How to Track Bodyweight Exercises (Pull-Ups, Dips, Push-Ups)

Quick answer: Log bodyweight exercises with three fields: the exact variation, the reps per set, and any added or assisted weight. Pull-ups BW+5kg 3x6 and Push-ups feet elevated 3x15 are both complete entries. Without the variation and the added load, rep counts across months are not comparable.

Your barbell log is easy. 100 kg for five, then 102.5 for five, then 105. The number on the bar carries the whole story.

Then you write Pull-ups 3x8 and it looks just as tidy, except it is not. Were those dead hangs or kipping? Was that a band? Did you weigh 78 kg then and 82 kg now? Eight is not eight.

Why is progressive overload harder to see on bodyweight work?

Because the load changes without your permission.

On a barbell, the resistance is a number you chose. On a pull-up, the resistance is you, and you fluctuate. Gain three kilos of muscle and your 3x8 is genuinely harder work than last month's 3x8, even though the log looks identical. Lose four kilos on a cut and the reverse happens.

The variation moves the load too. In the Suprak, Dawes and Stephenson study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, participants supported a measurably different share of their body mass depending on push-up position: less in the top position than the bottom, and less again in the knees-down variant than the traditional one. A push-up is not one exercise. It is a family of them at different loads.

So a bodyweight log has to record what a barbell log gets for free: how heavy it actually was.

What should you write down for a bodyweight set?

Three things, every time.

The exact variation. Not Push-ups. Push-ups, Push-ups feet elevated, Push-ups deficit, Push-ups knees. Not Dips. Dips or Dips assisted or Dips rings. The word is doing the same job the weight does on a barbell.

Reps per set, set by set. Bodyweight sets drop off fast, and 3x8 usually means 8, 6 and 5. Write Pull-ups 8/6/5. The drop-off pattern is real information about your conditioning, and averaging it away hides progress.

Added or removed weight. BW+10kg for a dip belt or a weight vest. BW-20kg for band assistance or the assisted machine's counterweight. If you are at pure bodyweight, BW on its own is fine.

That gives you entries like:

Pull-ups BW 9/7/6
Dips BW+10kg 8/8/7
Push-ups feet elevated BW 15/13/11

Every one of those is comparable to itself six months from now.

Should you log your bodyweight too?

Yes, roughly once a week, in the same log. It is the missing variable in every bodyweight lift you do, and a single weekly number is enough to interpret a rep count years later. Our guide on how often to weigh yourself covers a sane frequency without the daily-scale anxiety.

How do you progress bodyweight exercises when you cannot add 2.5 kg?

You still add load. You just have more dials to turn, and each one needs a different note in the log.

Add reps first. The simplest progression, and the one your log already captures. Take a rep target, hit it across all sets, then move to the next dial.

Add external weight second. A dip belt or vest is the cleanest form of progressive overload available on pull-ups and dips, because it turns a bodyweight lift back into a numbered one. Once you are logging BW+5kg, the whole barbell playbook applies again. Our guide to when to increase weight lifting works unchanged from that point.

Remove assistance third. If you are on bands or a machine, log the assistance as negative load and work it down: BW-30kg, then BW-25kg. That is progression, and it looks like progression in the log, which matters when the rep count is not moving.

Change the leverage last. Elevating your feet, adding a deficit, moving to rings, slowing the eccentric. These all increase load, and every one of them is invisible unless you change the exercise name in your log.

The order matters less than the rule underneath it: whatever you change has to change the words you write down.

How do you compare a bodyweight set to a barbell set?

You mostly do not, and that is fine. But there is one comparison worth making.

If you want a single number to track for a weighted pull-up or dip, treat body mass plus added weight as the load. A 80 kg lifter doing BW+20kg for five is moving 100 kg for five. Plug that into the one rep max calculator and you get an estimated max you can compare against any other week, even weeks where your bodyweight moved.

This is the only reliable way to answer "am I actually getting stronger at pull-ups, or did I just get lighter?" It also means a cut that costs you no reps is a small strength loss, and a cut that costs you nothing while you gained reps was a genuine win.

Where should your bodyweight log live?

The fixed exercise list is where most gym apps fail bodyweight lifters. If the app has one entry called "Push Up" and you have been doing feet-elevated push-ups since March, the chart it draws for you is wrong and you have no way to tell it so.

A simple starting plan

1. Rename every bodyweight exercise in your log this week. Add the variation to the name. Dips becomes Dips rings or Dips assisted, permanently.
2. Switch to per-set reps. Write 9/7/6 instead of 3x8. It takes the same number of keystrokes and carries three times the information.
3. Add a BW marker to every set. Then BW+2.5kg the first week you use a belt. The prefix is what makes the numbers comparable across a bulk or a cut.
4. Log your bodyweight once a week, same day, same conditions. One line. It is the denominator for everything above it.
5. Set one progression rule and write it at the top of the log. For example: when all three sets hit the top of the rep range, add 2.5 kg or remove 5 kg of assistance. Then follow it for eight weeks before you judge it.

Doing this without reformatting your notes

None of the above requires a new app. It requires writing slightly better lines in whatever you already use, and a notes app handles free text better than most gym apps handle their own exercise database.

What a notes app cannot do is answer the question eight weeks later. Pull-ups BW+5kg 8/6/5 sitting in note number 34 is data, but nothing turns 34 notes into a line that shows whether your weighted pull-up went anywhere.

Gym Note Plus reads the plain text you already write and does that part for you:

• Your variation names are the exercise names, so feet-elevated push-ups get their own history instead of being merged into a generic entry.
• Added and assisted weight parse inline, so BW+10kg becomes a tracked load, not a comment.
• Per-exercise trends appear without you formatting anything or picking from a dropdown mid-set.

Paste a few of your existing bodyweight sessions into the free notes to workout translator and see whether your current shorthand already survives.

A rep count with no variation and no bodyweight next to it is a number that cannot be compared to anything, including itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you track bodyweight exercises in a workout log?

Record three things per set: the exact variation, the reps completed in each set individually, and any added or assisted weight. For example, Pull-ups BW+5kg 8/6/5. Log your own bodyweight weekly as well, since it is the load in every bodyweight exercise you perform.

How do you apply progressive overload to pull-ups and dips?

Progress in this order: add reps until you hit the top of your range across all sets, then add external weight with a dip belt or vest, then reduce band or machine assistance, then change leverage with rings, deficits or a slower eccentric. Each step needs a corresponding change in what you log.

Should you log push-up variations separately?

Yes. Research by Suprak, Dawes and Stephenson found that push-up position and variant change the share of body mass the arms support, so knees-down, standard and feet-elevated push-ups are different loads. Logging them under one name produces a progress chart that mixes three different exercises together.

How do you know if you are getting stronger at pull-ups or just lighter?

Add your bodyweight to any added weight to get a total load, then compare estimated one-rep maxes across weeks rather than raw rep counts. An 80 kg lifter doing bodyweight plus 20 kg for five reps is moving 100 kg, which stays comparable even when scale weight changes.

What does BW mean in a workout log?

BW is standard shorthand for bodyweight, meaning the set used no external load. BW+10kg means bodyweight plus ten kilos of added resistance from a belt or vest, and BW-20kg means bodyweight with twenty kilos of assistance removed by a band or machine.

Final Takeaways

• Write the variation into the exercise name. It is doing the job the number on the bar does.
• Per-set reps, not a set-by-rep summary. 9/7/6 tells you things 3x8 deletes.
• BW+ and BW- turn bodyweight lifts back into numbered lifts, which is where normal progression rules start working again.
• Log your bodyweight weekly. Without it, a rep count six months old means nothing.
• If you are still learning the shorthand, our guides to workout shorthand and how to write down your workouts cover the rest of the format.