Assessing your Fitness Needs and Goals

Are you looking to get fit this year? If so, you're not alone! Every January, millions of people make resolutions to get in shape. But determining your fitness goals can be tricky. There are a lot of factors to consider, such as your current fitness level, the types of activities you enjoy, and your overall health and fitness goals. In this blog post, we will discuss how to determine your fitness goals and start to think of a comprehensive plan to achieve them!

If you're like most people, you probably want to lose weight, get stronger, change the look of your body and improve your overall health. But these goals are too vague to be effective. You need to be specific about what you want to achieve. For example, instead of saying you want to "lose weight," try setting a goal to lose five pounds in the next month. Effective goals are goals that are measurable, trackable, and broken down into chunks with shorter timelines. Instead of saying you want to "get stronger," try setting a goal to deadlift your body weight by the end of the year. Then you can break it down further, establish checkpoints and monitor your progress.

When setting your fitness goals, it's important to be realistic. If you've never exercised before, it's unlikely that you'll be able to run a marathon in the next month. But you can probably commit to walking for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Remember, the key is to start small and gradually increase your activity level over time.

Your fitness goals should also be achievable. This means that you need to have a clear plan for how you're going to achieve them. For example, if your goal is to lose five pounds in the next month, you'll need to create a calorie deficit by eating less and moving more. If your goal is to deadlift your body weight by the end of the year, you'll need to commit to a regular strength-training routine. We will discuss how to formulate a plan in future blogs.

Your fitness goals should be relevant to your overall health and fitness goals. If you're trying to lose weight, there's no point in setting a goal to bench press your bodyweight. But if you're trying to improve your overall strength, then bench pressing your body weight is an excellent goal to set.

When most people think about getting fit, they automatically assume that they need to lose weight. However, this isn’t always the case. In fact, many people who are overweight can actually be quite healthy – it all depends on their body composition. So, before you start setting any fitness goals, it’s important to assess your current situation and health status. This will help you determine what types of goals are realistic and achievable for you.

There are a few key factors that you should take into consideration when assessing your current situation:

-Your weight

-Your body fat percentage

-Your waist circumference

-Your blood pressure

-Your cholesterol levels

-Your resting heart rate

If you’re not sure how to measure these things, don’t worry – your doctor can help you out. Once you have all of this information, you can start thinking about what types of goals would be best for you.

For example, let’s say you’re overweight and your goal is to lose weight. In this case, you would want to set a goal to lose a certain amount of weight in a specific time frame. But, instead of just saying you want to lose “X” amount of pounds, it’s important to be more specific. For example, setting a goal to lose five pounds in the next month is much better than simply saying you want to lose weight.

Another example could be if you want to gain muscle. Don’t expect to pack on 10 pound of muscle in a month. Be realistic, have a plan and be consistent in execution. Most importantly, be patient. You may want to gain 5 pounds of muscle in the next year. You will need to have a strong strength training program, a diet with ample protein and carbohydrates and good sleep patterns.

Once you have a few ideas for realistic and achievable goals, it’s time to start planning how you’re going to achieve them. This is where most people struggle – they know what they want to do, but they don’t have a plan of action. Without a plan, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up on your fitness goals altogether.

So, what should you do? First, start by breaking down your goal into smaller, more manageable pieces. For example, if your goal is to lose five pounds in the next month, break it down into weekly or even daily goals. Something like “lose one pound per week” or “burn 500 calories per day” is much more manageable than trying to lose five pounds all at once.

Next, you need to create a plan of action for how you’re going to achieve your goals. This might involve making changes to your diet, starting an exercise routine, or both. If you’re not sure where to start, there are plenty of resources available online such as our coaching and consulting packages.

Finally, don’t forget to track your progress along the way. This will help you stay motivated and on track with your goals. There are a number of ways to do this, but a simple notebook or spreadsheet will suffice. Be sure to track things like your weight, body fat percentage, waist circumference, and so on.

Determining your fitness goals doesn’t have to be complicated. By taking the time to assess your current situation and health status, you can easily come up with a few realistic and achievable goals. From there, it’s just a matter of creating a plan of action and tracking your progress along the way. If you get off track, don’t worry, setbacks are normal. Many times lofty fitness goals are never a straight line to success but a series of good days and bad. The important thing to remember is it is all an improvement from before you started and having 50% good days is much better than 0%. So stay encouraged and when you have small setbacks, instead of throwing in the towel, remember tomorrow is always a new day.