If you're like most fitness buffs, you already understand the significance of creating goals to drive your workouts. One of the most crucial aspects in designing your fitness programme is to set SMART goals.
Not all fitness goals are made equal, and some goals are designed to set you up for disappointment and failure from the moment you walk into the gym.
SMART objectives were created with behavioural psychology in mind, and are intended to be beneficial and effective in guiding you steadily toward whatever long-term fitness goal you may have.
When it comes to developing SMART goals, the phrase "smart" does not simply mean "smart" or “intelligent”.
In fact, the acronym SMART stands for the following:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound
These characteristics together characterise a SMART objective, but other goals do not match these criteria.
SMART goals are crucial because they "help individuals focus their wants and intents and define a standard by which success can be judged," according to a 2010 study on Goal Setting And Action Planning For Behavioural Change, published in American Journal Of Lifestyle Medicine.
SMART goals should also be intrinsically rewarding and sufficiently difficult, depending on both approach and mastery outcomes.
Consider this objective:
"For the next eight weeks, I'll do resistance training three times per week."
This objective fits into the SMART paradigm nicely and provides you with a specific set of criteria over which you have a lot of control.
This permits you to be the one who decides whether or not you achieve your goal, rather than other influences beyond your control.
Let’s have a look at each of these objectives:
Specific
When it comes to SMART goals, specificity is essential. Specific objectives have a numerical value that can be used to assess your success or failure.
Consider the preceding example of three times per week weight exercise for the next eight weeks. There is no room for interpretation because this is so specific. You either completed or did not complete the workouts as intended at the conclusion of the week.
Compare this to a goal like "get more exercise."
This objective can signify both a lot and little at the same time. You're theoretically exercising more if you walk for a few minutes, but you're unlikely to notice any improvements.
It's far more difficult to determine whether you're fulfilling your objective criteria, and if you aren't, what you need to change to make it happen, due to the lack of detail.
Goal specificity should eliminate any doubt about whether you achieved your objectives.
Measurable
In addition to being specific, the goals must be measurable so that you can see how well you're doing.
"Losing four kgs in 12 weeks," for example, is a measurable goal that you can track. However, merely stating, "I want to reduce weight," is far too general.
Even though you technically dropped weight, you may lose a few kgs and see little physical change, leaving you unhappy.
Setting measurable objectives for practically every facet of fitness has never been easier thanks to the rise of fitness trackers that allow you to evaluate your essential functions and athletic performance.
It's not measurable if you can't put a number on it, and it leaves too much open for interpretation as to whether you fulfilled your goal.
Attainable
The goal's attainableness is the third SMART factor to examine.
While significant, long-term fitness goals are fine, most fitness programmes should focus on what you can do in a few weeks to months rather than a massive objective that will take a decade to complete.
Achievable goals are always proportional to your present fitness level.
A month or two of training is a realistic time frame if you only need another four and a half kgs of weight on the bar to hit a 1x bodyweight barbell squat.
If you haven't exercised in years, though, doing a 1x bodyweight back squat will most likely take a longer time.
Instead, try changing your objectives in light of your current situation.
For your level, "complete 10 full-depth goblet squats with a 11.3-kg kettlebell within three months" would be a better option.
Achievable goals, on the other hand, should motivate you to improve your strength and health. Setting realistic goals is both an art and a science.
You must ensure that your objectives are not so difficult that they assure failure, but also not so simple that they provide no genuine satisfaction or reward when achieved.
Relevant
Relevant goals are ones that are specific to you and are suited to your personal needs in terms of life, health, and fitness.
If you have hypertension or prediabetes, for example, focusing on a weekly aerobic activity goal is more important than striving to achieve a 30-inch (76.2-cm) vertical jump.
If you're attempting to make the varsity basketball team, on the other hand, focusing on your vertical jump height rather than setting a weekly goal for aerobic activity may be more appropriate.
Your objective should be related to both your health and your general interests.
Time-bound
The fact that SMART goals are time-bound is the final feature. This indicates that you want to attain your goal within a certain time frame.
Although there is no hard and fast rule about how lengthy your time period should be, most SMART goals should be completed in one to three months.
Of course, the time frame you choose for your SMART goals will affect how feasible they are, but the most important thing is that you don't leave it so open-ended that you never start or achieve your original aim.
In the case of weight loss, setting a goal to lose "4.5 kg in three months" provides a compelling window within which you can achieve your goal. Nonetheless, it holds you accountable for starting and finishing your goal within the time range you specify.
If you only say "drop 4.5kg," you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you haven't lost the weight by week 6, despite the fact that this is unreasonable.
On the other hand, if you don't have a sense of urgency or a deadline for your goals, it's all too simple to simply "start Monday" and keep postponing.
You're setting yourself up for failure if you don't establish a time limit on when you want to achieve your goal.
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