How to set your fitness goals for the new year | Beginner Series
Welcome to this brand new Beginner Series. I know that a lot of people take January as an opportunity to kickstart their fitness journey or take it to the next level and I want to help you succeed.
This Beginner Series will cover a lot of topics in the next few weeks, giving you all the knowledge you need to get started on the right foot.
First things first, let’s talk about how to set your fitness goals.
Why set fitness goals?
A goal in any area of life is what keeps you going and what makes you want to improve. Goals give you focus and help you make time for what’s important.
Having one or a few clear objectives will not only keep you motivated but will also make the whole process so much more rewarding as you’ll get closer and closer to your goals.
Setting SMART fitness goals
2019 Review
Before getting onto your 2020 goals, it’s important to review your 2019 goals if you had some. Be really honest with yourself and see if you’ve achieved them completely, partially or not at all.
The purpose of this exercise isn’t to beat yourself up if you haven’t crushed them all but to understand why. Was it a lack of focus, a lack of support? Were your goals too ambitious?
Analysing why you didn’t reach them can only help you come up with a better strategy for the year ahead!
Now onto your 2020 fitness goals
In my opinion it’s best to focus on a few very specific goals than a lot of different or vague goals. This is where the SMART method comes in handy.
Specific goals: the clearer your goals are, the clearer the plan of action is to get there. For instance, “lose weight” or “get fitter” are too vague. “Lose 8 pounds of fat in 6 months and maintain” or “Run a 5k in 30min” or even “get my first pull up” already give you an idea of what you need to do to achieve them.
Measurable goals: Define how you will measure your progress. For fat loss, it would be measuring your body fat % every 8 weeks or trying on an old pair of jeans every month. For a running goal you would track your time for a specific distance.
Achievable goals: There’s a fine line between an ambitious and unrealistic goal. Going from no running at all to running 5k in 30min is achievable in a year but running a marathon sound unattainable. Make sure that your fitness goals challenge you but are not so hard that you will get demotivated and give up.
Relevant goals: Do they resonate with you? Do they actually fit in the big picture, in your life aspirations? If you’re not really bothered about losing weight this year, don’t make it a priority. If you really want to lose some body fat then yes this is a goal that makes sense for you.
Time-bound goals: set a timeline and deadlines for a few milestones. For the fat-loss goal I’ve used as an example before, your timeline is a year long and your milestones would be: lose 4 pounds of fat in 3 months and another 4 pounds in the next 3 months. Then maintain the body fat% every month for the rest of the year.
Put your goals into action
Goals without plans rarely turn into results. You need to know how you will achieve your fitness goals. For each goal, write down:
What you need to do or change: change your diet, put running sessions in your diary, train your upper body more often…
What external resources you need (Because it’s more than OKAY to ask for help!): maybe you need to see a dietician, to join a running club or to get an online coach to design your resistance training sessions.
Let’s crush 2020 together! We’ve got this!
More useful stuff
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