3 Easy Steps to Set Your Fitness Goals
One common mistake when thinking about goals and goal-setting is that it’s an easy endeavor—and I disagree. Setting fitness goals may be simple, but I wouldn’t call it easy. When we’re setting fitness goals, we need to really dig into our “why” to figure out what actually matters to us, or else we run the risk of a goal that is too loose or unimportant to really hold us accountable.
If you’ve heard of SMART goals, I’ll talk about that in another post.
First off, let’s clarify: What are fitness goals?
Fitness goals can sit in any category: overall health, wellness, aesthetic, strength, weight management, endurance, athletic performance, etc…
Why is it important to have fitness goals?
To be clear, if you don’t want to have fitness goals, that’s fine. I suppose it’s not “important” in the overall life sense if fitness isn’t something you value (which sounds more menacing and accusatory than I intend it to, but writing doesn’t allow for precise tone, so you’ll just have to give me a little grace there), but I’m going to operate under the assumption that because you’re here, you either find fitness important or are toying with the idea of making some fitness goals for yourself.
To simply say “I want to go to the gym” probably won’t get you what you want. Going to the gym is stating an intended action, not pointing to a desired outcome. What do you want to happen when you go to the gym? Or as an effect of you having gone to the gym? Do you just looooove the cacophony of the treadmills and music and metal clanging and heavy breathing? Are you hoping to meet your future spouse? Maybe you want to learn to deadlift. Maybe you’re in pain and want to work on your PT exercises. Or are you training for a marathon and need to mix strength and cardio?
I think I’ve made my point—fitness goals can take many, many different shapes.
Ok now let’s set some fitness goals:
Get out a piece of paper and let’s do this exercise together.
Step 1: Set a basic goal
I know, I know—this is extremely counter to what I said above, but it is actually part of the process. It’s the easiest part, so this should come to mind pretty easily.
Examples of basic fitness goals:
Go to the gym 2 times per week
Run a 5k
Learn to lift
They’re all great goals, but they’re basic and we’re going to jazz them up a bit.
Step 2: Why?
We’re going to roll with the “go to the gym 2 times per week” goal as our example.
2A - Ask yourself why several times over.
Why do you want to go to the gym 2 times per week? I want to start working out more.
But why do you want to start working out more? I want to feel stronger.
But, like what does that mean? Why do you want to feel stronger? Do you feel weak in your daily life? Well, actually yes. I realized that I was always winded going up the stairs to my apartment and I needed to put my carry-on in the overhead bid and it was embarrassingly challenging.
Not that is information we can work with!
2B - Take that new information and think of the attached emotion. Rewrite the goal.
I want to go to the gym because I get winded easily and I had an embarrassing moment in public where I lacked the physical strength to complete a task that others around me seemed to do easily.
Step 3: Map a plan
Now that we understand why you want to go to the gym 2 times per week, we can work to create a plan that starts moving the needle on those fitness goals.
The goal of “going to the gym 2 times per week” gets us almost nothing. Its like opening Google maps and writing “store.” You’ll find a store, but is it the right type of store for what you need to purchase?
You want to not feel like shit climbing the stairs at your apartment and you want to not draw attention to yourself when you’re doing physical tasks in public. You want to go to the gym twice each week and you want to get stronger and work on your endurance.
What to do with your new fitness goals
Before we talk about what to do with the new fitness goals, I want to say—you don’t have to tell anyone about the specifics of your goal. The steps we talked about can be pretty vulnerable, and its your decision whether or not you shar your why with friends and family.
From here, I would recommend taking one the following steps:
Find an online program that suits your needs (frequency, experience level, something that seems fun)
Hire a personal trainer to get you started. It doesn’t have to be a long-term relationship, but working with someone for a bit in the beginning (either true-beginner or if you’re new to a certain realm of fitness… like going from lifting to climbing, or boxing to running).
Hire an online trainer to create a program for your needs. It tends to be a good middle point between the other two options: its more affordable than in-person and more personalized that generic online prefab programs.
