What Are You Training For?

Do you have training goals? If not, you could be missing out. Missing out on attaining the strength, body composition or fitness that you are truly after.

If you don't set goals for your training, how do you know if what you are doing is actually working? For years I've seen people train consistantly and consistantly not get any results, despite hours of training. I don't know about you, but when I train I want to see myself, my clients and my athletes progress on a regular basis.

So how should you set your training goals? Just like any other goal: by using the SMART process.

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

I'm not going to go through all of these, but if you need any help there are many websites available that will take you step by step through the process.

The most important thing to think about is what you actually want to get out of your training and stick to that goal. It's important to stick to one goal because it will take much longer if you have multiple goals and if you try to attain multiple goals at once you may never end up reaching any of them.

So, for example, your goal may be to bench press 225 within the next 3 months. It would be a bad idea to also say you want to lose 20 pounds to get ready for a vacation in April. So pick one goal, give that one goal all of your attention and follow the SMART outline.

Some other actions that will help is to tell people about your goal. This holds you more accountable. Another is to put a picture up in your bathroom or next to your bed of the body you want or of the barbell loaded with the weight you want to lift. This will constantly remind you of what your goal is and to stay focused on attaining it.

So set your goals, find out exactly what it is you have to do to reach them, and give it all you got!

Let me know your training goals on facebook at www.facebook.com/NHaFC.