Get SMART to Get FitI'm not sure who was creative enough to make
acronym work, but work it does and it can fit in quite nicely with your fitness goals.
If you want to succeed you need to get SMART about your goals.
SMART is a great way to help you stay on track and achieve your goals.
The S stands for specific. Be specific about
goals you want to achieve. Forget things like, "I want to get in shape", "I want to add muscle", or "I want to lose weight", or "I want to increase my bench press."
Instead try things like "I want to run a 6 minute mile", "I want to add 10 pounds of muscle", "I want to lose 20 pounds of fat, or "I want to add 40 pounds to my best bench press."
The M stands for measurable. This ties in very well with specific. You can't measure 'getting in shape", but you sure can measure 'running a 6 minute mile'.
With a pair of trusty skin fold calipers, you can also measure pretty accurately adding 10 pounds of muscle or losing 20 pounds of fat.
And of course, you can easily measure
poundage increase on your best bench press.
The specific and measurable aspect can be broken down even more to bring you closer to achieving your goals. For example, if you want to add 10 pounds of muscle, what other specific and measurable things must you do to reach your goal?
One could be that you must eat 6 high protein meals a day.
A second could be that you must eat 3,500 calories and 300 grams of protein every day.
You must train with weights three days per week.
You must add weight to your exercises at least every other workout.
All of these are specific and measurable. The more specifics that you have,
more likely you will add your 10 pounds of muscle as quickly as possible.
You can make a list of your daily, weekly, and monthly goals that you must do in order to meet your top goal of adding 10 pounds of muscle.
Each day, place a check mark next to each measurable and specific goal you achieved that will help you conquer your top goal. Obviously,
more checks you have,
more likely that you will achieve your goal.
In addition to specific and measurable, your goals must be A, or attainable. The R stands for realisitic. As I've said before, it's important to set challenging goals.