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Goal Setting for Building Strength

Serious trainers are goal-setters. They aim to surpass old milestones while reaching to achieve new ones. Consider the following steps in your path to building your strength successfully:

Step 1: Determine the goal in a specific and measurable way with a deadline.

The more precise you are, the better it is.

For example, “I want to move a weight class (7 kg) December 1 2008” is a specific and measurable goal. By comparison, “I want to be the biggest and strongest I can be” is worthless as it is not specific and not measurable. If there is no deadline, you will procrastinate.

Step 2: Assess your starting physiology

You should have an idea of where you are and what could be limiting your progress.

For example, if you have the testosterone count of a guilt-ridden Catholic school third grader, don’t expect to move up a weight class. If your zinc status is lower than the ethics of Enron executives, there is no way you will be able to manage inflammation and have enough androgens to reach your goal.

Completing an adrenal stress index, a hormonal profile, and a comprehensive metabolic profile are a good start on your path to serious physiological assessment. There are people well trained in bio-feedback devices/techniques such as applied kinesiology that can give you great starting points, as well.

Step 3: What are you willing to do?

Make a list of the things that you need to do to get to that goal. Make another list of what has to go in order to reach that goal. No worthy goal is ever reached without making some kind of sacrifice.

For the 1992 Albertville Olympics, we had a guy trying out for the Bobsleigh team who had tremendous talent, but drank like a fish every weekend and slept with some skank with a face like a chewed-up caramel. This guy used to be so hung over that only his Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday workouts were productive. He ended up losing his spot to a naturally slower guy who edged him out on testing day because he never missed a workout and showed up in better athletic condition on D-day.

Don’t party too much. If you smoke a joint every Friday, your testosterone is suppressed until the next Monday. You can’t go up a weight class if you behave like Cheech and Chong circa 1974.

You can put anything in your shopping cart but not everything is advisable.

Step 4: Determine the behaviors that go with Step 3

Your actions determine what you will achieve. For example, your list of behaviors to achieve the goal may look like this:

• I consume 2 g of protein per pound of bodyweight.
• I take my insulin sensitizing supplements 3 times a day.
• I alternate one squat workout with one deadlift workout.
• I take 30 grams of Omega-3 a day…etc…

Step 5: Make a list of intermediate goals with deadlines.

You have to be able to re-measure on a frequent basis if you are on the right track.

This will ensure that you are staying on course. If you need to change plans that are not working for you, then your intermediate goals will ensure that you do not go too far down the wrong path.

For example, you may find that the protein is fine, but your carbs are too low, or that the intensity is too high, and that you need to take the Yin stack to calm down at night. Feel free to make changes that help you toward your goals.

Step 6: Keep a detailed training and dietary log.

Keep a detailed logbook of your training program. According to Tommy Kono, the Michael Jordan of the sport of weightlifting, there is no single better training aid. In his words, “the palest ink is better than the best of memories”. A well kept training journal will allow you to monitor and evaluate the efficacy of your training program and help to set short-term goals.

No matter if your arms are thirteen inches or nineteen inches in girth, a training log keeps you on track for long-term success. Honesty is critical to derive success from a training log. Only record the reps done in proper form.

I once was asked by an intern trainer to go over his training log to help him design better training programs for himself. I would see things like 100 lbs done for 5.3 reps.

I asked him, “How can you do 5.3 reps?” He replied, “well, I did five complete reps, then I did only a third of the rep.”

I then asked (with a serious look on my face) “, how can you be sure it was not 5.32 or 5.38 reps?” I could instantly read the anxiety in his eyes indicating a nine-fold increase of cortisol from the perceived screw-up.

In my usual diplomatic style, I continued, ”you are pregnant or you are not. There is no in-between. Next time, record just 5 reps please.”

The poor guy was probably producing more cortisol wondering if he had done 5.2 or 5.3 reps. Needless to say, once I related the story to my hockey star client, Al MacInnis, he promptly assigned the intern the nickname “5.2”, which stuck on to this day.

When using the training diary as a tool, make sure that your training conditions are always the same. For example, rushing through a workout shortens the rest intervals, and thus makes a comparison with a normal workout difficult.

The training diary helps me tremendously as a strength coach on deciding how to orient the training from phase to phase for every single client. At our training centers, our training diaries are computerized so that we can do ongoing statistical analysis of the training progress and effectiveness. This methodical log keeping, with the help of a brilliant actuary, has helped me developed structural balance norms and optimal and precise volume and intensity prescriptions for specific lifts. You can learn to use this log and program design at any of the PICP certification programs.

Following the above steps will maximize the odds of reaching your goals because it will give right tools to reach them.