Fundamental Tips for Setting Fitness Goals
Why Is Setting Goals an Important Part of Continued Fitness?
The beginning of a new year is a time when many people go into self-reflective mode – and set New Year's resolutions. As an OT at Reload, Mallory Reilly encourages her clients to celebrate what they have accomplished over the last 12 months, and then to set fitness goals for the coming year.
“My job is to help the person in front of me reach their highest potential,” Mallory says. “As well as celebrating their accomplishments, we make space for constructive criticism and conversations on strengths and weaknesses.”
Personal training is not limited to getting people physically fit. It also involves getting people mentally fit to become physically fit. The personal trainer/client relationship must empower honest conversations about what worked well and what could have gone better. This helps us to learn from our experiences and bring that learning into setting fitness goals for the next year.
“People are really motivated at this time of year. They like to talk about their accomplishments and think about everything they have done in the past. Tapping into that energy and having that conversation is crucial.”
What current students are resolving to achieve in 2023
There’s a general theme at this time of year. After the indulgences of the holiday season, a lot of people simply want to feel healthier. However, this has a unique meaning to all our clients (or, as we often say, our students).
“During our conversations with students, we need to outline what they mean – because ‘healthy’ and ‘fit’ are blanket statements,” explains Mallory.
When we drill down to understanding people’s fitness goals, we find that there are several common long-term goals that our students wish to achieve. These include:
To lose weight setting a goal on what a person sees in the mirror is common
Working on cardiovascular health
Building confidence in body and upper body strength to be able to train without becoming injured
Training to achieve the goal of competing in a specific event
“A cool thing that we see,” says Mallory, “is that as our education goes up, and as we teach clients what is important to be a healthy human for a long time, the client’s values reflect that. Many of our clients want to ensure they have healthy hearts, healthy bones, and that they are able to have fun for a long time because their body supports them for this.”
Tips for how to set fitness goals you can stick to throughout the year
Setting good fitness goals will help you navigate your fitness journey successfully day to day. A realistic goal will help to keep you motivated as you track your progress throughout your fitness journey.
Here are our tips to help you achieve the goal you set, in the short term and long run.
1. Choose a goal that’s meaningful to you
Choosing the right goal is crucial. It’s got to be something that is motivating.
When people come in for a fitness assessment, often they have no real idea of their goals. They just want to feel healthier and better. That’s partly why we spend a good amount of time talking about lifestyles.
It’s essential that you understand why you are doing a certain exercise or workout. If you’re told to do a really challenging side plank every day, you’ll soon get bored if you don’t understand the reason behind it.
The thing is, only you can answer the ‘why’. If you don’t want to run a marathon, what good will doing all the work toward it be? If your goal isn’t meaningful to you, then the work to get there won’t be, either.
“If it doesn’t give you any kind of meaning, you’re not going to do it. And it’s got to be fun, and you should be inspired by your own actions. Chasing numbers and bloodwork and pounds won’t make you healthier. It’s in your mind, body, and spirit, and loving yourself and what you do – that’s how you become healthier,” says Mallory.
2. Focus on how you feel and what you want to achieve
Focus is crucial to your success.
Setting too many goals can be overwhelming. For some, it’s best to only have a single fitness goal. In this case, although a good personal trainer may have other fitness goals for their client to achieve in the long term, it’s this hyperfocus that will keep the client progressing.
On the other hand, there are people who get pumped up by having multiple goals that they are working on simultaneously. Indeed, a workout routine can be designed to work on several goals – body weight, weight loss, upper body strength, and general fitness level, for example.
The secret is to ensure that the goals you set are meaningful to you. Then break them down into manageable targets.
For example, let’s say that you want to get fit enough to run a marathon in 12 months’ time. For some people, that’s a scary thought. The fear of doing it can demotivate them, even though the goal is meaningful to them.
In this instance, setting smaller goals ─ like running a mile around your block, progressing to a 5k race, then a half marathon – empowers greater motivation and realization of mini goals on the fitness journey.
3. Pick something fun and motivating to do
You’re more likely to be motivated to continue toward your fitness goals if you are doing something you enjoy. And you can set goals for the exercise or activity that you are doing, too.
For strength goals, many choose barbell exercises. They may have a goal of bench pressing their body weight or squatting double their body weight. These are recommendations. The ability to squat double your body weight is a goal that raises the bar on your goals. Achieving this level leads to all your daily activities feeling much more manageable.
Then there are people who, say, just want to improve their strength in a single leg. So we’ll consider exercises that are fun for them – maybe walking lunges or some specific kettlebell routines.
“It takes a while, and a lot of patience, to develop strength,” Mallory explains. “Every person is different. Sometimes you need accessory movements. Sometimes you need to work on the way you’re breathing. Or your intention when you go to lift a bar. A personal trainer can help with all these adjustments.”
Other people enjoy sprint training, which is also fun for those who aren’t planning to race or run a marathon. Trying to set your personal best is motivating, and you must be healthy to run fast.
People also love the kettlebell, which is great for developing strength, speed, and power simultaneously. There are many different workouts and challenges that we can develop to give people something to aim for.
Then for those who have goals such as ‘I want to be able to play with my kids,’ or ‘I want to go out on a run with my dad,’ or other similar lifestyle and life-based goals. In these cases, we can develop goals to build strength and heart health – but in reality, their goal is, say, to go on vacation and enjoy themselves.
4. Avoid negative fitness goals
Only set yourself good fitness goals. Avoid goals that will give you negative feelings; for example, anything that is unrealistic or anything that will cause you stress.
Both unrealistic goals and stressful goals are demotivating.
This doesn’t mean that the goals you set yourself shouldn’t be challenging. They should be. But they must be realistic and attainable. Running a marathon in under two hours? Forget it. Running your next marathon in under four hours when your PB is 4 hours 25? That’s realistic.
5. Be prepared to adapt
Finally, you should be prepared to adapt your workouts and exercise regime. No fitness journey runs along a smooth, straight line.
Your training program and the workouts you do should be a stress relief. If this isn’t the case, or if your program is causing injuries and stress to your body and mind, you must take a step back, assess what you’re doing, and figure out what it is that isn’t working – and then put it right.
This is just one area in which working with a personal trainer pays dividends. A good personal trainer will help you make small adjustments that add up to a significant difference. You should feel better after a workout. If you don’t, it may be that you need to partner with a personal trainer or change the one you have.
What are your personal fitness goals for 2023? How will you achieve them? Are you ready to achieve them?
To start your journey to a new you, sign up for a complimentary fitness assessment.
