Setting fitness goals can be tough because it’s really easy to see someone else at the gym and say to yourself ‘I want to be like them!’.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a great way to consider fitness goals for many reasons, from the wording of the goal to the fact you don’t know what that person does.
For instance, perhaps that person uses steroids from Flexpharma or a similar organization, and has seen gains that you may not see without taking those same steroids.
Here, let’s talk about some great ways to set goals for your fitness journey, and achieve them with time.
Assess your current status
The best way to make progress in any field is to evaluate the point that you’re at currently. This goes for bodybuilding and fitness too – measuring yourself and figuring out your capabilities helps you to be objectively aware of what you’re capable of.
This also helps you to make informed decisions for your goals. Following a detailed assessment of yourself, you can see what your specific strengths and weaknesses are.
It’s quite likely that you find one or two areas that you can work on soon to remove a bottleneck. For instance, improving core strength can help improve your squat and deadlift form which, in turn, can improve your leg strength.
Make SMART goals
A SMART goal is one that’s defined by five guidelines. It must be: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-sensitive.
This might seem like a bit of a tall order, but setting goals in this way can be helpful. For instance, say you want to work on your bicep strength in the gym.
An unhelpful goal could sound like ‘I want bigger biceps’, or ‘I want to lift more’. These are unhelpful because they’re very nonspecific: how big is ‘bigger’, and how much is ‘more’?
For that same goal, a SMART goal could be ‘I want to be able to do 10 bicep curls with a 10kg weight by the first of September.’ This goal gives you something very clear to work on – you must improve the form of your bicep curls and improve the amount that you can lift during them.
Adding the time goalpost also applies pressure, helping to keep you motivated to make progress in the gym.
Be patient and flexible
It’s worth bearing in mind that your fitness goals might not be achievable in the same way that you want them to be. For instance, if you were to aim to achieve 0.5kg of weight loss per week, you may find that hard. Growing muscle weighs more than fat, so your weight may change unexpectedly.
Being patient with yourself and flexible to new and changing goals is a core part of a fitness journey. Take a little time to allow yourself to change as you will without overanalyzing yourself.
Setting a realistic goal for your fitness journey can be tough, but it’s something that you can achieve through the power of a little thinking and deliberate effort. Remember, you can set any goal you put your mind to, but you must be willing to be flexible with it!
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