A Simple Guide to Setting SMART Fitness Goals
Setting Realistic Fitness Goals in Five Steps
2023 could be the year when you make a positive change to your fitness. You’re chomping at the bit. You’ve made a few New Year's fitness resolutions. Like last year. Mmm… remember how that turned out? You may have lost motivation, and missed a couple of gym sessions… the rest is history.
How do you create a sustainable exercise plan?
This year, instead of making resolutions, make SMART fitness goals. In this article, our very own Mallory Reilly discusses how to set SMART fitness goals with a few SMART fitness goal examples.
SMART goals: fitness made easier
The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that, while the intention is good, the focus is poor. It’s like creating a wish list instead of a target. A SMART fitness goal takes all ambiguity out of a New Year’s resolution. That’s why they work.
SMART stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-bound
How to create a SMART goal for fitness
To develop a SMART fitness goal for fitness, simply work through the five steps of SMART.
Step 1: How to set specific fitness goals
Consider the classic New Year’s resolution: “I want to lose weight”.
What does this really mean? Technically, if you lose a pound, you’ve achieved your goal. Which we all know is baloney!
To set a SMART goal for fitness, the first step is to be specific. Here are a couple of SMART goals for fitness examples that are specific:
I want to run a marathon
I want to lose 20 pounds
Get specific, and set the exact goal you wish to achieve.
Step 2: How to set measurable fitness goals
It’s also crucial that you can measure your progress toward your fitness goals. You can’t improve what you can’t measure.
Here’s how Mallory describes how we measure a client’s progress at Reload.
“We have many different ways of tracking fitness progress. Sometimes it’s a feeling of accomplishment. I have a few people who come in and feel really good and when they say, ‘Ok, I feel better today’, that’s a valuable way of knowing you’re making progress. Though it’s not as concrete as other measures, feeling better over time is something you can acknowledge as progress.”
Another method we use here is to video sessions over time.
“Video footage is really helpful,” says Mallory. “For example, if it’s sprints, we look at running form or speed to see how much faster you run. Sometimes you see someone running or working on a skill and you can see they are more relaxed and having more fun.”
It’s also good practice to celebrate improvement. At Reload we have a fun wall. When someone hits a personal record we ring a bell, give them a belt, take a picture, and put it up on the wall – whatever it is. Everyone claps for them. It cements the improvement in the client’s mind (so that’s motivational), and is a fun thing to do.
We don’t limit this measurement and monitoring for in-person clients, either.
“We track things for people who are virtual,” explains Mallory. “They’ll have a log of everything they were able to do. They can look at when they started – say, what they were lifting – to 12 weeks later and how much stronger they became.
“Depending on the person and what they were doing, they may have pictures, or data, or feelings – we have many ways to monitor and celebrate progress.”
Here are a couple of SMART goal examples for fitness clients we might set with them:
‘I’ll measure my progress by the distance I run weekly.’
‘I’ll measure my progress by the number of reps I can do bench-pressing my bodyweight.’
Step 3: How to set achievable fitness goals
People often confuse achievable with realistic. Though they are both related, there is a subtle difference. An achievable goal is one that you are capable of attaining. It may be challenging, but it is possible.
There are many reasons why a fitness goal may not be achievable. You don’t have the time, space, or budget ─ these are all examples of why a goal may be unachievable. Or maybe you are physically unprepared to achieve the goal.
Step 4: How to set realistic fitness goals
This part of a SMART fitness goal is about relevance and reachability. It’s about making sure that the goal fits with your priorities, and that it can be achieved.
“When we’re creating these measures, I’m not going to tell you that you can lose five pounds in a week. That’s not safe and probably not possible,” says Mallory.
“Or, if someone wants to run a marathon but they have never run before and much of their body hurts – maybe we should look at running the marathon not next year but the year after. We’ll have a whole year of getting you to feel really good first – and getting you into shape to run ─ before we have a goal set.”
It’s important to be realistic when setting realistic goals!
You may have the desire to, say, do your dream workout, lift lots of weight, or run fast every day. You might want to break your PR every day, but this isn’t feasible. That’s where the educational piece of personal training comes in.
It’s crucial that you have a balanced plan. A person who has running goals still needs to do strength training. You can’t run every day. You need rest days, and you need strength training.
Step 5: How to set time-bound fitness goals
Setting a time limit on your fitness goal is essential. It should also be a realistic time limit.
Time can be both a reality check and a motivator.
Let’s take that goal of losing five pounds. It’s not going to happen in a week, but it could be realistic to achieve weight loss in, say, three weeks or a month.
So, when making your fitness goal time-bound, you must be realistic about your goal and be certain that it can be achieved and that you have the resources to achieve it. Sometimes we have to rein back people’s expectations of themselves. You may desire to deadlift a certain weight, but we need to ensure that you are realistic with your time target and that you remain consistent and free from injury.
A personal trainer should help you set meaningful fitness goals
Meaningful fitness goals are critical to your success. If the goal is not meaningful, you won’t achieve it. You’ll get a sense of failure, and that’s going to affect all the goals you set in the future.
A good personal trainer will take the time to talk to you and really get to know you. They will challenge the goals that you are setting, and discuss why you haven’t been able to reach them before. They will figure out why you don’t care about the goal enough to achieve it.
With this realization in the bag, you can then figure out your real priorities and set SMART fitness goals that will help you attain your highest potential, making much better use of your time and energy.
Personal training could be the key that unlocks your true fitness potential in 2023.
To get started on setting realistic fitness goals and a training program designed to accomplish them, sign up for a complimentary fitness assessment.
