“I’m going to weight train two hours a day, five days a week, take group fitness classes, and hit 15,000 steps daily,” you tell yourself. And then when you don't hit that goal, you beat yourself up. Sound familiar?
The problem isn't you, it's your goals. And if you learn how to set better goals, ideally with achievable objectives you’re excited about, then magic happens. “There’s a pressure to go all in with fitness,” says Heather Bildman, a Tier III trainer at Equinox West 92nd Street in New York City. “But that can lead to burnout.” Sounds simple, but figuring out what an achievable goal is can be challenging, and staying consistent can be even trickier. Below, five tips for setting goals and sticking to them straight from Equinox coaches.
Identify Your “Why”
Investigate what you’re looking to get out of the gym. Asking yourself why you’re starting (or re-starting) your fitness journey can help you to determine your goals and create a plan to achieve them.
Equinox coach Chris McGill says that a goal can be your co-pilot, like your GPS when driving, “Wherever you’re going, your goals are right there next to you helping you navigate your path.”
Perhaps you want to work out so you can play with your kids without getting tired. Maybe you just want to optimize your health so that you can lead a long, healthy life.
“People tend to lose motivation,” Equinox trainer Justin Jacobs explains. “If you have a goal and understand why you want that thing, that can help to keep you on course or get you back on course when motivation gets lost.”
Think about How You Can Be One Step Better
Rather than pushing yourself to make every possible change to your fitness routine all at once, consider where you’re starting from and brainstorm how you can be one step better from where you are right now.
“I will have clients do 10 push-ups and that will count as a workout. I do that for a week and then we’ll do 12 the next week,” says McGill.
Or, if you currently do cardio twice a week for 30 minutes, you might up your cardio to twice a week for 35 minutes. “A small, easy change is going to set you up for success,” McGill explains.
Set Minimum Goals and Stretch Goals
A minimum goal is something you can accomplish no matter what. “The minimum goal can’t be to take a spin class because something might happen in life where you can’t get to that class,” says McGill.
The minimum goal can be to do five minutes of cardio by jumping rope or jogging in place. Then, the stretch goal can be to take a particular class or go for a longer run.
Even if you can only make your minimum goals happen on a certain day or week, remember that, as Jacobs says, “Something is always something.” Minimum goals can help keep you on course when meeting your more time-consuming goals isn’t feasible.
Keep Track of Your Progress
A calendar can help you monitor your progress and can also function as an external motivator. Every time you accomplish something that you set out to do, write an X on the calendar.
“After you get past a certain number of X’s, you don’t want to break the chain of X’s,” says McGill. Just keeping the calendar Xed out can be your motivator when you don’t feel like exercising. Ultimately what you’re looking to do is build healthy habits, and keeping a visual record of your accomplishments can help you do that.
“After a certain point, you don’t need the calendar to be your external motivator. You’ll have the internal compass,” McGill explains.
Know When to Change Up Your Routine
“Something I’ll hear often is 'I’ll get bored',” Bildman says. It’s normal to crave variety in your exercise routine, but how do you diversify your workouts while still moving toward your goals?
You might try altering your current workouts to make them slightly different. For example, instead of practicing standard push-ups, do push-ups on a Bosu ball to make them more challenging.
Bildman, who identifies as a “seasonal runner,” says sometimes it’s okay to shift your focus in fitness as well. Perhaps you can concentrate on running-oriented goals in the cooler months, then focus on strength-related goals in the hotter months. “You don’t have to be achieving your deadlift PR and running a half marathon and also perfecting your handstand all at the same time. It can be more fun to split things up,” Bildman says.