Fitness goals are something on just about everyone’s mind come the late part of any year. This is where you see numerous people start flooding into the once nearly empty gyms. For those experienced fitness members, this can be the most painful period. Since they did not have to wait for their equipment previously, they will now have to wait several minutes since there will be some “new guy” hogging up the equipment.
Let’s try to not be so negative though; it’s a great thing for people to have fitness goals and trying to turn their lives around. With obesity higher than ever worldwide, something needs to be done and get people in better shape! Joining a gym is a great way to do that; however, as you know, these “new years resolutioners” end up quitting within the first couple of weeks to a month. Why is this?
Fitness Goals: How to Reach Them?
From my experience, it is either one of two things. First off, they do not know how to reach their goals. They think by just going to the gym or eating less junk food that they will be able to lose weight. While this may be helpful, it actually comes down to much more than those two facts.
Some people may even get personal trainers and not see results because their trainer does not know what they are doing. This is all too common by the way; just because someone is a trainer does not mean they know what they are talking about.
Fitness Goals Need to Be Realistic
Secondly, people may not be setting realistic goals for themselves. Someone may want to lose 100 lbs in just a couple of months, and then they will end up quitting when they only see a few lbs come off after a month or so. It is important to set goals, but you should make sure that they are realistic. Try just setting a weekly goal for yourself such as losing 2 lbs per week. By reaching these “smaller goals,” you give yourself the confidence that you need to keep pushing on when times get tough. Once you add all of these accomplished goals up over a longer period of time, you will see how far you came. Setting a large goal is a sure bet way to just discourage yourself.
Weight Loss Fitness Goals
For those that have fitness goals in the weight loss department, it is important to realize that you should not expect a large chunk of weight to come off week by week. I would only personally recommend a person go into a 750 caloric deficit. A huge mistake that people make when it comes to weight loss fitness goals is they end up starving themselves in some gigantic 2,000 or more caloric deficit, and then their body ends up going into starvation mode. From then, their body’s metabolism ends up crashing and their weight loss stalls.
Before jumping into a diet, you should make sure that you know exactly what you are doing and how you plan to reach your fitness goals. Get a personal trainer that really knows what he is doing if you have to; it’s important that the person really shows a great understanding of the subject and can help guide you to your fitness goals. Like mentioned above, there are a lot of “pretender” personal trainers out there that really do not know how the body works. Make sure that you are getting the best bang for your buck!
Experienced Lifting Fitness Goals
Even if you would consider yourself a more experienced lifter, it is also important to set fitness goals for yourself as well. I’m sure that you already know that, and you have probably already been setting goals for the past year or so. If you haven’t, then you should start setting up small goals for you to hit no matter what your fitness goals are.
If you want to add 100 lbs to your bench press by the end of the year, then change that goal into smaller ones. Try adding 5-10 lbs to the bar each month. You could also setup weekly goals as far as weight or rep changes as well. It’s very important to create small “stepping stones” along the way.
Conclusion
Fitness goals are a huge way to make sure that you stay motivated in the gym. Goals in general are good no matter what you are doing. Not only do they keep you focused on the task ahead, but they also give you something to look forward to. You will also feel really good about yourself and give you that much more confidence in the future in your fitness goals.
Having a workout partner is a great way to stay focused on your fitness goals. On the days you don’t feel like showing up to the gym, you would end up feeling terrible if you ditched your partner. By keeping each other accountable, you will have no problems in reaching the fitness goals that you have set for yourself.