Gym Goals

by Grace Lin

It’s a new year.  It’s a new you, right?  I bet many of you have made New Year’s resolutions that you desire to achieve in 2017.  A New Year’s resolution is basically a goal; one that we set at the beginning of the New Year and hope to conquer throughout the year.  Setting these goals is great and I highly encourage you to set some if you haven’t already.  These goals can apply to different aspects of your life, including personal, career, finances, health, or relationships.

Goals are extremely important for forward progress in life.  And as humans, we have an inherent drive to continue progressing and growing.  Without goals, we are just wandering around aimlessly, with no sense of purpose.  Here are some benefits to setting goals:

  • Goals give you focus
  • Goals help measure your progress
  • Goals help overcome procrastination
  • Goals hold you accountable
  • Goals give you motivation

This year, I challenge you to set fitness goals for yourself.  Be intentional about your fitness.  These are just as important as your career, personal, or educational goals.  Many people have the mindset of coming into the gym just to get a workout, like it’s an item to check off the to-do list.  By setting fitness goals, I am challenging you to add purpose to your workout.  With this purpose, you will gain more satisfaction and fulfillment from your workouts.

These goals can be anything!  Just make sure they are measurable.  Some examples are:

  • Achieving a certain weight for 1RM lifts (e.g., back squat, strict press, dead lift, snatch, clean and jerk)
  • Conquering a gymnastics skill (e.g., unassisted pull ups, T2B, muscle ups, handstand push ups, double unders)
  • Movement goals (e.g., squat below parallel, 20 unbroken wall balls at prescribed weight)
  • Time trials (e.g., sub 8-minute mile, sub 2 minute Fran)
  • Better mobility (e.g., dedicate 10 minutes of mobility before and after every class I attend)

These goals can be as big or small as you’d like, they’re your goals!  When setting these, just make sure it’s something that you can measure, that way you can hold yourself accountable.  I also encourage you to share these goals with a friend (or two) at the gym!  I guarantee that you will feel more fulfilled from your workouts by setting goals for yourself.  They will give you a sense of purpose in the gym, just like life goals give your life purpose.  So, this year I challenge you to workout with a purpose!

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