Unless you are the type of person that enjoys following workouts, reaching a fitness goal is hard. With that in mind, here are a few solid tips for maintaining and achieving workout goals.
- Stop Procrastinating
- Assess Your Fitness Level
- Hold Yourself Accountable
- Get in the Habit
- Take Care of Yourself
- Readjust
- Stock Up and Succeed
So what are you waiting for? Take an in-depth look at the below tips on accomplishing fitness goals and then sign up for a PRO plan to start achieving them!
#1 – Stop Procrastinating
Procrastination is the biggest killer of fitness goals. People have spent years saying “I’ll do it tomorrow” every day. Then they die an early death from health and fitness-related diseases. Don’t let this happen to you!
The first major important step is to plan out your fitness goals. Planning means more than just saying “I want to start running.” You need to decide on your long term goal.
How much weight do you want to lose? How many pounds do you want to be able to lift? The average adult needs 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, or 75 minutes of heavy aerobics per week to remain healthy.
You need to choose the time frame. You have your goal, now you need to know how long you’re giving yourself to accomplish it. By the next new year? Maybe by your birthday, or a wedding date you want to look excellent for? The time frame is important for your motivation.
#2 – Assess Your Fitness Level
To do that you first need to assess your fitness level. You can set a goal of running a marathon in two months, but if you can’t even run a mile there’s virtually no way you’ll be able to achieve that goal.
You need to be honest with yourself and figure out your current level of fitness before you can plan to improve it. Some things to look at:
- How much you can stretch?
- How far you can run?
- How much weight you can lift?
- How many pushups you can do?
These are all important indicators of your overall fitness.
#3 – Hold Yourself Accountable
In order to take your fitness goals to the next level, you need to hold yourself accountable. Write all of the above down. If you have your goals and your time frame written down, you have something tangible to focus on. Post it somewhere you look at every day. Join an Exercise.com Group to help hold yourself accountable.
That way you’re always reminded of your goals. With your goals set up and posted, you can now come up with a way to enforce them. Set yourself a reward that you can give yourself if you achieve your long term goal.
Set goals along the way so that you can have a sense of accomplishment as your progress. If it helps, buy a gym membership. The financial investment can encourage you to not let it go to waste. Alternatively, schedule appointments with a personal trainer.
That way you have a fixed date and time to exercise, and even have someone who can monitor your progress and suggest alternatives or additions to your workout.
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#4 – Get in the Habit
When you’re first starting your fitness program, you don’t have a routine. That’s a problem. You need to build the habit of exercising, regardless of what exercises you’re actually doing. The point is to set aside some time out of your day, a few days a week every week, for exercise.
The trick to building the habit comes in with step two above. Don’t punish yourself for missing your goals — it can be difficult to lose weight when you’re starting off, and getting into an exercise plan can be discouraging.
Instead, rewards yourself making it to our weekly workouts. No matter what, you want to make your workout dates. Even if you miss a workout goal, at least you’re still exercising.
#5 – Take Care of Yourself
The following are some easy ways you can take care of yourself:
- Healthy Food
- Plenty of Water
- Sleep
- Rest
These are some of the most important things you need when you’re getting into an active lifestyle. A healthy diet is very important for weight loss and muscle building. This doesn’t mean a huge drastic shift in your diet. Just slowly cut out some of the junk food and work in some more fruits and vegetables. It’s also important to eat regular meals. Breakfast, in particular, tends to be ignored but is an essential part of a person’s day.
The same with water. While the traditional eight glasses a day might be a bit much, the vast majority of people tend to spend their days mildly dehydrated. If you’re going to be working out, you need to keep yourself hydrated. Make sure you drink water!
Soda, juice, energy drinks and all the others aren’t good enough for your health. Sleep is also important. Not too much, not too little. It’s different than rest, however, which is why they’re both on the list.
You need to let yourself rest between workouts to allow your body to recover. If you don’t, you can end up causing injuries and setting back any progress you’ve made. That just makes it harder to keep to your goals.
#6 – Readjust
After you’ve been working towards your goals, you probably are finding them increasingly strange. You might be more fit than you thought, and your goals are coming too quickly. On the other hand, you might find you need more work and that even the simplest goals are out of reach.
Don’t get discouraged! Adjust your goals. They do you no good if they’re just a reminder of your inability to progress, so change them. Don’t discard them, don’t stop exercising, just change your fitness goals.
Remember: they’re flexible so that you can keep making progress. They aren’t set in stone and they aren’t a wall. You can’t use an unobtainable goal as a reason to stop, because you set them yourself.
#7 – Stock Up and Succeed
Once you know you’re serious about your fitness goals, it’s time to stock up on some accessories. Get some workout clothing. Sweats are comfortable and don’t restrict your movement.
Running clothes are a whole new industry if you’re on your feet for your exercise. A good pair of running shoes can go a long way. A set of weights in the home can help you work out without the commute. All of these items are an investment. They’re also a constant reminder of your workout goals and the lengths you can go to achieve them.
With a good solid plan, a little bit of adjustment, and a lifestyle change you can build an exercise habit and make sure you’ll achieve your fitness goals. There’s nothing stopping you from making these changes except yourself.
There’s no better time than now to set and work towards your workout goals. Just follow these easy steps and you’re well on your way to success and good health.
And sign up for a PRO plan today for access to workout routines, certified personal trainers, goal trackers, training logs, workout challenges, and more!