Training goals…what are yours?

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Keith Scott in Motivation

When you walk into you gym or training center of choice, do you have clear goals of why you are there and what you are going to accomplish?

If you don’t, you need to. Training without a clear set of goals will ultimately be a waste of time. I am not talking about a goal of “Lose weight,” or “get big and buff,” those are not clear goals.

Setting measurable goals will help your progress in the gym 10 fold and you will experience incredible results, you won’t over or under train and you will feel a sense of accomplishment every single time you walk out of the training session. This is what will keep you going back.

Quick goal setting tips:

• Set positive goals. Make these goals that you want, avoid writing down what you don’t want. Your mind cannot see the word “don’t”, or “can’t”, it only sees the next word you write down. If you say “I don’t want to be fat”.

• Your brain cannot get the don’t part very well. It will just see “fat”

• Write down all of your goals. They become real when you write them down. Save them into your computer, but just get them somewhere you can see them everyday.

• Show and share your goals with friends. You become a lot more accountable when you put those goals out there for everyone to see.

• Set short term and long term goals. Short term goals help you achieve the long term goals. Think of short term goals as the steps you will need to get to the big goals. For example, if your goal is to lose 30 pounds, make that your long term goal and set a bunch of short term weight lose goals along the way. “Lose 5 pounds by the 12 day mark”.

• Set big goals but at the same time be realistic. What I mean is, don’t set a goal to squat 400 pounds in one month if you can’t even do 200 pounds right now for one rep.

• Set target dates for each goal that you set. If your goal is to lose 4 pounds, put a date on that goal. Even if you don’t get the 4 pounds, the date will push you towards getting there a lot faster than if you never had a target date. Target dates keep you accountable.

Goals are like a clear road map of where you want to go and ultimately be on your fitness journey. The key to constant and never ending improvement is to always keep setting those goals, especially after you reach one!!

Side note: Two staple goals I always have for my clients and myself are to (1) Walk out of the training session knowing a good hard workout was had, and (2) Leave the training session feeling physically, mentally and emotionally better than before you walked in.