Setting a clear and specific fitness goal is very important in achieving your fitness. It will establish control over your willpower, guide you in developing a fitness plan and empower yourself with monitoring tools to measure your success. You can follow the SMART fitness goals examples explained below which will help you to achieve your overall fitness and wellness.
Most people start with a tentative fitness goal in mind. While it seems fine to have a generic goal, setting a clear thought and SMART goal can actually help you tremendously in achieving your target. Whether you want to change your eating habits, lose weight, improve your physical strength, enhance spiritual well being, or prepare yourself for a particular event – setting a SMART fitness goals can help you reach there with greater success.
SMART Fitness Goals Examples
Table of Contents
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely – all of which are important in achieving your fitness goals. SMART goals can help keep you on track and remind you of your priorities, so you’re able to follow through your workouts or adoption of a healthy lifestyle you have planned. Being self accountable and consistent in following your fitness goals can deliver the most amazing success.
Set your fitness goals in a SMART way when you plan your objectives.
S for Specific
It is important to set a specific fitness plan or a baseline point to be able to see if you are moving in the right direction. You might want to lose your weight, get slimmer, smarter or stronger. You might also want to improve your sleep, ability to focus or get relief from body pain. Having a clearly defined fitness goal will put yourself in a framework to monitor how well you are progressing towards your objectives. For example, a specific goal would be to ‘lose weight’, while ‘get healthy’ would be too broad.
M for Measurable
Your fitness goals should be measurable. Here’s where you determine how you will measure your fitness goal. In the above example we see the specific fitness goal to ‘lose weight’. But that is not quantifiable. A measurable goal would be, say, ‘lose 10 pounds’. You can quantify your progress, find the barriers in achieving the target and identify more appropriate ways to reach there. Your goal may be to run five miles, master a pull-up, or go to the gym three days a week. Whatever it is, you need to have a definite way of knowing whether you are following your fitness goals, your obstacles and ways to overcome them.
A for Attainable
While it can be helpful to set your fitness goals for a long term, you need a short term achievable goals to keep you on track. It is better that you start with small and easy targets and win them. This will bring you inspiration for long-term objectives and help you to progress with consistency. If you set something too high right at the beginning, and find it difficult to achieve, it might lessen your enthusiasm and motivation to work for it. In many cases, people give up and forget about their goals. You should also consider a target size which is realistic. For example, a goal of losing 25 pounds in one month is a difficult target. It is wiser to set fitness goals that are possible to achieve.
R for Relevant
Your fitness goals should be relevant as well. To set your fitness goal simply ask yourself if your goal is worthwhile, and whether you are motivated to work for it. Creating a goal with a purpose or motivation attached to it gives relevancy to your goal and develops your enthusiasm to meet your objectives. For example – ‘I want to lose 5 pounds in a month to be ready for my baseball tournament.’
Whether you want to gain fitness for an event or perform better during everyday activities, you need to have a clear understanding of why a goal is important to you and how it is relevant.
T for Time-frame
Your fitness goals should also have time-frames and need to be evaluated against them. Setting specific fitness goals against specific timeline will make it visible where you are, how much you have attained against specific deadlines. Timelines gives a tool to monitor the progress. It’s also important not to set your immediate fitness goals too far. If you give yourself four months to lose 10 pounds that might be too far, and you may lack seriousness to start work for it. Instead, along with the long term goals, consider setting smaller and immediate goals – like ‘lose three pounds in two weeks’. This will help you to keep track of progresses, enhance your self esteem with your immediate achievements, and inspire to work out for your next immediate fitness goals.
Again, running 30 km in under 5 hours could be your long-term goal, but if you have never been a runner, planning to achieve that goal in a month does not sound realistic. Instead, set smaller mileage goals for shorter time periods and work your way up.
Nevertheless, you should also be honest about what you are able to accomplish in a given time frame. If losing 10 pounds is at the top of your list, you should be willing to adjust your lifestyles, so that your fitness goals are worked out and maintained within your schedule and commitments.
Final Words
Once you set fitness goals in a SMART way, it is only about the follow-through. Whether you want to lose one pound a week, be able to do five full push-ups in two weeks, or run a 5 km in under 30 minutes in four weeks, you should make a plan to visualize where you want to go. It all starts with deciding what you want, when and how.
Make your plan SMART, remain consistent with it, be accountable to yourself, monitor yourself from time to time, assess your progress, accommodate readjustments where needed – you will be amazed to find – how efficient you are in achieving your fitness goals.
You may also like to read:
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.