*Special thanks go out to our very loyal Port Coquitlam location client, and now guest blogger, Simon Warner. Thanks Simon!
By Simon Warner, C.S.C.S.
This morning I got into my car and drove my daughter to school. I had a destination in mind before I got into my car. This is probably true for most drivers most of the time: They have a specific destination in mind, a plan. So why is it that many people who work out do so without a plan or specific goal? After all, it’s hard to know if you’ve arrived at your destination if you don’t know where you’re headed in the first place.
The goal(s) you set must be “SMART”: They must be “Specific”, “Measurable”, “Attainable”, “Realistic”, and “Time-based”. For example, some people train for general fitness. These people tend to follow generic programming or the “workout of the day.” Some of these programs have “benchmark workouts” or workouts that are occasionally repeated to guage one’s fitness improvements. One example of such a program is CrossFit. This general fitness program has benchmark programs such as “Cindy”, which involves doing “as many rounds as possible in twenty minutes” of five pull-ups, ten pushups, and fifteen squats. A “SMART” goal might be to achieve one more round of “Cindy” when you perform it next time, which will be 14 days later. To achieve this goal you will need to address your weaknesses. Ask yourself, “What’s holding me back from achieving my goal?” Perhaps the pull-ups in the “Cindy” workout are slowing you down. So, in the interim before you repeat “Cindy”, you could simply do one practice set of pull-ups before you do the “workout of the day”. This would help bring you closer to your goal.
For athletes, goal setting is crucial. Athletes, regardless of the sport, need some combination of the following fitness attributes: upper body strength, lower body strength, core strength, flexibility, agility, balance, endurance, technique, speed, power, power endurance, strength endurance, etc. These things cannot be improved simultaneously past the beginner stage. (For a novice athlete many fitness qualities can be improved at the same time.) Athletes who have been training for some time will need to focus on improving one or two fitness attributes at a time by “periodizing” their training. (Periodization simply means cycling one’s training over time -and changing the focus or short-term goal- to achieve a long-term goal.) This is often accomplished via the block system, where “blocks” of time are devoted to achieving different goals. Take, for example, the modern MMA (mixed martial arts) athlete. Such an athlete faces a great challenge in that he/she has to have a high level of many of the fitness attributes mentioned above, some of which impede the development of the others. Power and endurance, for example, are opposing fitness qualities. The competitive Olympic weightlifter (the epitome of power) will likely never win the Boston Marathon (the epitome of endurance). And yet the sport of MMA requires high levels of both power and endurance of its competitors. Consequently, the MMA athlete beyond the novice stage will need to devote blocks of time to improving one or two fitness attributes and maintaining (as much as possible) the other qualities. SMART goals will need to be applied to each block. Simply training according to a generic program or with “random” programming will be much less likely to benefit the MMA athlete past the beginner (or untrained) stage. The MMA athlete will need to be tested to determine his weaknesses and strengths and blocks of time with SMART goals allocated to the improvement of his weaknesses and maintenance of his strengths.
Lastly, start with the end-goal in mind and work back from there. In other words, plan backwards. Take the CrossFit trainee who wants to achieve one more round of Cindy, mentioned above. He/She needs to work backwards from the date two weeks later and plan his/her pullup practice sessions, as well as possibly making some of the workouts in the interim “less random” by including the exercises in “Cindy” more regularly into the training plan. Also, he needs to schedule one or two days off before the test date to ensure fatigue isn’t “masking” his fitness. (When we are overly tired we tend to perform poorly even though we may have made fitness improvements. We simply need rest to exhibit those fitness improvements.) The MMA athlete needs to plan backwards from the date of his next fight. Testing would then take place to determine strengths, weaknesses, and to assign blocks with different goals that proceed in a logical order. The take-home point is that goals drive the planning of a trainees program, regardless of whether that person is a professional athlete or a person simply trying to improve his/her fitness.
In short, if you aren’t training with a SMART goal in mind, then what you’re doing is analogous to getting in your car and driving without an end destination. How often do you do that? Regardless of your reason for training you MUST have a goal. Ask yourself what it is that you want to achieve and what is important to do right now to achieve this goal by the date you have assigned. Do this, and you’ll be much more motivated to train and you’ll make progress. This is what I call “goal-centric” training. Your goals drive your program.
