Setting goals

[imported_deolmstead]

I was thinking yesterday about goals - ie, that I didn't have specific ones. I had a generic "gain muscle, try to minimize fat gain" goal, but that's just not something that you can grab a hold of.

When I was losing weight, it was pretty easy as there was only one metric: pounds. I said "190 pounds is my goal," and it was until I got there, and then it was 180. And so on. I see nothing wrong with moving the goalposts once you reach them, but I think it's helpful to have them.

Never having done a lifting routine before, I have little experience in setting goals here and don't really know what's realistic in the short-term, long-term, etc.

So, pretty much totally arbitrarily, I set a goal for myself of 200 lbs, 10% BF. Nice, round numbers. I'm currently at 178lbs, 15%. So a little bit of math tells me I need to gain 28lbs of muscle and lose 6 lbs of fat to get to this goal. 28lbs of muscle seems like an awful lot to me, especially after reading around here, so this strikes me as definitely long-term (ie, a year or more). At least I have my newbieness going for me.

Do you guys set specific goals for yourself? What metric do you use - inches, bf, strength? I'm curious.

 

[stevejones]

As far as weight training goes, I'm constantly setting goals, both short term and long term. These days my only goals are strength related, and that will change if I continue to get so many injuries.  

I find it advantageous to break long term goals down into increments so you don't try to do everything at once.  For instance, if you want to be 200lbs@10%, then set a year long goal or maybe as long as 18 months if you need it, to gain as much muscle as possible without going over x% bodyfat, then maybe a 3 mo, 6 mo., or whatever is needed to slowly cut the fat off.

 

[Lol]

I set goals for all my lifts, some long-term and some each cycle. I'm not particularly worried about body weight, but more the poundages I can lift and the work I can do. I eat to gain weight though (unless on a cut) so I do expect to be growing; it's just that that isn't what I'm primarily concerned with.

 

[MyNameHere]

I've found that the smaller the goal, the more encouraged I am to keep going. If I had your goals, I'd break them down to: 180, 185, 190, 195 and 200, with corresponding bodyfat percentages: 14, 13, 12, 11, 10. This way, I can easily see the goal and it doesn't seem such an impossibility to reach it as long-term goals sometimes seem to be. Just don't become discouraged when it goes more like: 14, 13, 14, 13, 13, 12, and so on. The scale lies. Sometimes the tape lies too. Water weight and bloat, that whole pizza on cheat day and other things like that have an effect. Strength is a decent marker, but the mirror seldom lies and pictures can give you even more objectivity.

 

[scientific muscle]

The best weightlifters and bodybuilders use logbooks. Buy a cheap journal, log your sets, reps, weights, dates and any comments.

Make your short term goal to beat the logbook. After your warmup sets, look at your last workout (example bench press) say your bench 10rm is 200 lb.s, make it your goal to do 205 for 10 reps, then 210, etc.

Your goals will depend on your level. A beginner can increase 5 pounds on the bench press every week; an elite, world-class powerlifter might be chasing a 5 pound increase in 6 months.