4 Tips to Better Achieve Your Fitness Goals for 2016

Hi, everybody!

I know it’s been awhile since I last posted something on my blog (shame on me), but now that the new year is here I’m right where I need to be to get back on the horse and start grinding.

First off, it begins with some goals.

For me, fitness is right up there at the top of my list. With that said, what are some good ways to ensure you and I achieve them, achieve them better, and achieve them in a good time frame.

Well, here are my top 4 tips!

1. Create a vision goal.

Why are some people more successful than others? There are many reasons, but one reason I think the vast majority of successful people share is that they have a vision for themselves and where they want to go.

I think the same mindset goes for our fitness goals.

For example, if someone hasn’t run a marathon before and wants to complete one then that is a vision goal. The reason is that it’s something huge and almost unattainable for that person because it will take tremendous time, dedication, energy, effort, and focus to do so. However, if we make that a vision goal and then have many smaller goals, although some can be big themselves, it’ll help us achieve our vision goal.

That’s why successful companies have vision statements and why leaders and super successful people are seen as visionary. A vision gives us inspiration, hope, motivation, and a commitment to always be working toward achieving that vision to become better. It’s as simple as that.

Have a vision goal for your fitness and health.

2. Write your goals down on paper–literally.

Writing down your goals on paper doesn’t seem hard or noteworthy, but it can really make a significant difference. When you take the time to write something down, especially a goal, it’s like you make it official. That’s why you see every contract  on paper because it makes it official and documented, so you can come back to it because it’s enforceable. Writing your goals down on paper follows the same principle and will psychologically hold you accountable to them.

So, write your fitness goals down.

3. Make your goals SMART–Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

I’m sure you’ve heard of this “smart” acronym before, but it does really help. Having your goals be as specific as possible helps you focus in better by allowing you to concentrate your efforts more efficiently and effectively. This specificity will also allow you to measure you progress better because you’ll have clearer metrics (i.e. body fat loss, strength increases, specific milestones, etc.) that will allow you to keep track of your progress to achieve your goal.

In addition, having an attainable goal for “YOU” is vital. I think this one is very important because it’s different for all of us. If you want to lose weight and have struggled before maybe it’s because you set an unrealistic goal like 50lbs in 2 month when in reality your 50lbs should have been your vision goal for yourself, with the goal of losing 10-15lbs as a first step within in your first 2 months of eating and exercising better. This makes your goal realistic when you have smaller ones to an ultimate vision goal, like I just described and mentioned in tip number 1.

The last step to make a goal SMART is to put a time frame on all your goals. If you don’t you’ll never have the urgency to achieve it which, in turn, will lead to poor motivation, commitment, and most likely failure of the goal.

Make your goals SMART!

4. Have an Accountability System in Place

If you have no accountability to your goal then what happens if you stop working towards it and start to fall off the track?

Will the goal police burst through your door and put you in jail because you gave up? No, of course not! First there is no such thing and usually if we stop we just say, “Oh well, at least I tried.”

Well, did you actually try? How long did you work towards your goal? Was it a week or a month? Do you think that will really accomplish your vision goal?

The answer is no and that’s why if we have an accountability system in place for our goals, especially for fitness, we can keep working toward our vision when we get discouraged, difficult times arise, and whatever else throws us off the track or impedes our progress.

A great way to do this is to announce our goals to our family and friends and ask them to hold us accountable when we really haven’t been giving our best effort or when road bumps knock us down. This can be done in private or even publicly, like through Facebook or a blog, where you have a community of people, no matter how small, encouraging you and making sure you stick to your goal.

Put an accountability system in place and you’ll get there in no time.

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Now, that I have shared my 4 success tips in achieving your fitness goals what are they for 2016?

Do you…

• Want to lose weight?
• Add muscle?
• Run a marathon?
• PR in a lift?
• Complete an obstacle course?
• Or, something else?

Tell me by leaving a comment down below!!

As always, thanks for stopping by and if not already please subscribe.

Here’s to the best of the luck for your 2016 fitness goals and all the other ones you have.

Until next time, be strong and be you!

(Photo Credit)

The Power of Story

You ache. Your body screams stop. The negative insurgency creeps in with thoughts that aim to derail your focus and obliterate your goals. What do you do? Give in and quit? Or fight and go down swinging?

Of course, all of us want to say the latter, but often times we fail because we forget and lose sight of our “why.” When I say your “why” I’m not saying your reason for living–your purpose– in this instance, but rather why you train and workout in the first place. There are many “why’s” but you should have a why that seeks to fulfill your health and fitness goals, especially when it comes to training and working out.

The absence of a “why” is why people quit new year’s resolutions, gain an extra 20lbs, and feel like shit. They either don’t have a why or forget it.

In order to avoid this, everyone needs to use the power of story to conquer the intrapersonal battle happening inside during every session you have in the gym, the field, or elsewhere, to achieve your goals and what you want. You have to find a “why” and put it in context of a story to build foundation, whiling adding emphasis and power to it. It has to make sense to you and be relevant to where you want to go.

For instance, if you want to be an MMA fighter you have to visualize your victory in the octagon before it happens and let that be the reminder to keep on putting in the long hours of running, sweating, aching, sparring, etc., to achieve that goal. Likewise, all of us need to create a why, even if it may not seem extraordinary to others, as long as it’s lofty for you then that is just fine. And, of course, as you get better, just keep on aiming and dreaming of bigger goals. It’s an evolutionary process and really never stops, but only changes with the mission of you getting better. That’s it!

Whatever may give your story extra fire use it. If that’s proving someone wrong then use that. If that’s listening to motivational music use that. Get enraged if you have to, but keep it in complete focus on your story that tells your why–the reason for you doing what you’re doing. Think of that when tuff times hit and you just want to stop. Think of it when you don’t want to go to the gym. Think of it when your not sure if you should do another set or run another mile. Tell your story and don’t forget it.

Be smart though and make sure there are mini plots or chapters–milestones or goals–to give you mini resolutions, or victories, that lead you ultimately to the main idea of your story–your why. Don’t forget it until you reach the conclusion then alter, expand, or start a new one if need be.

Point is always have a positive, motivational, inspiring story of you as the champion that has already put in the work and won. All you have to do is just prove it by doing it.

What do you think? Tell me by leaving a comment below.

As always, thanks for stopping by and reading. If you’re a subscriber thank you and if not please subscribe!

Until next time, be strong and be you!

(Photo credit)

Strength Goals for 8-1-14

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last time I made a list of my strength goals it didn’t go so well (click here for my last strength goals). I snapped my back up and my knee just felt horrible. As a result, I had to rest and get surgery on my knee almost two months ago to scope it out. My surgery went great and the recovery process has been excellent. Yesterday, I had my first squat day since the surgery and it felt awesome. I was able to do 245x3x3 and I’m completely happy with it. I haven’t been in this situation before, so it’s tough to judge if this is good or not, but I’m excited to get stronger. This is why I have made these goals, so I can push myself and achieve them.

I haven’t really got a chance to find my max yet because I just started getting back in the gym, but here are my most current numbers for the lifts: (weight in pounds x sets x reps)

• Bench Press: 245x5x5
• Back Squat: 245x3x3
• Front Squat: 185x3x3
• Dumbbell Snatch: 60×5
• Dumbbell Push Press: 85×3
• Power Clean & Jerk: 225×1
• Current Weight: 177

I have complete faith in myself that I can accomplish these goals and I’m excited to get after them. I got this!

As always, thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment down below and share what your strength/fitness goals are because I want to know. Subscribe if not already and until next time, stay strong and be you!

Strength Goals: 1/14 through 5/14

Hey, guys. It’s been awhile since my last blog post, but now I’m ready to start again after taking a break and dealing with a whole bunch of personal stuff. As you may remember, I made strength goals for myself that spanned the length of my fall semester for school, so I thought it would seem fit if I did the same thing for this spring semester (Happens to be my last one because I graduate in May. Yay!!!).

I was very satisfied with my effort last semester and I have this blog and everyone who stops by to thank for it. Although I may not have many people who regularly follow me (if you do, THANK YOU!!!), the fact that I made my goals public to the world gave me extra motivation to try my hardest to attain them. Now I want to do it again because I deeply enjoyed the whole process and want to keep on evolving and growing as a person. So, here are my goals:

Here are my current numbers in each lift (the only lifts I’ve actually maxed out thus far are bench press, power clean, and hang clean):

• Bench Press: 315lbs
• Deadlift: 315lbs
• Power Clean: 245lbs
• Clean and Jerk: 225lbs
• Snatch: 135lbs
• Hang Clean: 225lbs
• Squat: 245lbs

You may notice that some of my lifts compared to others don’t make sense. For example, I want to deadlift 500lbs, but why am I only trying to squat 315lbs? Well, I have a historically bad right knee that’s been dislocated 3 times which resulted in MCL complications in addition to the surrounding tissue. This then prevented me from squatting in recent memory.

Despite this, however, I’ve been using certain restorative techniques, such as foam rollers, bands, lacrosse balls,  stretching, and actually performing the squat correctly, to help facilitate proper knee function in absence of pain. So far the results are great and I have Kelly Starrett’s, How to Become a Supple Leopard, to thank in large part because of it (click here to find out more about Kelly and here to check out his book). I’m also recovering from a lower oblique back strain and a month off of rest to heal.

Regardless of my setbacks, I look forward to trying to achieve all my goals in every lift this semester and hope you can come along for the journey. Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to comment and tell me about your own strength goals. I’ll see ya next time!

(Photo credit)

Strength Goals Final Report

The semester is finally over and that means progress reports are being handed out. Although my school grades are not yet final, one thing that is final is my strength report. If you’ve read my previous posts surrounding my strength goals (click here for the first post and here for the second post) then you know I made some sizable goals for myself. When I first made them I wasn’t sure if I would attain them, but that was not the reason for their creation. I created them to help motivate me to truly grow stronger of mind and body. Success for me was not if I attained those numbers, but rather the journey I had along the way that would help me discover traits about myself as I progressed each and everyday. There were highs and lows, demands from school and work that tried to take my focus and time away, but all in all I can say I left nothing back and feel completely satisfied with my effort. That being said here are my final numbers as compared to my original and goal numbers:

Power Clean: Started at  225lbs, strength goal 275lbs, ended at 245lbs

• I feel like I could get at least 255, but every time I do cleans of any variety I usually do jerks at the same time. This means I didn’t have a day where I just tried to get my max in the power clean by itself. I was usually too tired to max out because I exerted a lot of energy doing clean and jerks instead of just power cleans. Since I only work out 3-4 times a week, depending on my school/work schedule, I decided that it wasn’t in my best interest to neglect a complementary movement of the power clean, like the jerk. As a result, 245 is my official max at this time, but as long as I keep going, 275 is in sight.

Hang Clean: Started at 205lbs, strength goal 225lbs, ended at 225lbs

• As stated above, I usually did a mix of power cleans, clean and jerk, and hang clean and jerk, during the same work-out. I know I could have exerted more discipline in my work-out routine by sticking to one main exercise, but sometimes my competitive juices start to flow and I can’t help myself but try and get a lift. In hindsight, that’s a lesson learned for my future training. However, I did accomplish this strength goal and you better believe I’ll try and improve this lift as well.

Clean & Jerk: Started at 205lbs, strength goal 245lbs (adjusted from 225lbs), ended at 245lbs

• The clean and jerk is perhaps my favorite exercise. There’s something about lifting a heavy ass bar from the floor over your head that is just awesome. I love it and that may be the reason why I just couldn’t focus on just doing power cleans in just one work-out. As a result, I actually surpassed my original strength goal of 225 and made a new one (245lbs) and met that as well. I will definitely keep pushing and see how far I can go with this exercise.

Snatch: Started at 135lbs, strength goal 185lbs, ended at 155lbs

• Since I just started this lift a little over a month ago, my numbers are still low. However, I know that when you first learn a new movement, especially a complex one like the snatch, then technique and form reign supreme for success. As a result, it is going to take time and practice for me to really put up some good numbers and 185 will eventually come.

Bench Press: Started at 265lbs, strength goal 315lbs, ended at 315lbs

• The bench press is the final lift I actually met for my strength goals. Perhaps the reason for this is that it’s a guilty of pleasure of mine to bench big, but that doesn’t take away the effort I put in to this lift and all the other ones as well. Like with all these exercises, I’ll keep pushing and get stronger.

Deadlift: Started at 365lbs, strength goal 465lbs, ended at 455lbs

• As you can tell from the video above, I deadlifted 455lbs at ~190lbs with no straps using a hook grip. Although I was just 10lbs short, in mind I felt like I accomplished the goal because when I originally made it I thought 455lbs in my head, but wrote down 465lbs on papaer (maybe I have dyslexia or something, haha). Regardless, 465 was the goal and I came up just a little bit short. I’ll definitely get it soon.

Success on 3 out of my 6 lifts ain’t bad and you better believe I’ll keep going strong to reach them next semester. Before I do, however, I need to rest and recover because life is a perpetual duality of balance and you can’t have strength without rest or day without night. This principle is in constant practice all around us, and as this year comes to an end, I suggest you do the same in order for you to accomplish everything you want to next year. A thousand thanks for the support you gave me along the way and know that it’s definitely appreciated. Please feel free to comment down below and see ya’ll next time. Peace!

Strength Goals: 1 Month Progress Report

Exactly one month ago today, I made some sizable strength goals (click here for the original post) that I wanted to achieve by the end of this fall semester (mid December). I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but now, more than ever, am I willing to keep going. So far, the progress has been amazing and I have really been dedicated in my effort to get stronger while maintaining musculoskeletal integrity.

Below is where I stood one month ago (9/25/13) at 181lbs:

• PowerClean: 225lbs
• Hang Clean: 205lbs
• Clean & Jerk: 205lbs
• Bench Press: 265lbs
• Deadlift: 365lbs

Here is where I stand today (10/25/13) at 189lbs:

• Power Clean: 245lbs (About a 9% increase)
• Hang Clean: 225lbs (About a 10% increase and Goal Accomplished! Now I need a new one! Let’s say 245lbs!)
• Hang/Power Clean & Push Jerk: 225lbs (new variation I added)
• Bench Press: 275lbs (note: I can do 3-4 reps for multiple sets  so my 1 rep max, according to the 1 rep calculator, is about 310lbs)
• Deadlift: 425lbs (16% increase and a new PR for me. I deadlift with no straps and instead use a hook grip rather than a mixed grip)
• Snatch: 135lbs (A new lift that I just started to do, so it will be a while until I get some serious weight!)

Here are my strength goals by semester’s end:

• Power Clean: 275lbs
• Hang Clean: 245lbs (originally 225lbs)
• Clean & Jerk: 245lbs
• Bench Press: 315lbs
• Deadlift: 465lbs
• Snatch: 185lbs (New Goal!)

As you can see, I’m making great progress and it feels awesome. I do not think I’ve ever been more excited to train in my life than right now. Training, if not already, has officially become a huge part of my life that I do not plan on seeing going away anytime soon as long as I’m able to. These goals do not only serve as a testimony of my work, but a model of what I, and you, can do in all things if we just put our minds to it. My journey is not over with, but whether I reach my goals or not is besides the point. It’s the journey there that matters and that is what allows us to improve, grow and evolve as an individual. I encourage you to make goals in your life for something that most matters to you that will allow for the same growth and maturity to happen. It could be anything thing you like, but just go for it all and hold nothing back. You won’t be disappointed.

Thanks for reading, please comment, and I will see you next time!

(Photo Credit)

My Strength Goals

Recently I have been reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and have come to the realization that this book is making a lot of sense with me and how I really want to live my life. I definitely don’t follow every habit precisely as Dr. Stephen R. Covey describes, but it has given me that spark I need to start focusing on the habits he talks about in his book that can improve my life.

One particular habit–habit 2: begin with the end in mind–has really struck me. This habit describes that you must envision what the end result will be on the various goals, objectives, and aspirations you have in your life. This doesn’t only apply to the most urgent things such as school and work, but perhaps, more importantly, your actual self and what you want to become. As a result, it has given me that extra motivation that I need to take that next step in strength training that will allow me to grow physically stronger while improving the mental and spiritual dimensions of my life as well (part of habit 7: sharpen the saw).

As a result, I have made some strength goals that I want to achieve by the end of this fall semester in the picture below:

Currently, here are my numbers for the lifts:

• Power Clean: 225lbs
• Hang Clean: 205lbs
• Deadlift: 365lbs
• Bench Press: 265lbs
• Clean and Jerk: 215lbs

I know these goals I have will not be easy, but I am more than happy to take the challenge and see what will happen. Life is all about overcoming challenges, obstacles, and difficulties that force us to grow stronger in all facets of our lives and this is just another part of that. I have really neglected setting goals for myself recently and I think this is a great start that may facilitate grander goals in my life that I would like to see come to fruition.

So as I try to achieve my strength (and other personal) goals, I encourage you to do the same. Thanks again for stopping by and feel free to tell me your goals as it relates to strength training or anything else you would like to share in the comments below. See ya next time!

(I will keep you guys updated on my progress every now and then until the semester ends.)