Everyone has a reason for exercising, lose weight, tone up, get fitter etc. As coaches we need to monitor your progress and you will often find we try and dig a little deeper into what your training goals are and when you want to achieve them by. This makes them specific so that you have a target to aim for, it also means we can measure and track them.
Realistic Training Goals
They also need to be achievable it would be irresponsible of any coach to sell you a results based programme that cannot be attained in the time frame wanted, for example if you wanted to lose 3 stone in 3 weeks realistically you will not achieve that kind of dramatic weight loss in such a short space of time. Which brings me on to my next point, training goals should be realistic, 1/4 – 1/2 a stone in four weeks is a realistic target. Lastly your goals should be timed this allows you to monitor your progress and adjust where needed.
Allen Lakein said it best “Fail to plan… Plan to fail.”
You can categorize the reason people train in to two categories:
- Performance
- Aesthetics
To effectively evaluate the success of a planned exercise programme you need to know what the specific goal you are training towards is. You also need to realize that whether you are training for performance of aesthetics you can train optimally for one not both. If you wanted to train for both then you need to make peace with the fact that you will have to train sub-optimally sacrificing some strength, speed or power.
To summarize:
- Make your goals S.M.A.R.T – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time based
- You can train optimally for Performance or Aesthetics not both
- You can train sub-optimally for Performance and Aesthetics but you will sacrifice strength, speed or power.
