shortened and the maths taken out of your hands.

Capture is either the keypad — weight × reps in large digits, last session prefilled, one tap on the arrow to log a set that matches last time — or voice logging, where one sentence like "bench 80, three sets of ten" becomes structured sets you review before saving. Both write the same Date, Exercise, Set, Weight, Reps rows this template does.

The maths happens on every saved set. Personal records checks each set against your history for two kinds of PR, best weight at each rep count and estimated one-rep max, using the same Brzycki formula as the sheet above, and shows the heaviest lift per exercise per month. Volume, the change against last month and a list of lifts ready for the next increment come from the same rows, with no formula to maintain.

Search is a tap on an exercise: best weight, estimated 1RM, session count and every past set, with any day editable.

Which version to start with

If you have never kept a log, print the paper version tonight and use it for three weeks. It costs nothing, and three weeks is long enough to find out whether you actually write down every set. If you already log and want the numbers to add themselves up, build the sheet — two formulas per row is twenty minutes of setup and it answers the volume and estimated-max questions forever. Switch to an app at the point where typing between sets is the reason you stopped.

Whichever you pick, the six columns stay the same, which means moving between them later costs you nothing but a copy and paste. If you would rather keep the log even shorter than six columns, the simple workout log guide makes that case, and how to track gym progress on iPhone covers what to do with the numbers once you have them.

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Get Strongbro on the App StoreFree for 3 days. $19.99 once for lifetime.