Setting S.M.A.R.T Fitness Goals

Assess your 2018 goals by checking them against the list below.

1. Specific. Being leaner or saying you want to be bigger and stronger in general isn’t specific enough. Instead aim to reach a certain body fat, dress size, weight or set your goal to grow your arms/ legs and,  regarding strength, make your goal to lift more on a certain lift . This can be hard as you may feel like you want to improve everything but breaking it down to specifics will allow better attention to detail which leads to better overall progress.

2. Measurable. Looking bigger or leaner are intangible. Like the previous point picking a specific goal like a dress size or lifting a certain weight is easy to measure. This not only means you can see how your progress is but it will stop you from feeling disheartend and judging your progress  by how you ‘feel’.

3. Attainable. So you can be super motivated with high expectations but some things are just considered impossible! For example you may want to double the muscle mass in your arms by your holiday in 4 weeks time. Realistically it takes months to put on muscle mass so although this is a great long term goal and it may be what you want it’s probably not very sensible to set!

4. Realistic. Similar to  point 3, goals need to be realistic both in scope and practicality. This means taking your lifestyle into consideration as well. You may set a goal to get a 6 pac in 3 weeks but your job doesn’t allow you sleep and you hardly ever make it to the gym because of work commitments.

5. Time-constrained. Set a deadline. This will not only help keep you motivated but also help to set the perfect plan to get there!