Whether PTs need a logbook or not isn’t exactly a hot topic of debate — but the industry is definitely not aligned on it.
You could argue that seeing a PT without a logbook is an immediate red flag.
Trainers are paid to have a plan. And unless they’ve got a supercomputer for a brain, they’re not going to remember the plan for multiple clients.
I recently experimented working without a logbook for 6 weeks. It was genuinely impossible to remember what exercises were in the program for any more than a handful of clients … let alone the previous session’s activity, weights, reps, etc.
A trainer walking around the gym with a client but without a logbook just screams “making it up as you go along”. This is not a good sign.
However, I’ve also witnessed plenty of excellent trainers operate without a logbook.
They play what’s in front of them, train their clients according to their capability, and make small adjustments to simple programs on a weekly basis.
However, this only really works at the far ends of the ability spectrum.
It works with clients who can physically do so little that every week is a new adventure into what’s possible ...
… and it works with advanced, high-level athletes who have been through the “progressive overload” phase, and now looking at tiny adjustments to find that extra 1%.
(By the way, our obsession with increased load is misplaced. Increasing external load doesn’t always correlate to increased internal stimulus.)
We could potentially see just as much progress by focusing on continually improving execution. We should load whatever is necessary to train clients to the maximum of their abilities and tolerance on a given day.
So, generally, a logbook is essential for tracking progress and ensuring an increase in strength (load) over time.
For new clients, projecting a gradual increase in load means that we’re unlikely to exceed their tolerance, even on days when they’re feeling superhuman.
However, for more experienced clients, it’s probably even more essential for logging customised exercise set-ups and effective cues so we can make the next session even better.
(You do customise exercises for individual clients, don’t you?)