Track Your Progress — Without Letting the Data Run Your Life

You don’t forge better performance by chasing perfect numbers.

You forge it by combining objective data with subjective awareness — using both to make better decisions, one day at a time.

Data pertaining to our health and wellness has never been more in-depth or more available than it is today with the digitization of medical records, more control given to individuals, and the boom of apps and wearables.  This data can be incredibly useful to track things like performance, recovery, progress, and spot trends or illnesses early enough to act before they get out of hand.  However, that amount of data sometimes become overwhelming, and it can also become easy to get wrapped up in individual metrics and miss the bigger picture.

There ae some pieces of data that are rathe straightforward and can combined with objective data to make them even more powerful indicators. For example, the weight you can squat is a good strength metric, but when you combine that with level of effort you now have a gauge for how well you're performing at that weight on that given day. As you progress lifting with that same weight, it will feel easier, and that ease (in this example) is an indication of when you're ready to progress and increase the weight. Another example would be from your blood work (something everyone should do at least a couple times a year) vitamin levels compared with the optimal levels for that nutrient helps guide towards potential supplementation, with repeat tests helping to understand absorption.

Where this process can lead to challenges is when focus is put on any one signal number with the exclusion of any subjective correlation. For example, many wearables provide some metric that represents how ready you are for the next day. And while that information usually combines a number of different pieces of information (heart rate, heart rate variability, previous days activates, sleep, etc.) it is only a snapshot of those metrics and even ignoring any potential inaccuracies, that is only one snapshot in time such that it is providing a limited view into the complex working of the body. Over time, you may come to find you typically feel similar to how that "ready" score indicates you should feel, but it is an important exercise to continue to check in to verify you feel in the ballpark of that number. Chasing the numbers can lead to additional stress, over-reaction/correction, exercising too hard or too easy, or prioritizing the wrong behaviors. It is more important to chase the process and not the numbers.

Another powerful way to leverage data is to not look at the single values, but the trends in those values over a longer period of time. When looking at something like sleep duration or heart rate variability, individual values don't tell the whole story but general movement or significant outliers can be useful to look at. Trends can help determine if behavioral changes are having a positive or negative impact while outliers can be an indication of a potential illness. Looking at trends, also helps with looking at the bigger picture as each data point builds on the previous data to form a more powerful story and helps minimize focusing on the small details.

If you're looking to make a change in a metric, first make sure it is one that you can easily and consistently track, and remember that absolute accuracy isn't a firm requirement, but the data should be consistent, or accurate compared to itself. Track that metric for a week without making any changes so you have a decent starting trend and rough idea of the variations. Then change one (maybe two) behaviors and continue monitoring for at least two weeks. This period will allow you to account for any normal variations and any issues with consistency in your behavior changes. After that period, you should be able to determine if the changes improved your metric or not. Based on that, either continue, shift behaviors, or maybe look at the next metric to attack.

Data is powerful — but only when used wisely.

Track what matters. Ignore what distracts. Let the numbers guide, not judge.

When you combine data with awareness, you make better decisions, improve consistency, and unlock higher performance.

If you want support building a balanced, data-informed approach to your health and training, I’m here to help.

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How to Measure Progress (Even When the Scale or Stopwatch Won’t Budge)

Iron sharpens through challenge — not repetition.

Plateaus aren’t roadblocks. They’re invitations to refine your approach, dial in your habits, and train with intention.

Let’s break down how to progress with purpose.

Progress is one of the key metrics we all pay attention to as we train, and we primarily focus on two types of progress - quantitative and qualitative. However, I will admit, for myself and many of my clients, the fixation on the quantitative (numbers/metrics) can be overpowering and dominate the thought process. That's not to say focusing on numbers is a bad thing, for the most part they can be a great metric as they're usually very cut and dry. You either hit that metric/goal or you don't. However, these only tell part of the story and shouldn't be used as the sole metric for gauging progress. You'll want to pair those metrics with some qualitative guides to help you understand HOW you're hitting those numbers. For example, if one of the metrics you're tracking is how much weight you're squatting, it is very easy to keep track of how much weight you load onto the bar (or hold in your hands, or how many body weight squats you're doing). But you'll also want to keep track of qualitative things like how easy/hard those reps feel, how you recover from that workout, how is your range of motions (think squat depth) is improving, and the list goes on from there. Pairing the numbers with the feel gives you a more complete understanding of how you're progressing with your squats, in this example, and a better grasp of when you might actually be hitting a plateau. Many consider plateaus when just the numbers stall, but if you're able to do the same weight but it feels easier, that's not a hard plateau, you're most likely very close to being able to increase the weight.

There are many reasons why you might be hitting an actual plateau where not only are the numbers not moving, but the workouts don't feel any different and they mainly will fall into 3 types:

1. Too much training or not enough fueling - these essentially get to the same problem, too much training load that the body can't properly recover from and as such never adapts.

2. Too little training which doesn't challenge the body enough such that it needs to adapt.

3. The wrong kind of training, an extreme example of this would be doing lots of speed work during your marathon training

So what does it look like to pull out of a plateau, it first starts with understanding IF you're actually in one and then figuring out which of the above three buckets your training falls into. Some of the solutions are simpler to figure out, for example an over training imbalance can be helped with either adding in a de-load week or an increase of calories. Starting with that honest assessment of where you currently are not only with training, but fueling and your other stressors will help narrow down the challenges to work to adjust. My recommendation would be to pick one aspect and make a small change to see if you notice things moving in the right direction, then lean in further. As an example, if you feel your fueling may be off, look to add a small snack, or slightly larger meals, to add around 100-300 calories a day for a week, and see how that impacts not only your training but how you recover and feel. Another option if you're feeling truly stuck, and assuming you don't have a calendar restriction (like a race in 3 weeks), would be to pivot to something completely different for a few weeks. This will provide a radically different stimulus and force your body to respond and adapt.

Sometimes it can be hard to be objective about progress, and it helps to have someone else to observe and discuss your current training. While this is the exact purpose of having a coach or trainer, you can also look to other training partners, friends, relatives, etc to get some feedback on not only the training but how they view your recovery and mentality. This outside viewpoint may be the missing piece in helping crack the plateau challenge.

Plateaus aren’t a dead end — they’re a sign to adjust.

Progress comes from intention, not intensity.

Change the stimulus, fuel well, recover well, and track your trends — and your progress will keep moving forward.

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