It’s November. The holiday season is approaching. You’ve got your plans to go out of town for the holidays and you’ve been saving some doh for Black Friday and Christmas. Understandably, that leaves very little energy, time, and money for yourself or your training and nutrition. With less time and more tasks, consistency is the first thing to go. You’ll have to rely on keeping up with your nutrition as best you can, work in training as frequently as is possible, and avoid the possible pitfalls from likely having to eat on the go and settle for what’s convenient. Unless your goals are clear and focused, it’s tough to minimize the damage, and by the end of the year, you’re left wondering, “why aren’t I getting any results?”

I’ve been in the PT game for over 7 years. I’ve seen success go stale during this point in the year. It can be frustrating at times. I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be that way. Knowing what your goals are and figuring out what you want to accomplish specifically is the foundation of your training.

No matter where or how you train, you have to ask yourself, “What results are you hoping to achieve?” I ask every single person that comes my way who is looking to start training. This is a crucial step that must be taken. Training without a goal or purpose behind it is meaningless. That goes for everything in life. Getting up at 4am is hard. Getting up at 4am and not really believing in why you’re doing it is even tougher. By then it’ll be too easy to say “screw it” and stop.

I train people that want to get results. Period. What you do will dictate the path your body goes down. You eat low quality food or don’t take care of your body the right way most of the time, you’ll get exactly that. It’s so simple most people tend to over think it. So there are three things I want my clients to focus on: 1) what are your “end-result” goals (i.e. lose 5% body fat in 10 weeks, gain 5 inches in your chest by next summer, be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon, etc.), 2) having a performance based goal (i.e. achieve x-amount of pushups, pullups, finish a 5k under x-time, etc.) that will reinforce your end result goal, and 3) what would you do long term to maintain your progress?

Figuring out these goals and how to get results can be difficult on your own. Especially when they need to be specific. Goals that are specific, like getting your body fat percentage down from 20% to 15% in 6 months, will give you enough information to start planning.

Understand the path to your end result is about achieving smaller goals along the way. Look for the small changes to the body that you can feel. This is a phenomenon that most will experience starting training for the first time OR restarting their training from a long layoff. Cells start to change, energy is created, muscle feels and moves differently, the body starts running like an efficient love machine. This process usually happens within the first 2 weeks of consistent training within your program.
Stay tuned for the next article on setting up a performance based goal to alter your body composition.