Why lifters avoid tracking volume

The honest answer: it's maths. Even simple multiplication across 5 exercises with 4 sets each is tedious mid-workout. So most people skip it, stick to writing "4×8 @ 80kg" in a notebook, and wonder why progress stalls.

The irony is that volume tracking is the only metric that reliably predicts long-term progress. Not the weight on the bar in isolation, not the number of sets — the total load moved.

What exactly are you tracking?

Volume load (or tonnage) is calculated as:

Volume = Sets × Reps × Weight (kg)

You can track this at three levels:

→Exercise level: How much tonnage you moved on bench, squats, etc.
→Session level: Total tonnage for today's workout.
→Weekly level: Total tonnage across all sessions that week.

All three are useful. Session tonnage tells you if today was a hard or light day. Weekly tonnage tells you if your training load is trending in the right direction.

Method 1: Spreadsheet (works, but painful)

Google Sheets or Excel with columns for date, exercise, sets, reps, weight, and an auto-calculated volume column. Works fine if you love spreadsheets and have patience. Most people abandon this within 3 weeks.

Method 2: A notebook with end-of-session maths

Write everything down during the session, then calculate totals at the end. Better than nothing, but the overhead still makes it a chore. And you can't see trends easily.

Method 3: An app that does it automatically

The fastest method. You log your sets as normal — exercise, reps, weight — and the app calculates volume in real-time. You can see your session total climb as you go, which is surprisingly motivating.

Push Tonnes is built specifically for this. It shows your session tonnage in the header as you log, and your all-time total on the dashboard. No maths required.

What to do with the data

Once you have 4–6 weeks of data, patterns emerge quickly:

1.Compare your average weekly tonnage month-over-month. Going up = good.
2.Identify your strongest sessions (high tonnage, good recovery) vs. flat sessions.
3.Use AI analysis to get specific recommendations based on your patterns.

One common mistake

Don't optimise for tonnage at the expense of technique. It's easy to inflate your numbers by doing high-rep, low-weight sets that don't actually build strength. Tonnage is a useful proxy for productive work — but only if the sets themselves are quality.

A good rule of thumb: all tracked sets should be done with weight you could realistically perform for 1–2 more reps (i.e., not failure, not junk volume).