How to Set SMART Fitness Goals & Why You Need Them + StylishlyFit Week 3

August 15 – 21, 2016 Fitness

So something awesome happened last week, I moved to performance level in my CrossFit workouts. There are 3 types of levels in CrossFit workouts; light, fitness, and performance. I have been doing fitness since I started CrossFit. I’ve been working on getting stronger and learning the movements. I’m now strong enough and “fit” enough to be able to do the performance workouts. So what does that mean? The workouts are harder and sometimes longer. During the strength portion of the hour-long workout, there can be an AMRAP or EMOM in there as well. I feel like it’s doing 2 workouts in an hour.

I’m still working on level performance movements; like handstand pushups, dips, double unders, muscle ups and handstand pushups. My long term fitness goals is being able to confidently do each of those movements (more on fitness goals below). But I’m happy to see my progress so far.

Another thing that changed this week is that I’m doing CrossFit at 6 am and my Kayla workouts at 5 pm. As I mentioned last week, it’s way too hot to workout at 4 pm, so we’re now going in the mornings. Doing this also allowed us to add another CrossFit workout to our week. We now go 4 times a week instead of 3. Yay!

MONDAY
Kayla Itsines Week 15 Resistance (Legs)
CrossFit

Warm-up

400m Run
50 Leg Swings (side to side)
50 Leg Swings (front to back)
PVC Warm-up
10 Narrow Overhead Squats
Shoulder Complex

Strength

Back Squats
Push Press
2×8, 2×5, 2×4, 2×2
10% increase each round

Conditioning

21 – 15- 9
Thrusters
Push-ups

TUESDAY
LISS – 52 minute light jog (3.50 miles)
CrossFit

Warm-up

1000m Row
3×10
Kettlebell Swings
Kettlebell Single Leg Deadlift
Kettlebell Press/li>
Lunges
Samson Stretch

Strength

EMOTM for 18 minutes
Min 1: Max Effort Double Uunders
Min 2: 10 Wall Balls
Min 3: 6 Front Squats
Then
Overhead Walking Lunges *I did max effort just the bar

Conditioning

10 AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)
2 HRPU
4 Pistols
8 Kettlebells Swings

WEDNESDAY
Kayla Itsines Week 15 Resistance (Arms)
CrossFit

Strength

3 HP Snatch into 2 OHS
Jump Squats w/bar on back 1×20
5 dips *I’m still working on mine

Conditioning

3 Rounds of:
250m Row
25 Burpees
3 Rounds of:
200m Run
10 Clean & Jerks *I did it at 65lbs

THURSDAY
LISS – 40 minute light jog (3 miles)

FRIDAY
Kayla Itsines Week 15 Resistance (Abs)
CrossFit

Warm-up

400m Run
PVC Warm-up
PVC Overhead Squats
3×10
Push Press (bar)
Ring Rows
Hip to Bar Pull-Ups *can’t do these yet

Strength

EMOTM for 12min:
Even: ME Pull-ups
Odd: 7 Sandbag Thrusters

Conditioning

12min AMRAP
6 G2o (ground to overhead) *I did 65lbs clean and jerk
8 Burpees
20m Bear Crawl

SATURDAY
Morning run around the track – 3 miles

SUNDAY
Stretching – Rest Day

Here’s a screenshot of how my week looked in my Polar Fitness Tracker. Note, I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor for my CrossFit workout on Tuesday morning so it didn’t track it at all really. Update on my Polar M400 review, it’s only useful if you wear your heart rate monitor when you workout.

Song of the week

The song of the week is Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons w/ Logic & Ty Dolla $ign ft X Ambassadors – Sucker for Pain.

Fitness Goals

Why do you workout? What’s the purpose? Do you do it because you want to lose some weight? Are you getting ready for an upcoming event, like a wedding? Or do you want to get stronger, run longer, be overall fit?

Most of us don’t workout because we love the pain (well maybe some of us do – watch the CrossFit documentary Fittest on Earth, the discipline and dedication is pretty awesome).

Most of us have a result in mind even though we may not think of it in that way. It’s the goal in the back of your mind that you may not even say to other people, but you know why you’re making time to workout.

Setting fitness goals is vital for our motivation and overall moral. Personally, I need something to work towards, or I will get disillusioned and unmotivated, even if it’s a small goal, like running 3 miles a week. We like to see progress, and if we don’t see that we’re incrementally getting better, it can be a huge hit to our spirits.

To sustain the benefits from achieving your fitness goals, you’ll need to fall in love with the journey; this is how you make changes that last. Far too often people reach their goal and then fall off the wagon and find themselves reverting to the pre-fitness goal state.

Currently, my goal is to follow my workout schedule for 2 months straight. It’s a simple short-term fitness goal, but this gets me to work on my consistency. I’ve struggled with sticking to a workout schedule or keep fitness as a part of my everyday life.

One of the reasons I decided to start sharing my weekly workouts with you was to help me stay disciplined! Outside accountability helps me stay on track. I don’t have any other goal in conjunction with this fitness goal, yes I want to get stronger, leaner and work on my endurance, but those will take care of themselves as I stick my 2-month workout schedule. At the end of September, I will set another goal.

Training vs. Exercise

Did you know that there is a difference between exercise and training? I never really thought about it before Peter mentioned it to me last weekend.

Exercise is working out to do something, there is no end goal in mind, you don’t keep track of your progress, and you exercise to be overall “healthy.”

Training is doing a particular activity with purpose and a clear end goal. If you want to get better at something, train for something whether, life (wedding) or fitness event (marathon) you need to keep track of your progress and have an end goal in mind. I explain setting SMART fitness goals below.

Fitness Goals Examples

There are many types of fitness goals you can set. There are short-term fitness goals, long term fitness goals, goals for running, goals for lifting, training for an event, etc. The goals you set have a lot to do with you personally, what you’re working towards and what is achievable at this certain point of your life.

Here are some examples of fitness goals for women.

Long-Term Fitness Goals

Lower your body fat percentage
Get stronger
Train for a marathon
Train for a triathlon
Master a sport
Master nutrition
Lower cholesterol
Make fitness a part of your everyday life
Focus on healthy habits
Improve overall quality of life

Short Term Fitness Goals

Get out of your comfort zone (try a new fitness activity)
Run a 5k
Run {X} miles
Do 5 pull ups
Complete 20 push ups
Learn a new movement (this could be in any fitness category; yoga, CrossFit, dance, etc.)
Drink a gallon of water a day
Lift {X} amount in a specific movement (for example; I want to be able to deadlift twice my bodyweight)
Lose 3 inches in your waist
Cut out sugar
Stop drinking soft drinks
Stop eating processed foods
Walk 10K steps a day

What’s your goal? Do you have a long term or short term goal in mind? Do you think about it every time you workout?

Also, having a calendar or journal to keep track of your workouts and progress is very important. You want to know how better you got think month versus last month the only way to know if you’re improving is if you write it done. If you’ve done P90X you know what I mean, Tony was always saying, “Write it Down!”

I’m now using my updates to you to help me keep track of my progress. For CrossFit, I use an app called myWOD to document my max lifts, and I can easily see how much weight I can lift for each movement and the date.

SMART Fitness Goals

The last point to remember when setting fitness goals is to set SMART fitness goals. I’m not talking about the #fitnessgoals hashtag on Instagram with pictures of women with abs for days.

I’m referring to fitness goals that lift your self-esteem and motivate. Give your fitness goal some real thought and determine if it’s a SMART goal.

SMART stands for:
S – Specific: There should be no ambiguity in your goal. “Lose weight” doesn’t work. Your goal needs to be as specific as possible.
M – Measurable: Your goal should have a criteria for measurement and you should now when you reach your goal by measuring progress
A – Attainable: You should be able to reach your goal
R – Realistic: You have to set a goal that’s realistic for you, don’t set one too difficult as you might get discouraged.
T – Timely: You should have a date by which you will reach the fitness goal

For example; I will run a half marathon in 5 months. To run 13.2 miles in 5 months, I will follow a running training calendar where I gradually increase the number of miles I run on a specific day and total miles run over the week.

SMART Fitness Goal Example:
S – Specific: Complete a half marathon
M – Measurable: I will progressively measure the total amount of miles ran each week, and total miles ran in one day leading up to the marathon.
A – Attainable: I exercise regularly, I am healthy, and run occasionally. Running a half marathon is achievable for me.
R – Realistic: Since I’ve never run a marathon before I will run a half marathon before a full marathon.
T – Timely: This goal will be achieved on the day of the half marathon event.

I would love to hear from you! What are your fitness goals?

Stay StylishlyFit,
-V