SMART Fitness Goals Help You Stick with It
If you’re like most fitness enthusiasts, you already know the importance of setting goals that guide your training program.
Setting SMART goals is arguably one of the most important steps in developing your fitness program.
Not all fitness goals are created equally, and some goals set you up for frustration and failure from the moment you first step foot in the gym/class/homework-out.
SMART goals are designed with behavioral psychology in mind and intentionally built to be useful and effective at moving you methodically toward whatever your long-term fitness aspiration might be.
What does SMART stand for?
When it comes to setting SMART goals, the term does not just refer to cleverness or intelligence.
In fact, SMART is an acronym that stands for the following specific
measurable
attainable
relevant
time-bound
Collectively, these traits define a SMART goal, whereas other goals do not sufficiently meet these criteria.
Additionally, SMART goals should be intrinsically motivating, based on both approach and mastery outcomes, and appropriately challenging.
Consider the following goals:
“I will run for 30 minutes 3 times per week for the next 8 weeks.
“I will attend 2 classes per week (pre booked specific time) & take a brisk walk for 30 minutes the nonclass weekdays, I will rest Saturday, and take a brisk 60-minute walk Sunday”
“I will drink 8 glasses of water per day, and snack on fruit instead of chocolate/biscuits/fruit, etc. “
These goals fit neatly into the SMART paradigm and give you a distinct set of criteria that you have a great deal of control over.
This allows you to be the driver of whether you achieve the goal, as opposed to outside forces beyond your control that influence your outcome.
Let’s break down each SMART criteria in more detail.
Specific
Specificity is a must when it comes to setting SMART goals. Specific goals have a numerical value by which you can determine your success or failure.
Consider the previous examples: These are so specific that it leaves no room for interpretation. At the end of a week, you either did or did not perform the workouts as planned.
Compare this with a goal such as “exercise more.”
This goal essentially means anything and nothing at the same time. If you just do a few minutes of walking, you’re technically exercising more but unlikely to see any results.
Given the lack of specificity, it’s much harder to gauge whether you’re meeting your goal criteria, and if you aren’t, what you need to change to make it happen.
Goal specificity should remove any ambiguity regarding whether you hit your goals.
Measurable
In line with being specific, the goals must also be measurable to allow you to gauge whether you’re meeting them.
For example, “losing 10 pounds in 12 weeks” is a measurable goal that you can track.
However, simply saying “I want to lose weight” is too vague.
You may lose a pound and see no physical change and end up being disappointed even though you technically lost weight.
With the rise of fitness trackers that allow you to measure your vital functions and athletic performance, setting measurable goals for almost every aspect of fitness has never been easier.
If you cannot put a number on it, it’s not measurable and leaves too much room for interpretation as to whether you met your goal.
Attainable
The third SMART criteria you must consider is whether the goal is attainable.
While there’s nothing wrong with major, long-term fitness goals, most fitness programs should focus on what you can achieve within several weeks to months, as opposed to a monumental target that will take a decade to achieve.
An attainable goal will always be relative to your current fitness level.
If you are not a runner, you need to start run/walk its unrealistic to ask yourself to run for 30 minutes on Day 1, if you have not exercised in years, building up to 2 cardio classes per week & brisk walking will probably take a little time.
Instead, consider adjusting your goals based on where you are now.
However, attainable goals should still push you significantly toward becoming stronger and healthier. Setting attainable goals is as much an art as it is a science.
You must ensure your goals are not so hard as to guarantee failure, yet not so easy that you do not get any real satisfaction or benefit upon reaching them.
Relevant
Relevant goals are those that pertain to you and are tailored toward your life, health, and fitness needs.
For example, if you’re dealing with back issues and muscle tension, focusing on a specific weekly rehabilitation exercise goal is more relevant than high-intensity training.
Your goal should be relevant to both your health needs and overall interests.
Time-bound
The final component of SMART goals is that they are time-bound. This means there’s a specific time period within which you plan to achieve your goal.
Although there’s no hard-and-fast rule on how long your time frame should be, most SMART goals should aim to take 1–3 months to achieve.
Of course, the period of time you select for your SMART goals will influence how attainable they are, but the main point is that you do not leave the time frame so open-ended that you never start or never finish your original goal.
Using the weight loss example, a goal to lose “10 pounds (4.5 kg) in 3 months” gives you a motivating window within which attaining your goal is reasonable. Yet, it keeps you accountable for both starting and finishing your goal in the time frame you set for yourself.
If you just said, “lose 10 pounds,” you set yourself up for disappointment if by week 6 you have not yet lost the 10 pounds despite this being unrealistic.
On the flip side, if you have no sense of urgency or due date for your goals, it’s far too easy to just “start on Monday” and continue procrastinating.
Without putting a time-bound window on the date for achieving your goal, you’re set up for failure.
SUMMARY
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. This framework gives you the most individual control over whether you reach your goals.