Fitness Plan Tip #2: Goal Setting

GOALS

After you lay out the factors that motivate you to begin or continue a workout program, the next step is to define your goals.

 Defining goals is one of the most important first steps in starting a new workout program, because specific goals will help determine the exact exercise progression and nutrition program that you need. I think I can best illustrate this by laying out the goals of the program that I am currently undertaking.

(Note: these are MY goals. Yours will probably be very different. I’m not trying to recommend to anyone – especially a beginner – that you should attempt these goals; they are just an example. Best practice would be to insert your goals, time frame, and approach into this framework. Later posts will touch on this more specifically.)

Goal:

Gain 20lb of muscle

Increase bench press and squat by 100lb each

Gain mass without adding excess body fat

Time Frame:

6 months

Once the goal and time frame are established, I can decide on the best approach to accomplishing the goals that I have set.

Overall Approach:

Increase caloric intake, specifically protein and slow-burning carbs, as well as healthy fats Weight training program targeting entire body, but extra focus on bench and squat Limited steady-state cardio; focus on Tabata* and interval training Targeted supplement regimen

This is the basic approach that I will take whenever I come up with a new goal to pursue in my fitness.  As time goes on, I will cover the specifics of determining what your needs will be and how you can accomplish your goals by meeting the needs that you define.  For now, start with defining your specific fitness goals and from there decide what type of approach you think will be most effective in accomplishing those goals.  Once you have that done, the rest is simply showing up.

If you ever need help with any aspect of your fitness or diet, email me and I will do my best to help you resolve your issues.

Good luck, have fun, don't sell yourself short.

Fitness Plan Tip #1: Motivation

MOTIVATION

There are many reasons to improve fitness.  You know this, I know this, everybody knows this.  If you are reading this, it is fair to assume that you are interested in improving your physical attributes, and if that is important to you, then it is important to define your motivations.

If you want to be successful in achieving your fitness goals, you need to think about your motivations daily, at the very least.

Motivations are the reasons for your personal transformation.  Motivations consistently fall into two categories: 1) health 2) vanity.

Vanity is a great motivator, and you should not feel ashamed for including aspects of vanity in your motivations and goals.

Looking better is not a crime, not a bad thing, and in fact will likely be the most powerful motivator in becoming the new you.

I feel that honesty and openness are important factors in our discourse, so in the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you what my motivations are:

1) I want to always be ready to go for a walk, chop firewood, run three miles, play a pickup football game, throw a baseball, lift a load of plywood, etc.

I do not want to be sore after any of these activities, and I do not want my activities limited because I am too weak or out of shape to participate.

2) I want to be ready to defend myself and my family and friends should I ever need to.

3) I want to be mentally and physically prepared to survive the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, should one happen in my lifetime.

4) I want to feel amazing about myself every day, based on the way my body feels physically and the way I look in the mirror.

5) I never want to be picked last.

The bottom line is that motivations are important to achieving your overall health goals.  Type them out and print copies to put in your gym bag, on your bathroom mirror, at your desk, on your car's visor, etc.  The more you see your motivations, the less you will want to let yourself down by failing at the goals that you set for yourself.

Think very hard about this.  It will end up being of utmost importance to you and your training program.  Take a couple of minutes...a couple of days...a couple of weeks...to think about it and to come up with your motivations.  Type them out, print them, and post them EVERYWHERE.  Don't cheat yourself.

It begins...

Manifesto

The everlasting problem with humans is that we are innately drawn to the path of least resistance. In other words, we’re lazy by nature.  At the current stage of our social evolution, we have come to a point where we are no longer dependent on hunting and gathering for our food. With few exceptions, we are not out in a field picking cotton all day, working a plough team through a field of corn, or hammering metalwork on the face of an anvil as our forefathers did.  No, we have come to a point where most of these tasks have been made much easier for us through advances in technology and agriculture.  Our aforementioned forefathers had the wherewithal to realize that working the body to exhaustion every day - pretty much sucks - so they strove to make it easier for themselves and for future generations by inventing tools and machines to do the work for them. These advances have freed up time and energy that have led to a better standard of living for many people, but they’ve come at a price – a population that never has to leave their chairs.

Generations later, here we sit.  As you are reading this, you are probably sitting.  I am sitting while writing this.  Your neighbor/roommate/spouse/father/brother/sister/grandmother, if not reading this post, a) needs to start reading this, and b) is probably sitting on the couch watching Two and a Half Men or some equally horrible show like How I Met Your Mother (which is actually the worst show on Earth).  Now, we may go to the gym or halfheartedly go for a "jog" (don't even get me started on that word) for 20 minutes and then call it good, grab a Gatorade for the "stress" that we caused the body, drink a triple chocolate mocha protein shake and sit in a diabetic coma to watch the actors on the TV screen, living lives more interesting than our own, all the while tricking ourselves into believing that we are in shape, have a good diet, and are up to the challenges of daily life.  

I'm going to tell you something right now.  YOU ARE DYING. Every day that you are alive, your life is one day shorter. 

The following is a message to myself, but I am guessing you can benefit from it as well.

You are dying and you have two options

1) continue to coast along and be pathetic by the year, day, hour, minute, second, picosecond and eventually—sooner than later, in all likelihood—die pathetic

2) stop being a pathetic loser and start becoming the person you want to be

The first option is easy and popular, chosen by the multitudes of fat, lazy people the world over, and that ethos is passed down, generation to generation, creating entire societies of lazy, fat, pathetic people who have lost sight of what it means to be created in the image of perfection.

The second option, while not easy, will be infinitely more rewarding.  It will bring years to your life and life to your years, as they say.  You will wake up every morning confident that you have done everything in your power to be physically capable of achieving success. On that same morning, you will be able to look down and see your feet, and you will be able to look in the mirror and look yourself in the eyes and not look away, except to notice a slight, knowing smile creep across your lips as you think about the work that you alone have done in order to be the person you want to be—the person you see in the mirror. 

Choose your own adventure, but choose wisely.

Thanks for joining me on a journey to improve. 

Let's strive every day to be better.